the pip simmons theatre group

Dream Rehearsals and Paradise on Brown Sea Island: 1975

The Dream of the Ridiculous Man was based on a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Ridiculous man is on his way to kill himself and has a chance encounter with a young girl which prompts a life-changing vision of paradise. Roderick was our Ridiculous Man and I the young girl. Try as we might, the scene for paradise eluded us. We were rehearsing at The Factory on the Harrow Rd W9, a day out to Brown Sea Island was planned.

Roderic, Emil, Rowan & Pete. Rehearsals at the Factory

The rules for that day’s impro were to be nice to each other all day long. Food, alcohol and substances were part of the plan and we all brought our offerings for the feast. I baked a cake, Rod cooked a side of pork, Chris brought avocado pears. Ben bought cream cakes and so on. We even dressed up for the occasion. The cream cakes eventually ended up like the classic gag in someones face, probably mine, but it was good to get out of London, not sure we found paradise.

Rod and Ben in paradise

Pip and Chris in paradise

Rowen, Olly, Emil in paradise

Chris wrote Corruption a rollicking stadium epic about temptation, corruption and damnation.This went down well, we all loved doing it, me and Rowan dressed up in fishnets and hi heels, and taunted Roderic whist Olly strangled a cockerel.The cockerel came in handy for most scenes and travelled with us, his name was Dave. I have progressed to a clarinet and am doing Tune a Day, and Olly the trombone, also doing Tune a Day, we being the beginners are the only ones without musical skills. Roderic is let off because he is the Ridiculous Man.

Pete, Pip and Sheila rehearsing corruption.

Roderic, Ben, Rod, Chris, Olly, Emil, Sheila, Rowan & Pete in paradise at the Factory.

This really was an all singing all dancing show full of props and costumes. Everyone had at leat 3 changes I was in charge of costumes, Rowan props, Peter Oliver in charge of doves and fowl, Rod and Rod the drivers in charge of the van, Emil in charge of his own wardrobe 5ft stilts and a huge cape. We all had a job to do in prep for the long tour planned for Oct 1975 – May 1976

All Photos © Sheila Burnett

12 Actors in Rotterdam (1975): An Die Musik and Dracula Rehearsals Begin

We are a group of 9 actors, one director, one lighting man & one dramaturg.

2 Americans, 2 Brummies, 1 Dutchman, 6 Londoners and 1 German.

Seven of us live in a place that used to be an office and we take it in turns to cook each evening. Five actors live in another place not too far from Central station. When we move in we have no furniture so all our furniture comes from the Theatre’s storage, relics from old productions. Rehearsals start at an old warehouse in Zaargmolendrift down by the canal where we meet every morning at 10.30am and don’t finish until 6pm, every day apart from Saturday & Sunday, no one is EVER late… never.

Rod Beddall, Dracula

I cut my teeth on Dracula. I learned lots. I learned I couldn’t sing a note but I could scream and howl like a wolf. I could lie in a closed coffin (theatre prop) for a long time and also that I could spurt blood on command (not real, it was a stage concoction of cochineal and glycerine). This proved to be very effective when the crucifix was hammered in to my heart by Dracula. I did a lot of screaming and spurting in this my first show–Dracula. This was not particularly impressive, If it wasn’t for a few kind words from the Mickery photographer Maria Austria, my fate with the Pip Simmons Theatre Group may well have ended here. Acting wasn’t high on the agenda for the next show An Die Musik so I made it through, this proved useful for Peter Oliver and myself, none actors who were finding our way in the deep end.

Dracula Poster

I found the courage to take my clothes off in public, something the entire group were accustomed to doing well before my time. Not easy, not easy at all! An Die Musik was altogether a very different rehearsal period. We needed a Nazi guard, no one wanted to be the Nazi guard. The director chose Fritz to play this role and Fritz made a big fuss. He didn’t want to play it. WHY ME?! Fritz was the only German actor in the company ……. it was obvious to everyone but Fritz who should play the Nazi guard.

Fritz

Chris Jordan wrote all the music for every production, he had the patience of a saint teaching people like me to torment the beautiful songs he wrote. He re-wrote Beethoven’s Ode to Joy for 2 tin whistles, an oboe, a tuba, 1 recorder, 1 guitar and 1 violin, me on the triangle and him guiding us all through it on the piano. It sounded great! And became the highlight on stage every night we performed An Die Musik.

An Die Musik poster

Rod, Sheila & Rowan

An die Musik had an ending like no other, although I didn’t realise this at the time, this was only my second show. It ended with us playing the funeral march from a Beethoven Piano Sonata sitting on wooden boxes whilst the smoke came to take us away. The director’s note when we rehearsed this last scene for the first time was simple: when you hear the hiss of the smoke machine, walk to the front of the stage, take off your uniforms & fold them neatly, put them on the floor and go back to your place. If you don’t want to do that, thats fine, just walk offstage… no one person knew what the other was going to do. 8 of the 9 actors took off their uniforms, only one walked off and it wasn’t me.

Emil, Roderic, Pete backstage

This was a show of few props and few costumes. 8 beer crates, a piano, a bucket, a trapeze, a dove, an assortment of instruments, one Nazi uniform and 8 shabby striped outfits each with a yellow star.

Sheila, Chris & Ben backstage I.C.A London

The Beginning (1974) : How a Brummie Art Student Joined the Pip Simmons Theatre Group

How a Brummie Art Student Joined the Pip Simmons Theatre Group ! Birmingham College of Art 1969 a crowd of like minded art students travel down to London which turns out to be great time to come to London, the year of the free Rolling Stones concert and Neil Armstrong walks on the moon. Art students bond with Theatre, Pip Simmons Theatre Group has re-invented itself and are looking out for candidates. Chris Jordan, actor, composer musician with PSTG, meets Rod Beddall my significant other. I have had a taste of Theatre at the Oval house where Art and Theatre make a pact, I had a chance and took it.…. life on the road with the Pip Simmons Theatre Group.

Pip Simmons and Rudi Engelander

The group that re-formed was, with one or two exceptions, a company of new recruits and I was one of them.

The company had re-invented itself in 1974 with a residency in Rotterdam which produced two so-called horror shows. One was a version of Dracula, the other An Die Musik, a true ‘horror story’. An Die Musik was a disturbing representation of the Nazi’s extermination of the Jews. This was perhaps The Pip Simmons Theatre Group’s best-remembered work, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Holland from the German occupation.

I performed with the group for 10 years. I had a camera. I took photos. I wrote postcards to my family, telling them what we were doing.

We rehearsed in London and then the touring would start. We created an average of two shows a year. The tours started in the UK and continued in Europe. We worked without a script and the shows were built out of improvisation, research and hard work.

Emil Wolk doing a handstand on the roof of Milan Cathedral

Rod Beddall was the perfect candidate for Dracula, he could sing, play guitar, piano and even the tin whistle if required. He was prepared to shave his head and wear fishnet stockings & a leather jockstrap, and really, that’s where the journey began. There were a couple of us from Birmingham and I tagged along.

I ended up becoming a vampire in the very first show that the re-invented Pip Simmons Theatre Group performed – Dracula.

Dream Rehearsals and Paradise on Brown Sea Island: 1975

12 Actors in Rotterdam (1975): An Die Musik and Dracula Rehearsals Begin

The Beginning (1974) : How a Brummie Art Student Joined the Pip Simmons Theatre Group

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