8.2.1
There were thirteen originations in 1928. The most important surviving is ‘Pursuit’ discussed in the next section, 8.3. Unfortunately, other Lewis scripts do not survive. ‘The Night Fighters’ has the following listing:
Monday 26 March 1928 London and Daventry 8.15-9
*‘The Night Fighters’ (Cecil Lewis)
A Radio Play
pr Cecil Lewis
Rudd - Eric Cowley
Ivan Firth [listed in ‘Times’]
Sandy – Robert Speaight [ not listed in ‘Times’]
Padre - George Merritt
Price – Walter Hudd
Mother - Clare Harris
Betty - Gwendolen Evans
Bill – Michael Hogan
Bristow – Paul England
Batman – Frank Denton
Forrester – Herbert Lugg
Juggy – Caleb Porter
The B.B.C. Dance Orchestra, personally conducted by Jack Payne
War; war at its most feverish, with life keyed up to the highest pitch – the reckless gaiety of a Royal Flying Corps Mess, with tragedy of the cruellest always hanging overhead; the thrills and pangs of war, felt again in retrospect by two of the men who lived through it into the bitter days of disillusionment, reaction and Peace; war, the barren destroyer, is the theme of ‘The Night Fighters’, in which we are shown glimpses of one of the countless tragedies that it sows.
Here is 'The Radio Times' publicity:
The play deals with the defence of London against enemy aircraft during a raid. Its scenes, which are many, are laid in RAF messes, aboard various planes in action, and in the ballroom of a super-hotel. One gathers that sound-effects will play a large part in the show. They were outstandingly effective in ‘Pursuit’. Mr. Lewis who has been combining the writing of radio drama with newspaper criticism of broadcasting, is shortly leaving England for Italy, where he will devote himself entirely to plays. I am sorry, in one way, to hear this, for, though we may be the gainers by many new and interesting experiments in radio technique, we shall lose his criticism which, though it was not always favourable, showed a sympathetic knowledge of broadcasting conditions, and did a great deal to raise broadcasting to its proper position among the other arts as a subject for serious critical consideration.
'The Radio Times' 9 March 1928 p. 488
8.2.2
Not only does the script of ‘Speed’ not survive, but ‘Charles Croker’ is a pseudonym for the author. Here is the listing from 'The Radio Times':
Monday 2 April 1928 London and Daventry 9.35-11
* ‘Speed’ (Charles Croker pseudonym)
A Tragi-Comic Fantasy of Gods and Mortals
Written specially for radio transmission
The gods:
Cronus – Leslie Perrins
Rhea – Netta Westcott
Zeus – George Ide
Crisus – Ronald Hammond
The mortals:
Ethel – Lilian Harrison
Mother –Edith Hunter
Jack – Peter Cunningham
Father – Caleb Porter
Howland – Cyril Nash
O’Brien – Eric Lugg
Shaw – Ernest Digges
Captain – Elliott Seabrooke
O’Brien, Jnr. – John Wyse
McShane – J. Hubert Leslie
Mate – Edward Chapman
First Lorryman – Philip Wade
Second Lorryman – Matthew Boulton
This, it is claimed, is definitely a radio play; a play written for broadcasting in a technique founded on the needs of the microphone and not on the traditions of the stage. There is, therefore, no occasion to give details of scenes for the play is self-contained and demands no introduction, nor any ‘stage directions’. If the author has been successful, this fantasy of the gods on high Olympus and the speed-mad, self-destructive mortals below will tell its own story in its own way.
All that is asked of listeners is that they are in their ‘listening chairs’ by 9.35 p.m. prompt, and that they give as much attention to the transmission of the radio play as they would to a performance of a similar nature in a theatre.
8.2.3
'The Radio Times' adds this information about this ‘play of ideas’:
.. [Charles Croker] the pseudonym of a successful author of stage plays who has lately been devoting his attention to the technique of radio drama. I hear that at least five studios will be required for ‘Speed’. That will mean long and painstaking rehearsals, for it is no light business to perform a play in five separate places. Each studio has to be in the closest communication with the others, and no hitch must occur in the transference of the action from one to another. These mysteries will I hope be revealed in a series of articles on Savoy Hill which the Editor has in mind. ‘Speed’, so it seems is a satire on the efforts of man to conquer the universe. The action swings between the modern world and Olympus, where the high gods watch and smile at the struggling of mankind. The author describes his play as a tragic-comic fantasy. It has certainly a vein of tragedy in it, for everyone of the leading mortal characters in it meets with a violent death. The gods speak in blank verse, the mortals in colloquial prose. Need I say more?
('The Radio Times' 9 March 1928 p 488)
And further:
… ‘Charles Croker’ (I cannot discover his real name but I am assured that he is a dramatist with a big reputation who is experimenting with broadcast drama) has since sent me a copy of the script. .. ‘Speed’ is in many scenes. It is comparable in plan to ‘The Dynasts’ by the late Thomas Hardy, in that both mortals and immortals play a part in it. In theme it might be compared with Capek’s ‘R.U.R.’, Thea von Harbon’s ‘Metropolis’ film and certain of the Wells fantasies. It deals with the destructive onward march of the Machine Age, with the Speed of the machines which man makes to serve his wishes and the ruin which ensues when, man, assuming some of the qualities of the machine, strives with mechanical relentlessness after ever greater power. The play is, in effect, a parable – and an exciting one. Its leading characters are part real, part symbolical. And that is all I propose to say about it, except that it is in my opinion likely to be an out-standing landmark in the development of radio drama and should certainly be heard by anyone who believes that it is in this direction that broadcasting may find its greatest artistic opportunity.
('The Radio Times' 16 March 1928 p 541)
8.2.4
'The Times' billed the play as a ‘struggle between mankind and machinery’ (31 March 1928 p 8)
Main Index | Chapter 8 Index | Section 8.3