"The White Devil". St John's Garden Quad Auditorium
The last time I saw The White Devil in Oxford I was directing it myself. Precisely 42 years ago, Hilary term 1984, it was the first play ever to be put on in Merton Chapel, and it was bloody freezing. The poor audiences sat there for two and a half hours in numbing cold. They clapped at the end more to warm themselves up than out of any goodwill to the show. And we did it twice a night - at 7.30 and 10.30. People were leaving at 1am. Aye, we had it tough in them days. After the first night, the Domestic Bursar, Colonel Henderson (all bursars were called Colonel Henderson back then), hauled me into his office and berated me for having served hot mulled wine at the interval. ‘This is a house of God!’ he shouted. ‘Not a pub!’ Strangely, he didn’t seem to object to all the murders, fake blood and full-on simulated sex. I guess his issue was licencing, not licentiousness. So yes. It wasn’t a great White Devil . But the queues went right out into Merton Street. And the reason people came wa...