Ben Fletcher-Watson

@bfletcherwatson.bsky.social

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Drama researcher in theatre for babies & relaxed performance. Deputy Director of IASH, University of Edinburgh. Trustee of Newcastle Theatre Royal. He/him

Book cover for the Routledge Companion to 20th-century British Theatre & Performance, volume 2.
The galleon from Neville Coghill's 1949 Tempest, "made of punts strapped together with the superstructure of the galleon built on top of them. It was poled along by among others Tom Chitty the novelist [Sir Thomas Willes Chitty, 3rd Baronet (born 1926), better known as Thomas Hinde]."
Handdrawn map by Bill Gaskill of Worcester College Lake
Dear Mr Fletcher-Watson, Memories are fallible at all times but this is my recollection. The duckboards just beneath the surface of the lake on which Ariel ran out across the water were roughly parallel to the audience [“halfway back”, handwritten]. Only the figure was lit from the side so the illusion of running on the water was very convincing. Charles then ran back to the path on the side of the lake and followed the curve of the path which led to the ramp at the back. This was built on scaffolding but how this was masked from the audience I don’t know. Charles ran up the ramp, again lit from the side and as he waved his last farewell the firework exploded and the other lights went out. I add a rough plan as I remember it. The boat on which we sailed away was made of punts strapped together with the superstructure of the galleon built on top of them. It was poled along by among others Tom Chitty the novelist. All the goddesses arrived by punts – one was Mary? Galbraith who wrote about it in the Oxford magazine not all that long ago with photos from the Tatler of 1949. I think I have both these; if you are in London I could show you. Caliban came out of a tank set into the lake. Other people connected with the production including Charles were at a celebration with us to mark the fiftieth anniversary in 1999. I suppose some of those are no longer with us. Nigel Davenport, who played Gonzalo died the other day. Bill Gaskill
Grainy image of Caliban in a submerged tank in Worcester College lake, titled One of the "quaint devices" for which the play calls in quantity. Caliban in the watery cradle by the aid of which he appeared to rise from the bottom of the lake.
[…] My own memory, for what it’s worth, is of Ariel running weightlessly across the lake into the distance while Bill Becker, as Caliban, arose from his lair – a tank sunk into the lake at the closest point to the spectators – and waved a farewell to his fellow spirit. As Charles Hodgson was graceful and fast moving, while Bill was twisted and clumsy, this moment of parting contact, as if between equals, was very touching – as though they were making contact for the first time at the moment of lasting separation […]
Irving Wardle via Wikimedia Commons. By John Thaxter - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10340679
A blurry sepia photograph of Puck walking on water from Titania's bower, from Neville Coghill's 1962 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Dear Mr Fletcher-Watson, I am replying to your letter (6 Jan) to my recently-deceased husband, Thomas Chitty, concerning the Worcester College ‘Tempest’. I also helped with the production, unofficially, and remember clearly that Ariel ran out along a wooden ramp, built out about 40 yds. into the lake. During the ensuing blackout, he ran back to the shore he had just left, unseen! Dear Charles! Yours sincerely Susan Chitty
Dramatis Personae from 'The Tempest'
Handwritten letter from Tom Stoppard: July 31. Dear Mr Fletcher-Watson, I’m afraid I wasn’t there. Peter Wood (director, now retired) described it to me. His address is: [REDACTED]
Sir Tom Stoppard at the opening night of 'Leopoldstadt' on Broadway. Image by Philip Romano via Wikimedia Commons.
Frontispiece to 'The Tempest' from the N. Rowe edition of 1709, showing a ship in the grip of a sea-storm, surrounded by spirits of the air, lightning flashes and wild waves.
"Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time for Ariel to say his farewell to the world of The Tempest, the evening had started to close in and there was some artificial lighting coming on. And as Ariel uttered his last speech, he turned and he ran across the grass, and he got to the edge of the lake and he just kept running across the top of the water — the producer having thoughtfully provided a kind of walkway an inch beneath the water. And you could see and you could hear the plish, plash as he ran away from you across the top of the lake, until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view. And as he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone. "When you look up the stage directions, it says, 'Exit Ariel.”
Whisky label: Craigellachie 17 year old