?, Nottingham

‘The Nottingham Philodramatic Society begins its season on Friday with a talk on “Stage Design” by Mr. Don Finley, the Court Players’ scenic artist. At the second meeting, a fortnight later, a reading of G. B. Shaw’s “Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet” will be given by members … For the ordinary meetings the Society’s rehearsal room will be used instead its fine little theatre’. Nottingham Journal, Wednesday 4 October 1939. ‘Unable to use their theatre because of the difficulty of securing a complete black-out, the Nottingham Philodramatic Society have refused to be discouraged, and retreating, so to speak, to the catacombs, last night produced one of Bernard Shaw’s most famous one-act plays, “The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet,” in the rehearsal room of their Bluecoat-street headquarters. It was quite like the old days in Alfred-street for nobody was quite sure where the audience finished and the stage began, all entrances and exits having to be made along the centre gangway and from the rear of the spectators … Time was when this play, in which the name the Almighty is so “frequently invoked,” was on the Censor’s black list - but this was in the days when the powers that be took Bernard Shaw more seriously. Having got away with “St Joan,” a far more ticklish theological hurdle to cross, G. B. S.’s “lay sermon,” with a horse thief for its preacher, no longer shocks ... In all Bernard Shaw’s plays everyone has more than enough to say for themselves but there is more illusion and action in this piece than most. Apart from other considerations the production proved that despite the wartime conditions under which we are all living there is no need for amateur dramatic organisations to get faint-hearted and abandon their activities. Last night’s house was as full as it could possibly be, despite the fact that the performance was given during black-out hours’. Nottingham Journal, 21 October 1939.