Review:Waterloo/Catherine Cooke
This review of the play "Waterloo", by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was written by Catherine Cooke and published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 2, No. 2) in autumn 1991.
Review
- Waterloo
- by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- A review of the presentation at Bateman's, Burwash, 25-27 July 1991
Reviewed by Catherine Cooke
It is a rare event these days to see a play by Conan Doyle on stage, so it was good to see The National Trust and Senlac Theatre present Waterloo at Bateman's, the home of Rudyard Kipling, together with Kipling's own play Harbour Watch. The plays made a good pair. The first, Harbour Watch, is a short comedy lasting about forty-five minutes where Emanuel Pyecroft, Petty Officer, RN, and his friend Edward Glass, Full Private, RMLI, get the better of local villain William Agg. Originally produced in April 1913, it even has a brief reference to Sherlock Holmes, as Glass works out the answer to a problem. Waterloo, which lasts about thirty minutes, has less of a plot; it is more of an affectionate portrait of an old man, a wonderful part ably played by Robert Demeger (who also took the part of Pyecroft).
The play takes place in this production outside Corporal Brewster's house in Woolwich during the course of one day in June 1881. The slightly raised terrace on one side of Bateman's was used as a stage, hence the move from the front-room of the house, as in the play text. The set was dressed with an ancient armchair, a tea-chest, a dust-bin and a line of washing. Conan Doyle had adapted his short story A Straggler of '15 into a play and sent it to Henry Irving, the actor he had admired as a boy on his first visit to London. Irving bought the copyright and the play was first produced at the Prince's Theatre, Bristol on September 21st, 1894, then on May 4th, 1895 at the Lyceum Theatre, London, with Irving in the central role of Corporal Brewster.
There is a good deal of humour in this affectionate and extremely accurate portrayal of an old soldier. Brewster had seen service at Waterloo, where he heroically drove a cart of powder through burning hedges to his regiment, thus enabling them to hold Hougoumont, an action for which he was decorated by the Prince Regent. Brewster, now in his 90s, is a querulous old man whom we first see demanding 'his rations'. I wants my rations! The cold nips me without 'em.' He is amazed at his great niece's temerity in travelling by train. (A beautiful piece of business here from Demeger, breaking his biscuit into his saucer, pouring the tea from his cup over it, then 'drinking' both together from the saucer). His memories of the action at Waterloo and his subsequent decoration recur throughout the play: 'The Ridgement is proud of ye, says he. And I'm proud o' the Ridgement, says I. And a damned good answer, too, says he to Lord Hill, and they both bust out a-laughin' There is pathos, too, in the portrait, as when Brewster breaks his clay pipe, sobbing like a child until his admiring visitor Sergeant Archie McDonald, RA, portrayed by Stephen Campbell, presents him with his own pipe, a wooden one with an amber mouth. Another fond moment comes when Brewster, receiving a visit from the Colonel of the regiment, re-enacts the battle: 'There's our line right along from the paregoric bottle to the inhaler... While old Brewster dies at the end of the piece, re-living in his final moments his moments of triumph, 'The Guards need powder, and, by God, they shall have it!' there is no real grief and one goes away with a feeling of happiness rather than sadness; he has received his call and can at least join his comrades, 'the 3rd Guards have a full muster now.'
It is a pity that more companies do not these days revive Conan Doyle's plays as the audience at Bateman's seemed to appreciate, they are not irrelevant. The acute observation of an old man necessary to give this portrait still speaks to us: old people have not changed that much over the last century! This play even proved to be topical in the light of the recently announced defence cuts, as Brewster laments: 'I heard as they had dropped the numbers, and given them new-fangled names. That wouldn't ha' done for the Dook. The Dook would ha' had a word there.'
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
