HOME AND BEAUTY
by W Somerset Maugham
PRODUCTIONS
Tue 31 May - Sat 5 June 2005 at 7.45pm
Northampton College Performing Arts Centre
CAST & CREW
Victoria Jacquie Pryce
Miss Dennis Sarah Pope
Taylor Emma Halloran
Mrs Shuttleworth Maggie Holland
Leicester Paton David Ashton
Major Frederick Lowndes Martin Williams
Major William Cardrew Conrad Nunn
Nannie Emma Halloran
Mrs Pogson Patricia Coleman
A. B. Raham Owen Warr
Miss Montmorency Sarah Pope
Clarence Andrew Nettleship
Director John Campling
Stage Manager Clare Brittain
Assistant Stage Manager Andrew Nettleship
Lighting & Properties Robert Vaughan
Set Construction Derek Banyard
Continuity Andrew Nettleship, Emma Halloran
Costume Clare Brittain, The Works/Masque Costume
Publicity Jo Nutt
Box Office Manager Mary Greaves
Front of House Masque Theatre members
Photo gallery
Comedy of manners
Programme notes by John Campling
W. Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874 and dies in the South of France in 1966, aged 91. He was known as Willie and never used the name Somerset. His literary activity was prolific-plays, novels, and books of travel in a steady flow.
Home and Beauty was written whilst he was in a sanatorium in the North of Scotland for treatment of tuberculosis in 1919.
He felt the isolated clinical regime of the hospital with long cool evenings was a good opportunity (he wore mittens for writing) to pen a farce!
The plot about a soldier presumed killed returning to the land of the living was a motif used by several other playwrights with due solemnity; only Maugham saw the comic potential and wrote his 'comedy of manners.
It was first staged in New York in 1919 and called Too Many Husbands - it was too British for Americans and closed after 15 performances. Transferred to London later that year, it began a 235 performance run. It is now part of social history.
Masque Theatre's production is directed by John Campling