Mr Prohack

Monday, November 18th., Cadogan Square, London.

I have written to Knoblock to give him my thoughts on the play, and I may as well set them down here also.

Laughton had a great triumph as Mr. Prohack, after being very bad and wrong at all the later rehearsals. The second act didn't go very well but that was a fault of the production rather than of the play. The third act undoubtedly went very well indeed. Sidney Bernstein (the film man) one of our directors, had not cared much for the play when he read it, but he was positively enthusiastic about it when he saw it performed. There were laughs throughout. Advance booking is vey bad, but I do not see how it can be anything else. I think the play will take some time to reach the public consciousness, but I think that it will succeed in doing so.
 
One or two of the morning notices were bad, especially that of The Times, but some of the others were decidedly good, and the rest decent. The notices in the three evening papers are all admirable. Laughton was the focus of most of the notices. I am told that he was made up to look like me and that he copies some of my gestures etc. Whether this is true or not I do not know. It is in nearly all the papers, so I suppose there must be something in it. He took care not to do this in rehearsals. I don't know if I should feel flattered or aggrieved.

Dorothy got some decent notices which will be good for her self-esteem.

Alternative ending

Wednesday, April 27th., 12B George Street, London.

By the last post last night I received the proofs of the first instalment in the Delineator of "Mr. Prohack". To my intense disgust I saw at once that they had cut it. Considering that the number of instalments and the precise length had been agreed by me in accordance with the editor's own suggestion, this absolutely disgusted me, and I have written to Pinker that I don't want to correct any more proofs.

Last evening I finished re-reading "Hilda Lessways" and made a start on "These Twain". H.L. isn't as good as "Clayhanger". I don't think that Hilda is quite sufficiently 'realised' to stand as the central character. Perhaps it was too bold of me to try to put myself inside the head of a woman. Of course I have my experience from editing Woman, and I have often bragged to friends (both sexes) that I know women well. I do! But too superficially for the purpose of effective fiction I now think. Still it was a good attempt. In many ways the most interesting character in the book is George Cannon. I know that I will enjoy T.T. more. 

The other thing that occured to me during the night was that I could have made all the books 'better', and more credible, by a plot change. There is a scene where Edwin and Janet Orgreave are playing tennis together. Edwin has been told that Janet is 'waiting' for him, and is tempted by the idea of marriage to her. Given the way I developed Edwin's character I now think he would not have held out. I think that I should have allowed him to propose. He would have been happy for a while, then simply content but, at the back of his mind, would be the thought of Hilda. Then, when Hilda re-emerged with her son, there would have been tremendous potential for emotional conflict, misgiving and angst. Perhaps resolved eventually by Janet dying?

 

Theatre things

Sunday, November 27th., Cadogan Square, London.

Strawberry House

We lunched at Norman Wilkinson's. He lives alone at Strawberry House, Chiswick Mall. Very nice and tasteful. Several old harpsichords and similar instruments, in perfect order, on which he plays nicely. He is charming, sensible and has taste. A pleasure to spend time with an 'old school' sort. So different from some of the flashy stage types one is forced into company with. I am inclined to think that if it were not for Dorothy's continuing infatuation with all things theatre I might put it all behind me. Feeling a bit dissatisfied with life generally - probably presages some digestive disorder. I don't seem to have much time for myself. Busier than ever but not doing things I particularly want to do. Of course I have free will and could decline some invitations but one becomes involved in a social round and I have to think about Dorothy as well as myself. I envy Wilkinson who seems to lead a life of quiet contentment. But perhaps he envies me. Strange world!

We dined at the Ivy, and saw there the St. John Ervines, Hutchinsons, Lytton Strachey, the Basil Deans, etc., etc.Then to the first night of the Sitwell entertainment, "First Class Passengers Only", at the Arts Theatre Club. Packed. Some part amusing. More parts tedious. Some fine acting. Some rotten. It was a sort of Revue in backchat.

"Mr. Prohack" starring Charles Laughton seems to be doing well at the Court. Better than I expected at least.

Domestic discontent

Friday, June 17th., George Street, London.

I finished "Mr. Prohack" at 3.57 yesterday afternoon.

Last night Cochran dined with me, and at 10 p.m. we went to see Petrouchka. The dinner was to discuss the idea of me writing a revue with Lucas for him.

It is remarkable that I am able to concentrate on any work at all as Marguerite continues to make my domestic life a misery. At the moment the focus of her discontent is the arrangements for the summer's yachting. It seems to me that she is deliberately misunderstanding what I say so as to be disagreeable. This may be some sort of perverse response to feelings of guilt following the Legros 'affair'. For example, I have told her again and again that I am quite prepared to go to Ostende or Dinard in the yacht to meet her in September; she asserts that I have said I would not go to Ostende. Why this has assumed such significance I do not know. She persists in desiring me to buy a new motor car though I have told her I cannot at the moment and pointed out that the present one is in perfect working order. And she still seems to think there is no impropriety in Legros visiting Comarques when I am away. Surely this must be a species of calculated challenge to my tolerance.

Additionally for June 17th., see 'Youthful visitors'

Elsa Lanchester and Harold Scott came to lunch yesterday. She had a most charming dress, home-made. She said she had made it out of dusters, and I believe she had. Very young. A lovely complexion, wonderful shock of copper hair; a rather queerly blunted nose. Harold staggered her and Dorothy by arriving in a hat. He never wears hats, but had apparently decided to learn to dress. Both deeply interested in their cabaret schemes. Discussing it among themselves and with Dorothy. Largely ignoring me, though no conscious rudeness. Youthful severity on other, older, people. I offered to pay for some chairs and tables for their cabaret, but they were not at all keen on them, apparently preferring the audience to sit on the floor (so, I am unlikely to be in one of their audiences!). However, they took them. I should say that these people are bound to do something good. They are full of original inventiveness and of distinction.

Nervous reactions

Thursday, October 21st., London.

Rivers came to lunch at the Reform on Tuesday. He and Shufflebotham were talking about miners' eye diseases, etc. and Rivers said that the danger factor on the nervous system had never been properly taken into account. Shufflebotham said that he had been preaching it for years. Shuff said that you could always distinguish miners from potters on their way to early morning work. Miners had an apprehensive look. Potters would whistle on their way to work; miners never. It appears that someone has just pointed out in The Times that if you put the mines in order of frequency of accidents, and also in majorities for strikes. the two lists coincide! All this of course, so far as the miners are concerned, is chiefly subconscious. Shuff said that of course boys voted for strikes. They had not had time to become accustomed to the danger, and the instinctive reactions were very strong.

See also 'Laughing gas?', February 14th., -
http://earnoldbennett.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/laughing-gas.html

W H R Rivers

William Halse Rivers Rivers, FRCP, FRS, (1864 -1922) was an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist, best known for his work with shell-shocked soldiers during World War I. Rivers' most famous patient was the poet Siegfried Sassoon. He is also famous for his participation in the Torres Straits expedition of 1898, and his consequent seminal work on the subject of kinship. Sassoon was deeply saddened by the death of his father figure and collapsed at his funeral. His loss prompted him to write two poignant poems about the man he had grown to love: "To A Very Wise Man" and "Revisitation".

I got frightened about the opening of my novel "Mr. Prohack" yesterday. But on reading it through I thought it wasn't so bad.

Additionally for October 21st., see 'Getting ready to write' -
http://earnoldbennett.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/getting-ready-to-write.html

I find that if I am to begin my new novel, "Clayhanger", on 1st Jan. 1910, I must make a series of preliminary enquiries. I do this perhaps at the rate of half an hour or an hour a day. I have read "When I was a Child", and all I need of Shaw's "North Staffordshire Potteries", and tonight I re-read the "social and Industrial" section of the Victoria History, which contains a few juicy items that I can use. I work on the plot itself about once a week when I have an hour and feel like it.