The Christine Finn Webshrine: December 2005

Beauty And The Beast

leading from

Work 1950s

Christine Finn as Mikey the Dragon
in Beauty and the Beast (source: www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/)

(theatre)

Opened Wednesday, 19 December 1951
until Saturday, 1 March 1952

At the Birmingham Rep Theatre

A play written by Nicholas Gray.

Christine Finn played Mike the dragon

Cast:
Rosalind Boxall,
Alfred Burke,
Paul Daneman,
Christine Finn,
Patricia Gilder,
Patricia Heneghan
Douglas Seale.

Directed by Douglas Seale.

Christine Finn as Mikey The Dragon in Beauty and the Beast (detail from below)

Beauty and the Beast (source: www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/)

Christine Finn at Mikey The Dragon in Beauty and the Beast from photo below

Beauty and the Beast (source: www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/)

Christine Finn as Mikey the Dragon (detail from below)

Beauty and the Beast (source: www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/)

ATV Drama '64: A MENACE TO DECENT PEOPLE

leading from
Work 1960s

Sun 21 Jun 64 10.5pm
produced by John Nelson Burton
written by Philip Guard
designer Vic Symonds
starring
Michael Gwynn ................ Stuart Robbins
Peter Butterworth ......................... Jenkins
Christine Finn ................... Fiona Robbins
Ernest Clark ........................... Dr. Hewson
Peggy Thorpe-Bates ................ Mrs. Wells
Aubrey Morris ................................... Vale
Francis De Woolf ................ Lord O'Leary

There seems to be no room for a man like Jenkins in the world
of 'decent people' who sent him to prison - and the man who
tries to help him find a place meets with more difficulties
than he suspects.

(Source: http://ctva.biz/)

The Master Builder

Armchair Theatre: Season 2, Episode 19

Director: Desmond Davis

Writers: Norman Ginsbury (adaptation), Henrik Ibsen (play)

19th January 1958

Doctor Herdal

Oliver Bart

Kaia Fosli

Christine Finn

Halvard Solness

André Morell

Aline Solness

Marie Ney

Hilda Wangel

Mary Peach

Kurt Brovic

Keith Pyott

Ragnar Brovik

Patrick Troughton

A Midsummer Night's Dream

1958

BBC Sunday Night Theatre:

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Play written by William Shakespeare,

Directed by Rudolph Cartier

Christine Finn as Hermia finds Lysander, played by David Oxley, singularly unresponsive in this scene
from Shakespeare's fantasy, "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The outstanding BBC production is being
shown across the country by Natrional Educational Television as a feature of NET Drama Festival.
It may be seen tonight on Channel 3 (US Newspaper clipping from Nov 16th, 1962)

information below taken from internetshakespeare.uvic.ca

MediumBlack & white video

Length1 hrs, 45 mins

Languagesenglish

Audiencegeneral public

Play ConnectionsA Midsummer Night's Dream (teleplay)

Series Sunday Night Theatre Series

Description

This was the first full-length tv studio production of MND in England. Previously, however, there had been excerpts transmitted on television, twice in 1937 (on Feb. 18 and Apr. 23), and then again July 24, 1946 and July 28 and 29, 1947, from the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, as well as in January 1957 directly from the Old Vic (see 401). This production was originally budgeted at £4,500, then considered an enormous sum of money. Despite grumblings from studio executives, the final cost soared to over £6,000. A cast of 12 men and 10 women, plus a Corps de Ballet of 28 contributed to the escalating costs (WAC TS/232 Nov. 1958)

Gillian Lynne as Puck and John Justin as Oberon in another TV production.

Description from Shakespeare on Screen : an International Filmography and Videography by Kenneth S. Rothwell and Annabelle Henkin Melzer. ©1990 Kenneth S. Rothwell. Cited by permission.. Added 2008-11-14

Cast
Starveling........................Michael Bates

First Fairy......................Jennifer Daniel

Helena....................Vivienne Drummond

Hermia............................Christine Finn

Flute............................Ronald Fraser

Oberon............................John Justin

Demetrius..........................Eric Lander

Egeus............................John Longden

Puck............................Gillian Lynne

Mustardseed...........Gaynie MacSweenie

Quince.........................Miles Malleson

Moth............................Hazel Merry

Lysander........................David Oxley

Titania..........................Natasha Parry

Bottom............................Paul Rogers

Cobweb......................Vernie Ruthven

Snug..................................Peter Sallis

Peaseblossom.......................Jane Shore

Snout................................John Warner

Theseus..........................John Westbrook

Hippolyta.....................Margaret Whiting

Natasha Parry as Titania and Paul Rogers as Bottom
(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31297670)

Production Team and Crew Overview

Director Rudolph Cartier

Producer Rudolph Cartier

Editor Eric Crozier

Composer Leslie Bridgewater

Composer Felix Mendelssohn

Choreography Alfred Rodrigues

Costumes Pamela Glanville

Makeup Rosemary Ross

Production Clifford Hatts

Company Overview

Playgroup BBC Enterprises

Sganarelle

(performed with Tartuffe)

By Moliere

Freely adapted and directed by Miles Malleson,

Opened February the 11th 1959

and then performed on March 31st, April 1st, 10th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 24th & 25th 1959

At The Old Vic Theatre

The Cast:

Celie: a young girl

Christine Finn

Gorgibus, Celie's father

Derek Francis

Celie's Old Nurse

Rosalind Atkinson

Sganarelle, a Parisian

Miles Malleson

Sganarelle's Wife

Pauline Jameson

Lelie, a young Parisian

Barrie Ingham

Lelie's Manservant

John Scarborough

Sganarelle (Pauline Jameson) looks out of her window and sees
her husband (Miles Malleson) trying to revive the fainting Celie
(Christine Finn)

"Miles Malleson, as well as directing, also plays the title role in Sganarelle, a trifle concerning mistaken identities and an old fool who believes himself to be a cuckold. As an actor Mr. Malleson has his own very recognisable mannerisms but his Sganarelle, all gobbles and shudders, is a joy; pathetic as well as laughable, while the speech on " honour " is superbly done. Christine Finn makes a charmingly delicate Celie, Barrie Ingham is handsome and perplexed as Lelie, her lover, and there is a nice common- sense Nurse by Rosalind Atkinson."

(Theatre world - Volume 55 - Page 8)

Tartuffe

Christine Finn's portrait photograph

A play by Moliere, freely adapted by Miles Malleson,

Opened February the 11th, 1959

and then performed on March 31st, April 1st, 10th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 24th & 25th, 1959

At The Old Vic Theatre

The Cast:

Madame Pernelle, Orgon's mother

Rosalind Atkinson

Elmirem, Organ's wife

Pauline Jameson

Dorine, Marianne's maid

Christine Finn

Damis, Orgon's son

Barrie Ingham

LAYING DOWN THE LAW: In the opening scene of Tartuffe Mme. Pernelle
(Rosalind Atkinson, seated centre) delivers a moral sermon to her family. She
lavishes praise on Tartuffe, the man befriended by her son Orgon, and criticizes
the outspoken maid Dorine (Christine Finn, extreme left). Listening to the
discourse are (left to right) Elmire (Pauline Jameson), Orgon' s wife ; Damis
(Barrie Ingham), his son; Cleante (Charles West), his brother; and Mariane
(Silvia Francis), his daughter..

Mariane, Orogon's daughter

detail of photo above

Silvia Francis

Cleante, Elmire's Brother

Charles West

Flipote, Mme Pernelle's maid

Jean Conroy

Monsieur Orgon, a rich merchant

Gerald James

Valere, betrothed to Marianne

John Barcroft

Manservant to Tartuffe

John Scarborough

Tartuffe

Derek Francis

Loyale a bailiff

Norman Scace

An Officer

Ronald Falk

First Seargeant

Peter Moynihan

Second Seargeant

Nicholas Simons

The Audience:

Micheal Bevis, Desmond Davies

Philip Elsmore, Martin Redpath,

Davina Beswick, Juliet Cooke

Directed by Douglas Seale

The Times

"Only Miss Christine Finn, as the little spitfire, contrives to maintain sharpness of her initial attack"

Read the Times article “Too Leisurely Acting in Old Vic Molière”

Punch

Published by Punch Publications Ltd., 1959

“As the privileged maid, who speaks her mind, Christine Finn gives a very attractive performance. A recruit from the Birmingham Rep, she has confidence and vitality and a quick sense of irony. I hope we shall see more of her”

Drama: the quarterly theatre review

By British Theatre Association, British Drama League Published by British Theatre Association, 1959, p21 “and making the usual pert servant, in the person of Christine Finn, into a stunning little baggage”

The Illustrated London news - Volume 234, Issue 1 - Page 358

There are several alert performances in Douglas Seale's production (we realise again how good and unforced a director Mr. Seale is), and two other capital ones : Pauline Jameson as the wife, with the glow of Paris in her eyes ; and Christine Finn as the maid who is the perfect soubrette. But I do not much like the Orgon. The man is so credulous that it is difficult to humanise him; for me the present actor, in a curiously rough performance, never even begins to be real. A pity, for at the end, realising his error, he should impress himself upon us like the Shakespearian figure of the " spider in the cup " and the drinker who, reaching " th' abhorred ingredient, " must " crack his gorge, his sides, with violent hefts."
.

THE TIMES THURSDAY FEBRUARY 12 1959

_________________________________________

The Arts

_________________________________________

Too Leisurely Acting in Old Vic Molière

When French companies come to us in Molière they seem reluctant to make a start and the intervals are inordinately long; but while the curtain is up there is no dawdling and the comedy goes with the speed of a powerful machine.When the Old Vic deviates into Moliere the curtain rises with admirable punctuality, the intervals are not unduly long, but the comedy is apt to crawl.

Mr. Miles Malleson's free adaptations of Tartuffe and Sganarelle have a great deal of stage vitality, but they rather encourage the actors to seek for individual traits of character in lines which are meant to delineatc character in terms of intellectual comedy.

Both Tartuffe and its curtain-raiser suffer from the leisureliness of the acting. Sganarelle, being a mere trifle, is the greater sufferer. It is a simple misunderstanding about a portrait among people afflicted by a hair-trigger sense of jealousy, and the joke turns finally on a husband who cannot rouse up enough courage to seek vengeance on the supposed lover of his wife. He finally decides to save his honour by telling everyone that the scoundrel is living with his wife.

Mr. Malteson gives a delightfully comic performance as the enraged sheep. Yet he dwells so lovingly on the endearing qualities of the fool that he enforces a rather heavy tempo on the rest of the company, and only Miss Christine Finn, as the little spitfire, contrives to maintain the sharpness of her initial attack.

If Tartuffe were taken only a little more quickly it would be a most enjoyable performance. Mr. Derek Francis's study of the eternal confidence trickster who hap- pens to have chosen piety for his ploy is well conceived and well executed. It seems a pity that he has, to take the audience so frankly into his confidence when things are going his way. Tartuffe's hypocrisy is so much an integral part of himself that it is disillusionary that he should laugh so much behind the backs of his victims, and the wink to the audience when he has turned impending disaster into triumph is surely misguided. It is unnecessary and there is no room in the theatre of Molière for unnecessary winks. But his deliberation is extremely effective in his attempted seduction of Elmire and on the whole he gives consistency to a good, drily comic, if very English reading of the hyprocrite.

Miss Pauline Jameson is charming as the wife who rather enjoys the shocking temptation to which she is exposed. Mr. Gerald James is the kind of Orgon to swallow Tartuffe hook, line and sinker, having all the self-sufficiency of a natural dupe. The urbane and reasonable Cleante is played by Mr. Charles West with measure and tact and Miss Silvia Francis flutters and wilts as the timid Mariane. Miss Finn is perhaps a little too pert for Dorine, on whose solid country sense so much of the domestic comedy turns, but Miss Rosalind Atkinson plays the crusty, puritanical and fantastically silly mother-in-law with her usual gusto.

Miss Pauline Jameson, Mr. Gerald James (left) and
Mr. Derek Francisin a scene from Mr. Miles Malleson's
English version of Moliere's Tartuffe.

The Grass is Greener

Source: Evening Express, March 15, 1960

by Hugh and Margaret Williams

Opened December 2nd 1958 until February, 1960

at St Martins Theatre

From Monday, February 29th, 1960 for one week

at Streatham Hill Theatre,
King's Theatre, Glasgow. around 21st March 1960,

then from April18th 1960 for one week

Opera House in Manchester

then April 25th, 1960 at

Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House
and then May 2nd 1960
The Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

leading from

1960s

Source: http://www.heraldscotland.com (Obituary for Moray_Watson)

Cast:

Victor .......... Hugh Williams

Sellars .......... Moray Watson

Hilary .......... Rachel Gurney

Charles .......... Philip Friend

Hattie .......... Christine Finn

Directed by Jack Minster

Detail from the above photo showing Christine

"The London Stage" guide indicates that Christine at the, took over the role of Hattie played at first by Joan Greenwood, and The Times newspaper reveals that her performances took place from end of December 1959 to the beginning of February of 1960 when the play came to it's end in London.

Review