Leonard F. Durell

Leonard F Durell appears in a number of newspapers and seems to have been a producer of farcical aqua events. He wrote a number of short sketches for the events that he was putting on – “HMS Perhaps”, “The Bailiff”, “Perkins in Paradise” and “Kultur”. “Say When” and “Kultur” had a lot of water associated with the production and were therefore called Aqua productions. There were only two theatres able to put on his production and they were the Hippodrome in Manchester and the Hippodrome in Bristol. After the war, Durell went to Sidney in Australia to put on “Kultur”. During his shows he used to personally spin logs under his feet. In Derby on the 25th July 1913 he joined forces with the Six Brothers Luck to put on a production of “HMS Perhaps”. This production was centred around a very fine replica of a battleship. On the Monday they put on another of Leonard Durrell’s production called “The Ambassadors”. The Brothers Luck packed the Theatre by advertising that they were going to give out 300 postal orders to the audience of various amounts up to a £1. They said that they won the money on a lottery and wanted the public to benefit. Leonard F Durell seemed to be the expert producer as the scripts for the sketches were very limited. It was a spectacular not a real play. Really more like a variety show or a Pantomime. When he put on the production called “Kultur” in December 1916 it was said to have the greatest battle scene ever staged. Our friend Leonard F Durell put on quite a show and seemed to love showmanship. Sounds rather like Barnum of Circus fame. In “Kultur” he had a cast of 40 artistes and in “Say When” he had 30. In July 1920, Durell put on a spectacular production of Mother Hubbard.