The Workhouse Donkey
Chichester Festival, 1963
Role: Maurice Sweetman

Jeremy performed in two plays at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1963 -- Saint Joan and The Workhouse Donkey. A third play at the festival was Uncle Vanya, which included Sir Laurence Olivier as actor and director.

In fact, Olivier was the founding director of Chichester Festival Theatre. He used the festival to develop productions and players for the National Theatre, of which he was director from 1962 to 1973. The Chichester group of actors would form the nucleus of the first National Theatre Company when it began at the Old Vic later in 1963.

Although Olivier badly wanted Jeremy to join the National Theatre following these productions, Jeremy instead went to the States to be in My Fair Lady. (Details can be found at The Brettish Empire.) Jeremy eventually did join the National Theatre, in 1967.

The Workhouse Donkey was written by John Arden, who was at the forefront of innovative drama in the 1960s. His work tended to expose social issues of personal concern to him.

The play debuted at the Chichester Festival in July 1963. It contains about 51 roles, but fewer actors since the staging permits some actors to play multiple roles. The huge cast included Frank Finlay, Derek Jacobi, Jeremy Brett, Robert Stephens and Dudley Foster. It was directed by Stuart Burge.

The play is a caricature of local politics in a northern English town and mocks the corruptions of English provincial government. The play contains some verse and songs.

Here is a plot summary from a book titled Jonsonians: Living Traditions, by Brian Woolland:

It centers on the power struggle between Charlie Butterthwaite, a self-styled "Napoleon" of provincial politics and the newly arrived Chief of Police, Colonel Feng. To precipitate Feng's rapid departure from the town, and ensure the embarrassment of his Tory arch-rival, Sir Harold Sweetman, Charlie attempts to engineer a scandal involving the local nightclub-cum-brothel, which is secretly owned by Sweetman and kept open with the connivance of the police.

Meanwhile, Charlie is threatened when his "fixer," Wellington Blomax, calls his his gambling debts (Blomax himself is being cajoled by his daughter Welleseley, who has been proposed to by Sweetman's son [Possibly Maurice?]). The situation descends into riotous disorder when Charlie decides to pay his debts by stealing from the Council.

Much of the humor of Arden's play arises from the freewheeling intricacy of these highly eventful narratives.

Chichester Theatre Festival history