​As the Melodramatic Elephant project draws to a close and before it is deposited in Southwark Archives as the last heartbeat of the 147 year old Coronet, this is a fitting time to look back and present some highlights.

We could go back 5 years in time, when this project was being conceived in the mind's eye of Constantine Gras, trying to recapture a lost memory of a horror film seen in his early teens at an ABC Cinema. 

"This project was in search of lost time. It began about five years ago when I actively tried to remember the name of a horror film that I saw over 30 years ago at the ABC Edgware Road. The after shocks of that film lingered even as that cinema had long since disappeared. The recovery of that memory as a film called Terror, emboldened me to artistically connect with the lost cinematic spaces and sensations of my youth. I then discovered the Coronet used to be an ABC cinema and was being threatened with closure. The perfect space to explore my love affair with cinema. But as I looked into the archive, I chanced upon the name Marie Henderson and she took me on a journey that I could not have imagined."

Or about a year ago when John Whelan, theatre director of People's Company, got on board and helped shaped the theatrical outcomes of the project. 

"The journey began with exciting workshops and it was really interesting to use the visual stimulus that Constantine brought into the process and all of the fantastic history of Melodrama, as exemplified in one of its stars, Marie Henderson and of course, the Coronet itself. Then it was time to start putting everything together and create the narrative of the Melodramatic Elephant. I had to write the script and watch for Constantine’s always encouraging nod. It was a roller coaster and probably one of the hardest things I have ever done in my career. But what a wonderful colourful elephant it became, involving a unique collaborative process with the various artists and the fantastic acting talents of People’s Company. But the amazing results made all of the blood, sweat and tears, as Marie says within the play, worth it!!! When watching the performance piece I was so honored to have been part of this creative process."

Or about six months ago when the People's Company of talented actors started their workshops and got their teeth into melodrama and the life of Victorian actress, Marie Henderson, in a role created by Shelagh Farren.

"And then I was amazed to find that on the day of the technical rehearsal, when we got into the Coronet, how calm I felt. I became quite philosophical; I knew there was nothing more that I could do. I even stopped worrying about forgetting lines. I was totally serene, with no nerves at all on the day of the performance. I like to think that Marie Henderson helped me, but that's romantic nonsense. I think that she probably would have put it down to hard graft, or, maybe, she would expect anyone portraying her to do a good job - naturally!
Would I have liked her? I bet she was interesting and a handful to boot!  A working mother, wife, actress, manager. Would she have liked me? Would she have put up with my amateur efforts or would she have been "oh dearing", bawled me out or sacked me? One thing I do know. She would have appreciated the full house on the night and I suspect that she would have been in the pub afterwards, possibly very much the grand dame.

And not forgetting the community engagement at 4 street festivals in Walworth where children made set-design images and adults shared their memories of the Coronet. Southwark Pensioners also held a reminiscence session at the Coronet. 

And then on 8 November 2017, The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle, was staged to warm applause at the Coronet. It was a play that weaved together all the archive information about Marie Henderson and the Coronet with a multimedia display of films, music and drawings. Even the Mayor of Southwark got in on the act and attempted to put out the fire that consumed the theatre building in 1878. It was also a poignant occasion as Lucy Wright, the great, great grandaughter of Marie Henderson, came on the stage at the finale of the play to bask in the limelight.  She commented:

My paternal ancestry had always been a mystery to me; a source of regret that I had not known them or not known of them. My father had died young, long before I had the opportunity to inquire about his family history. This is why the discovery, 29 years later, of the story of my great great great grandmother, Marie Henderson was so exciting for me. Knowing about one's family history definitely gives one a sense of place in the world and I am thrilled to finally be able to share that history with my two daughters. I hope they will be proud of the reputation of Marie Henderson, and what she managed to create in times of poverty. She created an escape for all from everyday hardship and valued the ideals of a community venue such as the Coronet. And she was surely a role model for female equality, proving just what a strong woman from an ordinary background can build. She was innovative , brave and hardworking. 

All of these are documented in films, drawings and installation art at the exhibition at the Art Academy Gallery and will be deposited into Southwark Archives from 2018. 

Or perhaps we shouldn't stop at this point in time. Maybe we should be bold and project into the future. Imagine a student of the London Cyber Academy, on the site of the former London College of Communication. They have come across a reference to the Melodramatic Elephant and want to discover more about the lost world of art and entertainment that once held sway in this area. They dig out an obsolete DVD or memory stick and manage to wire old school technology into the limbic lobe of their brain. Hopefully, they will have a pleasant high when they experience the Haunted Castle of 2017. 

The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle 
A play performed by the People's Company at the Coronet on 8 November 2017
An exhibition at the Art Academy Gallery, London, SE17 1RS, 9 - 20  December 2017

​Here are some reviews of the play and exhibition:

I would like to thank everyone involved with the show. I had a great night and thought the cast and the play were outstanding.
Councillor Charlie Smith, Mayor of Southwark

I just wanted to say how brilliant last night’s performance was. It was so poignant, and well-put together and felt like you really captured the audience’s sentiment about the space and the developments in the area.
Elizabeth Morrow, Communications & Volunteer Officer, CoolTan Arts

Thanks for the moving show and memorable evening, you are a dedicated bunch of people who are doing a lot for the community! 
Lea Saby

Thank you so much for the brilliant play last night - it really was so cool, visual and diverse. 
Lucy Wright, great-great granddaughter of Victorian actress, Marie Henderson

An absolute privilege to have seen this energetic production and how lovely to re-visit the experience on screen at the exhibition. 
Andrea

The recent show was excellent and very well acted and this exhibition is a worthwhile celebration of that too! 
Jeremy Leach, Walworth Society

Wonderful project to bring the space to life. So much I didn't know. Fondly remember going in the mid-2000's to the short-lived community film club. Sad to see the Coronet go. It merits the melodrama!"
Michael

I came past as I was interested in the building, but found this passionate and thoughtful account of the area. I hope to see more of this in the coming years. Much needed.
Norman A Murray. 

A good exhibition that shows how atmospheric the Coronet is. South London and Southwark needs a community space and theatre like this. It will be missed!
Melanie West

​I love that the sense of community and history is captured so eloquently. 
Anita Coppola

Enjoyed watching films in my old library
Freda

Great drawings. I think you did a great job capturing the diverse information surrounding the Coronet.
Katherine Jones

My parents met at the Coronet. All the stories I grew up hearing about the cinema from them and my grandparents. Beautiful building. Such a shame. 
Gary Chandler

Fantastic to stumble upon an exhibition about such an important part of South London's history. Long live the Coronet! (Will be very much missed).
​Scarlette

The creative imagination of all involved in this wonderful project for the Coronet, inspired within me the need to petition and advocate for those without a voice. The work beautifully encapsulates a multilateral web of issues from mental health to the loss of our rich history as regeneration rises up to consume the memories of old. 
Sharlene

The exhibition was a beautiful introduction to both the history and continuing story of the Elephant and Castle area. I'm leaving gripped by a desire to see the theatre and look behind the things surrounding my new home here. 
Luke

A beautiful and important documentation of Elephant and Castle's rich history and culture before the regeneration takes hold of the area. The loss of the Coronet saddens me - but it has been captured in this project for future generations!
Katie Campbell, Newcastle University architecture student

Wonderful to see connections between local artists, performers past and present and the Bethlem Royal Hospital where I work as an occupational health therapist.
Georgina

You have all done wonderful amazing work which honours and respects all the people, performers and human creativity which occurred inside the theatre doors. I have hope a new, grounded community will arise and fill in around the disappearance of the Coronet.
Marc

Fantastic exhibition! So interesting and fun. It captures the spirit of the Coronet and its history. 
Rose.

Happy memories as a cinema and club. Learnt things I never knew. Great tribute. 
Tim McNamara

What a fantastic way of sending off the old theatre. A great exhibition, films and display. Well done to all involved. 
​Steve Gross

Thank you for putting on this exhibition. I have grown up here my life and watching the film and seeing the important legacy of cinema has brought back wonderful memories of my trips to the Coronet as a cinema. It's bittersweet, but the legacy will live on. 
Adania J Muzu

Great exhibition. Nice to see more about the play. The whole project was really a wonderful idea and a great way to bring the community together as well as bringing local history to life. 
Lise Magnollay

Another important element of the play was an exquisite digital film made by Sandra Crisp. This was screened at the beginning of Act 2 and captured the preceding "madness" of Marie Henderson. The fly through visuals also projected into the future and illustrated how her ghostly figure would become part of the theatrical structure that was once home to her creativity and performances. 

This is a description of Sandra's art practice and her work on the project: 

I use appropriated online visuals, stored in a digital archive and reworked over time. Through a process of continual sampling/recycling/layering, new connections evolve between the diverse elements of media images from the internet to smart phones. Today’s constant saturation of images and information via 24/7 news and the continually updating web where one image or  blog post or Tweet is rapidly replaced by the next, is a central theme running through my practice.  

For "The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle' I used Constantine Gras' drawings, photos of the Coronet interior, archive photos and borrowed online visuals to form a dynamic 3D collage textured onto a 3D rendered architectural model.
​

​People's Company member, Aubrey Ayoade (photo, seated left), reflects on his screenplay for the short film, Marie Henderson's Ghost. This was screened as part of a play staged at the Coronet theatre on 8 November. It will also be shown at The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle art exhibition from 9-20 December at The Art Academy Gallery, 155 Walworth Road, SW17 1RS. 
​
“Show don’t tell!”  This is the Screenwriter’s mantra. How did this mantra come about?  Well, I honestly don’t know except to say that every Film School and Screenwriting course that I ever attended applied this most sacred of tenets.

Having decided that any Silent Film narrative, by its very own design, had to be ‘on-the-nose’ in order to convey the story without ambiguity and to enable the unspoken word to be captured in the pacing and movement of its characters, I set about writing “The Ghost of Marie Henderson”. Enter obstacle No.1. “How do you create a silent short within a thematic and character arc that has been established outside of the film, in a different medium (a play), that you’re trying to devise?” The first probing question, indeed decision, was to understand whether this film was to be considered an insert or excerpt of a larger work.

And so, here I am, making a less than educated guess about moving picture’s first departure from the classical stage and how our Marie Henderson (the protagonist of The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle) might have responded to such a change with a view to me eventually capturing her character in a skittish, 2-3 minute Silent Movie short script. I can only imagine that it must have been a real eye-opener for the rumbustious Theatre-Owner, Producer, Director and Actor working at the birth of an era that might have rendered her business a thing of the past since this moving picture medium implicitly and explicitly foreshadowed a new age in storytelling.

Yet she would have known that moving pictures had a technological limitation; this was the absence of sound and hence, the conveyance of the audible spoken word. In the spoken word, Marie Henderson could, quite literally, find a voice; solace and power since the stage lent itself forgivingly to speech. She was a shrewd woman by all accounts and I imagine that she would have seen this as a deficiency in this new medium and perhaps would have looked to exploit it. To this end, I knew that the silent short had to demonstrate the ‘push and pull’ of opposites, not necessarily ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’. Hence, metaphors and motifs that would express ‘old values’ versus ‘new values’, ‘Tradition’ versus ‘New Age’, ‘Man’ versus ‘Woman’, ‘Stage’ versus ‘Screen’ would, in turn, create tension so creating conflict which in turn would incite action.  Conversely, I imagine Marie Henderson being both upset and insulted by the attention that moving pictures would have achieved; this would not be hubris but frustration that she could not have exploited the commercial opportunity enjoyed by later proprietors of the Coronet.

It was this idea that led me to believe that Marie Henderson’s character arc should have considered a detour or departure from the play’s character arc to explore her darker side which was hinted upon in the play text, for example, her excessive drinking and wanton affairs. Within the silent short I would have offered her a malevolent overture softened by the ridiculous, slapstick, buffoonery of her supporting cast.

Through no fault of their own, Silent Movie productions had to be physical (or so I imagine); dramatic, even melodramatic (it’s a mode of entertainment after all!) since the early moving picture did not lend itself to the subtleties of mood, innuendo, subtext, nuance and characterisation. Hence, the actor had to embody, and so enlighten, the narrative with vigour and gusto by movement and exaggerated displays of emotion. Certainly, the physicality of the actor had to convey thematic truths of the story being spun to their audience as if by spoken word. The supporting cast within the Silent Short would,  therefore, be ostensibly made to demonstrate the ‘tour de force’ that Marie Henderson was in opposing their collective actions since no one man was her equal even at their best whilst the level of physicality demonstrated in the action sequences were unbecoming of a woman of that era and stature.

So a segway in my thought brings me to an observation made by the Writer, Director and occasional Auteur/Actor Quentin Tarantino of “Reservoir Dogs”, “Jackie Brown” and “Django Unchained” fame. He postulates that “Moving Pictures” were not created as an evolution of Stage but, indeed, as the antithesis to the Stage/Play acting movement. He suggests that (Victorian) Theatre had become largely the preserve of the wealthy; the well-educated and the gentry who would openly discriminate against the working classes by making Theatre an exclusive retreat to be enjoyed by the select few. Perhaps this departure from ‘Theatre for all’ fostered the wave of working-class Vaudevillians who often parodied their “Thespian” colleagues (the real, serious actors) with crude, vulgar and suitably ‘dumbed-down’ acts that were intentionally cheap, accessible, low-brow yet entertaining. This, I’d suggest, was the proverbial ‘two finger salute’ to the gentry and as such, created the divide or adjunct from Classical Theatre to the Moving Pictures revolution which had, suggests Tarantino, the implicit mandate to be affordable entertainment for the lower classes. Keeping Marie Henderson’s character distant, even suggestively aloof, by making her a ghost in the Silent Short does bring into question whether she would have fully embraced the Vaudevillian movement and whether, indeed, as the play suggests that she was just one of the “common people”. 

​Our Marie Henderson was seemingly neither Highbrow or Lowbrow, or so I suspect. She seemed to be an Entrepreneur; a Chameleon of sorts, Highbrow in private and yet unashamedly worldly, even brazen, in public where her paying working class audience and suitors lay. What did she really yearn for professionally? To be respected by her male peers, perhaps. What did she yearn for emotionally?  I can only assume from John Whelan’s script for “The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle” that she wanted to be adored by her audience and her male suitors.

​So here lay my inevitable Silent Movie challenge. The character arc of Marie Henderson (so established in the play, namely ‘The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle’) is portrayed as a tortured heroine sickened with Syphilis. She is dignified, pseudo-gentrified, an assured Theatre owner with a mission to keep the Theatre that she loves. 

My mind switches again. Perhaps Marie Henderson was the Mary Pickford of the Stage. Mary Pickford was one of the most influential Silent Movie stars of the early 20th Century. From the 1910s to 1920s she, Douglas Fairbanks Snr. and Charlie Chaplin dominated silent film to the extent that they and a few others set-up their own Production house and Film Studios, the aptly named “United Artists”.  Even romance graced our screens in the silent era with the face of the great “Rudolph Valentino.

The portability and affordability of moving pictures and their mass appeal within Europe and the US meant that it was only a matter of time before sound technology would transform this medium to the so said “Talkies’. Whilst Stage endured the breakout of the Silent movie era, it’s my belief that the “Talkies” heralded the slow demise of the well-honed Vaudevillian stage act that was often one dimensional and/or did not have a speaking component. Some Vaudevillians, such as Laurel and Hardy, made the successful transition into the Talking era merging their physical comedy with playful dialogue. Charlie Chaplin, a contemporary and friend of Stan Laurel (who both applied their early trade down at Camberwell Film Studios) finds himself both in the play text and in the silent short since he is not only South London’s greatest artistic export (saying that Van Gogh lived about 20 minutes walk away from Chaplin’s house so you might dispute my claim) but he is, perhaps, the most notable baton bearer of the Silent Film era. Interestingly, Chaplin did make a few “Talkies” that were truly excellent and in the final shot it would have been nice to see the “Young Charlie Chaplin” watch himself in a “Talkie”.

​Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle. A combination of words that for many is just the title of a play, but for me is a couple of months of my life. This play has been the main protagonist of most of my days during this past autumn. Some days were more melodramatic than others, but everyday was spent doing what I love: Art.

I was involved in this project from the very onset. It was ambitious, diverse and maybe even a bit crazy: everything that a young artist could wish for. We started working on melodrama at the People’s Company sessions on Tuesdays. It was fascinating to see the creativity of the whole group being ignited by Marie Handerson and the era of Melodrama.

The play was great, full of details and insight on the history of the Coronet. Everyone was really excited to start working on it. And so rehearsal started. In my role as a stage manager/assistant director I had to organize the rehearsal schedule, a very challenging task when you have to work with a cast of 17 actors, many of them playing multiple characters, all of them having a life outside the production. Making sure that rehearsals ran smoothly, and that everyone was as happy as possible was a challenge that I hope I have successfully overcome. 

Then I was asked to direct the horror short movie, Left Unseen, that Euan Vincent was writing for the show. And I was incredibly honoured and thrilled to be given the opportunity to use my experience on set to direct a short movie. I sat down with Constantine Gras, our DoP, to sketch the storyboard for the movie, and then we walked around an empty Coronet to decide shots and angles. We shot the movie in two half days and at two locations. 

The first day we were at the Coronet. Time was tight and we had to get lots of shots done in just few hours. We had to have a clear mind and know exactly what we wanted to achieve and how. What we needed was pop-corn! A lot of it to keep us going throughout the filming. I also offered some to the Vaccines, a rock band who was doing a photoshoot at the Coronet on the same day.

The second day of filming was shorter, and we had some time. We could experiment and I had the chance to work with the actors, getting a great performance out of them. When I saw the editing with the narration done by Euan and Constantine my jaw dropped. The result was better than I could ever imagine. We nailed the humor of the  hammer horror trailers, and kept a bit of the horror mood. Exactly the goal we had in mind. I couldn’t have been happier.

This play has given me an incredible opportunity to develop my skills as a theatre and film maker. And has allowed me to be part of a great creative process that led to the making of a unique piece of Art. One where theatre, film, painting, music and costumes, worked together to tell the story of a woman, and a building, that have entertained the community for nearly 150 years.

Be warned!
This is a trailer for a horror film that was never made in the 1970's
Starring Charlotte Nicod as the tormented drama student!
The film was screened as part of The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle
A play staged at the Coronet theatre on 8 November 2017 
And also shown at the Art Academy Gallery, SE17 from 9-20 December 2017

These are authentic 1970's horror trailers!

​I was part of a small team that worked on a 1970’s spoof film trailer that was to be shown within a section of the play that remembered the Coronet’s past days as an ABC cinema. When I was first introduced to the mini project, the idea was to create a Hammer Horror trailer. My first attempted outline for a script therefore involved Marie Henderson and some classic characters from the Hammer Horror studio, namely reboots of Dracula and Frankenstein. 

We had a brainstorm session with the team working on the Horror trailer and another team producing a short piece around Charlie Chaplin. It was great fun to watch and research the styles and themes from these 70s horror trailers; especially since they feel so heavy handed when compared to today’s horror films. I was able to get a sense of a time when much societal innocence still remained but was being worn away by the makers of these horrors. The styles of these trailers also left lots of room for send-up and pastiche, such as cheesy titles and credits warning about how scary the contents were!

I learnt a lot also from Aubrey Ayoade, the writer of the Charlie Chaplin short film, on how to weave themes from the existing play into the short film and set off to try to do the same. My initial idea was to tie in themes of the regeneration of the shopping centre, which used an earlier scene from the play -  however, it was decided that these themes would foreshadow too much the ending of the play so I set off to find another angle. 

After another brainstorming session, this time with Constantine Gras, who was facilitating these short films, we decided to bring in elements of a society going wrong which we thought brought in some common fears that people had from the 70s. We also had the idea of working in references to pop psychology as Constantine introduced me to the works of RD Laing, a famous Scottish psychiatrist at the time. This lead to the first draft of my final script, a short trailer about a university student (a drama student in the final cut) who, leaving her family behind to start a new life in a big city, becomes haunted at the ABC cinema and then gets sucked into a strange world of mistrust at the hands of an over-zealous mental health establishment. 

There was still one serious problem: the haunting was carried out by Marie Henderson (the real life Victorian actress who was the inspiration for this project) and we couldn’t have Marie Henderson as a negative force within the trailer! What followed were late night phone calls with Constantine to discuss possible solutions, including many attempts at total re-thinks! For me it was exciting and frustrating in equal measure. There was also something delicious about writing a script for a trailer about a film that never existed which gave insights into film narrative 

Later that week the problem of fitting Marie Henderson in still loomed over us and I was asked to work through the script with our actors. I felt nervous and ill-at-ease leading the session but the team came up with some brilliant ideas and we were able to “get it on it’s feet” as John Whelan, our theatre director would say. The problem of working Marie Henderson into the script remained throughout the process: partly because our great actress, Shelagh Farren, had limited availability to make it to the Coronet on the one day we had to film - such are the struggles of juggling budget filmmaking around busy lives!

My next involvement came after the film had been directed by Rachele Fregonese and the bulk of the editing had been completed by Constantine. In a fun and inspired session, Constantine and I were able to whip the voice over narration into shape. We still had a lot of creative freedom with the narration and decided to add some depth with references to Greek mythology with Eros and Thanatos and tried out our most outlandish and scary narrator voices. If you are at all scared or find it funny, then we hopefully hit the marks of sending up those 1970s horror exploitation trailers! We had our horror trailer, “Left Unseen”! 

Watching the trailer within the play on performance night, I was pleased with how it fit into the context of the play and served as a homage to the Coronet as a fleapit cinema in the 1970s. The audience’s warm applause was testament to all our endeavours!

​I thoroughly enjoyed acting in the Melodramatic Elephant in which I played two roles.

My first role was a Victorian actor playing George, a character from a Melodramatic play called "Lady Audley's Secret." The audience would see George in a scene with the great Marie Henderson as they rehearsed it in the Coronet Theatre back in the 19th century. Initially, the idea of acting in a play within a play was daunting, but I managed to strip it down to a situation where I was simply playing myself rehearsing for a scene. I read "Lady Audley's Secret" and understood George's motives and how his experiences fed his volatile passion and rage.

Our multi-talented director, John Whelan, helped us express the Melodramatic acting style mainly through our faces and ensured we controlled our volume, projecting our voices only at appropriate times during the scene. I found this melodramatic scene not only representative of Marie's mental conflict and emotional struggle, but also a prime example of Brechtian Theatre enabling audiences to think about class ranks, loss, infidelity, relationships and social issues. It was a pleasure to act alongside the unique Marie Henderson (played by the superbly talented Shelagh) and I'm proud we managed to pull off one of the more intense scenes in the play.

Another aspect of the play I will also treasure was portraying Charlie Chaplin. I think the expression "big shoes to fill" springs to mind and indeed his boots were massive considering how short he was. Having done some research into the timeless icon, watching Chaplin's early short films, reading his biography, listening to his interviews online, copying his smile, his walk and his mannerisms. I built up my own interpretation of the great man behind the Little Tramp. For me, his mischievous behaviour and love for life were two key traits I needed to portray.

In the silent comedy written by talented Aubrey Ayoade and filmed by the brilliant Constantine Gras, my Chaplin was a lazy worker, but a cheerful soul nonetheless. Even after being scared silly by Marie's ghost, the final scene shows Chaplin watching a film contently with his small dog and a portrait of Marie next to him, tipping his hat out of respect to her. I felt like I needed to convey his kind heart even in the face of adversity, which was synonymous with the Little Tramp taking on the corrupt system against all odds!

The other notable Charlie Chaplin scene on stage showed how he met Michael Caine (played by the tremendously gifted Michael Tuffnell) at the Elephant and Castle in the early 1970s. Since I would now be playing Chaplin in his 80s, I decided to make him sound and walk much older than he actually looked. I utilised some Method acting to materialise my own experience of loss, matching Chaplin's sad realisation that his childhood neighbourhood was transformed and remodelled into "monstrous blocks." There were also socioeconomic and politically-charged discussions with the charismatic Caine, prompting encouraging reactions from the audience to highlight the power of Epic Theatre. I imagined Chaplin at that ripe, old age as an onion with many layers: first, as the young orphan from East Street who lost his parents too early (his father to alcoholism and his mother to the mental asylum), then as the ambitious artistic pioneer who took on America and inspired the world; and finally as the isolated elder clutching onto memories of his distant past ("They don't make proper movies like they used to, Michael."). The scene ends bittersweetly with Chaplin remembering his old Elephant and Castle theatre (where I imagined him drifting back emotionally to that 19th century world seeing his mother perform on stage) before snapping back to reality and inviting Caine for a drink in a nearby pub coincidentally named "The Charlie Chaplin."

​To conclude, this unique experience of playing the Little Tramp has taught me that in an ever-changing world, no matter how downtrodden life gets us, the human spirit can elevate us in our search for beauty.


Excerpts of the stage play and short film, Marie Henderson's Ghost will be screened as part of The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle art exhibition.

The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle - Art Exhibition
9-20 December at The Art Academy Gallery
Former Newington Library
155 Walworth Road, London SE17 1RS.
Opening hours: 
Saturday and Sunday 12.00-17.00 
Monday to Friday 15.00-19.00

"Well, I suppose I was a bit bemused when I was told about the role, as she was so integral to the story and then downright scared when I saw the script!  I felt responsible; responsible to People's Company, to the other actors to do a good job with them, to Constantine who had done so much research and to the lady herself.  I was desperate not to let anyone down, living or dead.  Thank goodness I didn't realise that members of her family would be present until the last minute, or they could have been added to my worry list, and I couldn't bring myself to think about the audience at all!
It is no exaggeration to say that I have lived this part for months - just trying to learn the lines took forever, never mind positions - and I have spent some time, generally when drifting off to sleep, wondering how Marie would have handled this.  Undoubtedly, with much greater ease, as she was trained for it and it was her career and she probably could learn and perform different parts in a week, if they did rep in those days, which I suspect they did.   How I wished for some of her talent in that.
Would I have liked her?  I bet she was interesting and a handful to boot!   A working mother, wife, actress, manager - drinker and philanderess, both generally indications of unhappiness, often without people realising, leading a busy (maybe worrisome) life.  
Would she have liked me? Would she have put up with my amateur efforts  or would she have been "oh dearing", bawled me out or sacked me.  Would she have  been amused.  Would she have been affronted.  Lots of questions.
One thing I do know.  She would have appreciated the full house on the night and I suspect that she would have been in the pub afterwards, possibly very much the grand dame.
At times, I wondered if I would be able to do this (despaired even), and just put my faith in John Whelan, the theatre director knowing what he's doing in directing me. I was amazed to find that from the day of the technical rehearsal, when we got into the Coronet, how calm I felt.  I became quite philosophical; I knew there was nothing more that I could do.  I even stopped worrying about forgetting lines.  I was totally serene, with no nerves at all on the day of the performance.  I like to think that she helped me, but that's romantic nonsense.  I think that she probably would have put it down to hard graft, or, maybe, she would expect anyone portraying her to do a good job - naturally!
As for me, well it was a privilege to play this part, like nothing I have ever done before or ever will again.  Thank you Marie Henderson."

Shelagh Farren performed with the People's Company of Southwark in stage play of The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle. This was the final play and community event staged at the Coronet on 8 November 2017. The building will be closing down after 147 years of providing entertainment and art to the Elephant and Castle area. Extracts from the play will be shown as part of a programme of short films connecting melodrama with silent movies and the horror genre. In addition, there will be an art installation, drawings and archival photographs. 

The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle - Art Exhibition
9-20 December at The Art Academy Gallery
Former Newington Library
155 Walworth Road, London SE17 1RS.
Opening hours: 
Saturday and Sunday 12.00-17.00 
Monday to Friday 15.00-19.00

This is an Arts Council England funded project supported by Southwark Playhouse and The Coronet. The exhibition involved the support of The Art Academy and CoolTan Arts.

​This week's blog features two of the People's Company bright stars, Rachele Fregonese and Erina Jamil Nordin. They talk about the upcoming play, The Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle, that will be staged at the Coronet on the 8 November 2017.  Rachele is working as assistant director / stage manager and Erina as an actress. 

Rachele Fregonese:
​So it begins! 
We have been workshopping ideas and scenes from the Marie Henderson story. Finally rehearsals have begun. One thing is certain: there is no space for boredom. 
After a brief catch up on what will happen next and how we will be moving forward, we started rehearsing two scenes from the newly-written play. At the same time. We’ve split the room in two and off we went. One group was shaping the WWII scene with John Whelan. Another group was with me, putting the “fire scene” up on its feet.
With my group I started with a reading of the scene, in order to bring everybody up to speed. After a read-through I started directing the actors and staging the scene, trying to break the fourth wall. My aim was to give the audience an immersive experience of what it must have felt like to be on the street while the Elephant and Castle theatre was burning.
The actors were following my instruction with no hesitation. They were trusting my instructions, and bringing the scene to life beautifully. Once the major blocking was done, I asked the actors to come back to the text. To read the scene again. And I asked them some questions that, hopefully, helped them connect with what is happening in the scene and the characters they are portraying. I asked them: why are you walking through the streets? Where do you come from? What happened before the scene starts? Where are you going? What is your relationship with the characters you are meeting, or with what you are seeing in front of your eyes? Playing a chorus-like character is a challenging task, that often leads to just reciting lines without adding life to it. That is what I wanted to avoid with my questions. 
After this read through I suggested an improv exercise where I asked the actors to start the scene, and interact with  each other. But no fire would happen this time. They would do what they were meant to do if the fire had not interrupted them. Immediately a community atmosphere was created, and they started discovering a little bit more about their characters. Next, I asked them to repeat the scene again. This time their activities were interrupted by a Fire alarm (my voice shouting: Fire!). Their reaction was truthful and everyone could tell that the event, the fire, was suddenly more personal and easier to imagine for everybody. 
We then presented the scenes to the other group. It was a pleasure to see how quickly everyone had picked up on directions and suggestions, bringing both scenes to life. This is what makes this group so special, in my opinion: the ability to play with each other, to trust each other, to work as a team and to have fun. All qualities that are incredibly important on stage, and that will allow for a great show to take place.
And this is just the beginning of a Journey that will bring us, as a company, to tell the history of the Coronet to the Elephant and Castle community.

Pasley Park in Kennington boasts animal and royal pedigree. Once upon a time,  roughly two decades from the 1830's, it was the site of the Royal Zoological Gardens with tigers, apes, bears, pygmy elephants and the first publicly shown giraffes in Britain. It even numbered Queen Victoria among its visitors! So it was a fitting location for the Melodramatic Elephant in the Haunted Castle, our community stall promoting our upcoming play (8th Nov) and art exhibition (11-23 Nov) about the history of the Coronet. 

It was good to see familiar faces passing by. We last met Emine at the opening of Elephant Park and she told us she came to England in 1967 and promptly made a drawing that included a flag of her motherland. As I had her previous drawing to hand she added in some more touches to her art work in-between buying raffle tickets at the adjacent stall. Once again there was rain in the festive air, but Emine's sun was able to banish away those dark clouds. However, I don't think she was so lucky at the raffle.