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The Beginning :1974: How a Brummie Art Student Joined the Pip Simmons Theatre Group

How a Brummie Art Student Joined the Pip Simmons Theatre Group

Birmingham College of Art it’s 1969 a crowd of art students travel down to London which turns out to be great time to decamp. 1969 the year of free music concerts, The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, OZ magazine, Suck magazine Time Out, man lands on the moon & jobs are plentiful. Rod Beddall (my significant other) and I fall in with a theatre crowd at the infamous Oval House. Pip Simmons Theatre Group re-invented itself and are looking out for candidates. Chris Jordan (actor, composer musician with Pip Simmons Theatre Group (PSTG) meets Rod Beddall who can sing, dance, play the fool so is invited to join the group, I tag along after having had a taste of Theatre at the Oval house, had this chance and took it.….

A new life begins in 1974 : Life on the road with The Pip Simmons Theatre Group

Pip Simmons and Rudi Engelander

The group that re-formed was, with one or two exceptions, a company of new recruits and I was one of them.The company had re-invented itself in 1974 with a residency in Rotterdam which produced two so-called horror shows. One was a version of Dracula, the other An Die Musik, a true ‘horror story’. An Die Musik a disturbing representation of the Nazi’s extermination of the Jews. This was perhaps The Pip Simmons Theatre Group’s best-remembered work, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Holland from German occupation.

I performed with the group for 10 years. I had a camera. I took photos. I wrote postcards to my family, telling them what we were doing

Shows had no script, they were built out of improvisation, research and hard work.

Emil Wolk : a handstand on the roof of Milan Cathedral

Rod Beddall, the perfect candidate for Dracula, 6ft 2in a shaved head, he could sing, play guitar, piano and tin whistle. Rod was prepared to wear fishnet stockings & a leather jockstrap. The journey began, a couple of Art students from Birmingham in Rotterdam, a new company the re-invented Pip Simmons Theatre Group rehearsed & performed Dracula 1974 and for me, a leap in to the unknown….

L/R starting bottom row-Eric, Pip, Chris, Rudi, Olly, Sheila, Rowan, Laura, Rod, Emil, Nick, Fritz

12 Actors in Rotterdam :1974: An Die Musik and Dracula ☆ Rehearsals Begin

We are a group of 9 actors, one director, one lighting man, and one dramaturg, 2 Americans, 2 Brummies, and 1 Dutchman, 6 Londoners 1 German and 2 doves

Rehearsals start at an old warehouse in Zaargmolendrift down by the canal, we meet every morning at 10.30am no one is ever late ever even the mosquitos ! We finish at 6pm, every day apart from Saturday & Sunday, which we have off. Seven of us live in a place that used to be an office, we take it in turns to cook each evening. Five actors live in another place not too far from Central station. When we move in we have no furniture so all our furniture comes from the Theatre’s storage, relics from old productions. I write a postcard to my Mum letting her know all is fine.

Rod Beddall, shaved from head to toe in his Dracula outfit

I cut my teeth on Dracula the first of the 2 horror shows and my first stab at acting. I learned lots. I learned I could not sing & I could not remember lines. I was shy and self conscious, but I could scream and howl like a wolf, after all I was a vampire but this was not particularly impressive. If it wasn’t for a few kind words from the Mickery photographer Maria Austria, my fate with the Pip Simmons Theatre Group may well have ended here.

The next show the second of the 2 horror shows An Die Musik required no words so I made it through. Peter Oliver, father of the fringe who used to run the Oval House and myself, both none actors were finding our way so An Die Musik, the second of the two Rotterdam shows, suited us just fine.

Dracula Poster

Pip Simmons Theatre Group were well known for getting there kit off on stage so it had to happen at some point. I found the courage to bite the bullet to do it ! NUDITY ! the stuff of nightmares, the crossing of normal boundaries, but this theatre was not your normal theatre RADA style theatre, some would say this style of theatre was provocative and confrontational theatre, bold behaviour and commitment from all involved, sharing and caring especially An Die Musik’ the second ‘Horror’ show, an eye opener for me having led a sheltered life in the suburbs of Birmingham.

Fritz our German Actor improvising, with Rod as Drac behind

Chris Jordan wrote the music for every production, he had the patience of a saint teaching people like me to sing, only to ruin the beautiful songs he wrote. An Die Musik our second show totally different to Dracula began rehearsals, a disturbing representation of life in the prison camps, one of the SS troops amused himself by having an orchestra repeatedly play a melody while the other prisoners were forced to sing and dance. An orchestra had to be formed and it was Chris’s job to do this. He re-wrote Beethoven’s Ode to Joy for 2 tin whistles, an oboe, a tuba, 1 recorder, 1 guitar and 1 violin, me on the triangle and him guiding us all through it on the piano. It sounded strange and sad and piteous ! An Die Music was strange sad and piteous, we did our best to get it right. An die Musik And the Music began its long long long journey, I started to find my feet, I learned a lot in a very short time

An Die Musik poster

Rod Sheila & Rowan sharing skills in Zargmolendrift

An die Musik had an ending like no other, although I didn’t realise this at the time, this was only my second show. It ended with us playing the funeral march from a Beethoven Piano Sonata sitting nude on wooden boxes whilst the smoke enveloped us marking the end of the show. The director’s note when we rehearsed this last scene for the first time was simple: when you hear the hiss of the smoke machine, walk to the front of the stage, undress and fold your prisoner uniforms neatly (striped jackets with the yellow star) put them on the floor and go back to your place. If you don’t want to do that, thats fine, just walk offstage… no one person rehearing this show knew what the other was going to do, 8 of the 9 actors slowly undressed, returned to the wooden boxes sat down and played the funeral march in the nude, only one walked off and it wasn’t me.

Emil, Roderic, Pete backstage

This was a show of few props and few costumes. 8 beer crates, a piano, a bucket, a trapeze, 2 doves, an assortment of instruments, one Nazi uniform, an assortment of ragged black evening jackets, one Anne Frank dress and 8 shabby striped prison outfits each with a yellow star.

Sheila taking photo of Chris & Ben-dressing-backstage I.C.A London

All photos © Sheila Burnett

Le Festival d’ Avignon : 1975

An Die Musik goes to the Avignon Festival-Le Festival d’ Avignon 1975

& looking at this group photo you may well think we were on holiday, but it wasn’t so! We were working, we were there to perform An Die Musik. The Avignon festival was impressive, our dressing room is in a tent, this was the festivals 25th year. It was (and is) an international meeting place for the performing arts, Theatre, Dance, Music and… us.

Pip Simmons Theatre Group : An die Musik Avignon Festival 1975 Group Shot La Plage

Group shot on the beach-Emil, Olly, Rod, Ben, Pete, Pip, Roderic, Chris, Sheila and Rowan front

One the beach with Pete, Babette and Rod, with touring van in the background

Pete & Rod oggle Babette with touring van in the background

Paula, Roderic & Emil at breakfast with dove

Emil, Emil & Sheila, Roderic and Rod backstage, an actor prepares

Our festival stage is made of wood riddled with nails, our dressing room a tent with the mulchy aroma of damp grass, our show starts late about 9.00 we have a make-shift bar which is full every night, the festival audience are wild and young and exciting and I swear I saw Pierre Clementi. The nails in the stage wouldn’t usually matter except we have these carefully rehearsed ‘punishments’ & it is my turn to roll around in water on this improvised stage which tore my flesh. Next day Olly and I are sitting in the sunshine on the grass whilst he applied tiger balm to my shoulders to help them heal, a french couple walked by, they must have been in the audience, they spat out the words “so you call that theatre do you”

The so called ‘punishments’ are dolled out by our Nazi guard (Pete) The show starts with an an Air Raid Siren and a roll call. Everyone shuffles in to position and stands to attention. The set up is to entertain our audience, its Petes job as Nazi guard to make sure we do it well; a dance to Liszt’s Libestraum, a concert ‘Ode to Joy’ with a tin whistle 2 recorders and a Tuba, Rod did a strange routine bashing his head with 2 tin trays, Olly and Emil tell awful jokes, we all had our party piece; hang from a trapeze, endless buckets of cold water, we are picked on us for no reason, we don’t know who’s turn it’s going to be which creates the tension ! The physical demands are tough, we take it on the chin. Every one of us performing in this show realise the impact it has on our audience who feel culpable as they helplessly watch. This show is as hard to behold as it is to perform.

Avignon is beautiful, It’s no surprise that we take full advantage of every opportunity to visit the local wonders, The Camargue, The Pont du Gard, Orange … Ben was the person to be with, he knows all the best places to go. He has a map and we follow….

Peter Jon-field with Venus De Milo

We have a new Nazi guard played by a new recruit, Peter Jon-field a proper actor who had studied at E15, Fritz our original Nazi has left, he was German and didn’t want to be the Nazi guard, he argued with Pip …why me ! It was obvious to everyone why it had to be Fritz who could speak German, he made a great on stage guard, Pete Jon-field was even better, he scared us to death with his E15 training and kept us on our toes with our improvised punishments. We all decided on and carefully rehearsed these ‘punishments’ and took it in turns to do the really hard ones An Die Musik was a hard show to perform and even harder show to watch.

Rehearsals are in progress for the next show, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, an all singing all dancing show, we had to lighten up…..

All photos © Sheila Burnett

Dream Rehearsals and Paradise on Brown Sea Island: 1975

London-Harrow Road-Rehearsals Dream of a Ridiculous Man with Paradise on Brown Sea Island:1975

The Dream of the Ridiculous Man is based on a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Ridiculous man is on his way to kill himself and has a chance encounter with a young girl which prompts a life-changing vision of paradise. Roderick is our Ridiculous Man and I the young girl. Try as we might, the scene for paradise eluded us all. We are rehearsing at The Factory on the Harrow Rd W9, a day out to Brown Sea Island is planned.

Roderic, Emil, Rowan & Pete. Rehearsals at the Factory

Roderic Emil Rowan & Pete at the Factory, note Wolk Sucks on the wall in Rod’s hand

The rules for that day’s impro are to be nice to each other all day long. Food, alcohol and substances are part of the plan and we all bring our offerings for the feast. I bake a cake, Rod cooks a side of pork, Chris brings avocado pears. Ben brings cream cakes and so on. We even dress up for the occasion. The cream cakes eventually ends up like the classic gag in someones face, mine, but it’s good to get out of London, not sure we found paradise.

Rod and Ben in paradise

Pip and Chris in paradise

Rowen Olly & Emil in Paradise

Chris writes Corruption a rollicking stadium epic about temptation, corruption and damnation. This goes down well, we all love doing it, me and Rowan dress up in fishnets and hi heels, we taunt Roderic whist Olly strangled a cockerel.The cockerel comes in handy for most scenes and travels with us along with the doves, his name is Dave, the doves don’t have names. I have progressed to a clarinet and am doing Tune a Day and Olly the trombone, also doing Tune a Day, we being the beginners are the only ones without musical skills. Roderic is let off because he is the Ridiculous Man apart from that, his singing is worst than mine which takes some doing

Pete Pip and Sheila rehearsing corruption.

Roderic, Ben, Rod, Chris, Olly, Emil, Sheila, Rowan & Pete in paradise at the Factory.

Standing: Roderic Rod Chris Olly & Emil Sitting: Ben Sheila Rowan & Pete finally get paradise in rehearsals at the Factory

This really is an all singing all dancing show full of props and costumes. Everyone has at least 3 changes I was in charge of costumes, Rowan props, Peter Oliver in charge of doves and fowl, Rod and Rod the drivers in charge of the van, Emil in charge of his own wardrobe 5ft stilts and a huge cape. We all have a job to do in prep for the long tour planned for Oct 1975 – May 1976

All Photos © Sheila Burnett

Good versus evil, beauty versus corruption ☆ Oct 75 : May 76

An Die Musik and The Dream – SuperTour – Oct 75 / May 76

Touring begins in earnest. Rod isn’t just Dracula & Roderic isn’t just the Ridiculous Man. They are also Rod & Rod the Transport team who will be taking turns to drive the touring van for the next 8 months.. We are about to embark on a tour starting in the UK, traveling up north and playing in the black box spaces of provincial receiving Theatres as we go. We will eventually reach Folkestone and board the Ferry to Dieppe to continue our tour. Rod and Rod will cover thousands of miles in the UK & Europe. Pip sells his Red Mercedes-Benz 170 convertible for a Volvo. This is just the beginning

Rod & Rod transport team

Pip Simmons-The Boss

The Dream of the Ridiculous Man is untested, an audience is needed. Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, always a very good place to start. Much work to do, the Dream in it’s infancy needing to be kicked in to shape, a 90 minute show with endless props, costume changes loads of music and Emil. Emil with his many circus gifts could not control his cloak, that cloak got stuck in the wings or the coffin or a wooden prop tree anything that came between him and his 6 ft cloak. His entrance firing a gun (prop) on his 6 ft stilts as Doc suicide was impressive, but not when he was stuck to the furniture . Much work needed to make this show shape up. An Die Musik can look after itself, this is a tour of both the Dream and An Die Musik, one fun, the other not fun.

Emil Wolk – Doc Suicide rehearsing his entrance

The Dream premiere can’t have been so bad looking at Chris Stuart’s review from The Carmarthen Times :

“The Pip Simmons Theatre Group is celebrated for its ability to lift people’s minds out of their earth bound skulls & suspend them tantalisingly within some wholly unique realm of the imagination. Deep down in its soul, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man deals with basic confrontations. Good versus evil, beauty versus corruption, consciousness versus unconsciousness & cruelty versus compassion. Rarely can the process of mental transplantation be so complete & so inescapably riveting as in their latest piece which premiered at the Chapter Arts Centre last night.”

Our tour takes us through Birmingham where my Mum and Dad live. An Die Musik is scheduled to play and I’m not quite sure what to tell Mum and Dad, after all, their daughter is on stage, this hasn’t happened in our family before. I visit home for afternoon tea and Mum has baked a coconut cake for the company. I have to tell them that An Die Musik is not what you would call a traditional play. I have to tell them that we all get gassed to death with no clothes on, its not an easy conversation. Dad says, I’ll go if your Mum goes, and Mum says, I’ll go if your Dad goes. They wisely decided to stay at home, everyone really enjoyed the coconut cake and Mum kept the reviews. I think my brother came, we didn’t talk about it much.

Here I am in my home town touring with a traveling theatre company. I had left Birmingham 6 years ago 1969 fresh out of Art school to find work in London. My sights were set on book illustration, I was a waitress a washer upper and a filing clerk until a proper job came along. Bingo ! I work four years in Fleet Street; a great job in the art department of the recently launched Sun Newspaper, a UK team were invited to go to an auntie news paper in New York, I still have the letter but this was not to be ! a swerve ball with mighty force came my way in the guise of Pip Simmons Theatre Group. My Significant other Rod Beddall had planned to go with the group to Rotterdam cast as Dracula; the company were looking for a female vampire. I bore an uncanny likeness to Lou Jeffrey who performed in the original group, Lou couldn’t go to Rotterdam …… would I….. could I ….. dare I ….. after all, acting experience not required.

The Pip Simmons Theatre Group arrive at Birmingham Arts Lab October 1975 this is just the beginning, 4 years and seven shows later Mum and Dad get to see their daughter in a show suitable for parents

All photos © Sheila Burnett

The Tour Continues: Stars and Fire

The Tour Continues: UK & Europe

We continue to kick Dream in to shape. Me and Rowan do our corruption backward strip entering stage together me stage left, Rowan stage right, both nudey emerging from smoke pumping from the smoke machine. This moment looks great with Dick Johnson’s brilliant lighting. Rowan sings ‘He was Despised’ like a choir boy whilst I exit stage left at 100 miles per hour to jump out of my fishnets and change into the star costume set backstage earlier. I cover myself in baby oil and glitter, light a sparkler (no strict fire regulations back in the day) meanwhile the backstage techies like to look on whilst this all takes place…

I dash round the entire theatre having made sure earlier that no doors will be locked so I can make an entrance from back of auditorium. I rush headlong through the audience towards the stage with sparkler on fire, Rowan sings ‘I see a star’ Olly is waiting for me on stage with Dave the cockerel ready to lift me on to the trapeze. This it’s done & dusted in about 3 mins, and coincides with the doves being let free hopefully landing on Roderic who is hanging from a huge cross centre stage.

Sheila backstage in star costume, tutu bought in an Oxfam shop

We do both shows alternatively, An Die Musik still packs a punch where ever we go, you love it or you hate it. We all stay in same B & B usually for a week. Occasionally the owner will ask if he can come and see the show, we get them tickets, so the Hotel owner and his wife turn up to see An Die Musik thinking they are going to see a proper play with words and acting. We get our notes next morning as he serves us breakfast, we all snigger in to our eggs and bacon. This man did NOT like this show, and as for you, he said pointing at me ….. you look better with your clothes ON ! …… That has to be the worst review I ever did have. He was right but he didn’t have to tell me.

Robert Cushman 1975 An Die Musik is equivocally my most terrifying theatrical experience –

The boys play football in Sheffield, this is Pete

If more than 2 members of the company are reading the same book, you can bet your life it’s because it may be the next show (we have to prepare for next year!) Here Ben and Rod are both reading Billy Bud in the back of the van (Roderics turn to drive) So Billy Bud is on the agenda. Ben would make a beautiful Bud, after all he has just finished playing Rocky in the Rocky Horror Show. Both Rod and Ben have the gift of being able to blow, strum or bang any instrument and make it sound good. Rowan and Pete on vocals, Chris moog and piano & Emil on gun (prop) Me Roderic and Olly make other noises. Olly is Peter Oliver ‘father of the fringe’ founder of The Oval House and good at playing the frail old man even though he is only 40 and fitter than the rest of us.

Ben Bazell & Rod Beddall back of the touring van reading Billy Bud

Roderick is born to play The Ridiculous Man with his silly grin and bambi eyes, he gets good reviews. Every new theatre we have to practice every entrance exit, we practice our Tai Chi to make it perfect, we practice the songs, we all love doing ‘Corruption’ we practice paradise and have to be aware of the new venues for every space is different. I tripped over the coffin last night, felt a fool, it was not where I expected it to be, got told off

Peter Ansorge: review: Plays and Players, Oval House 1976 …The Ridiculous Man (Roderic Leigh) is saved by a vision of Paradise just at the moment he is contemplating suicide. Leigh complete with nightcap and a terrorised gaze, confronts death in the murderous shape of a gigantic Emil Wolk on stilts-who ragingly insists that both actor and audience face complete dispare and self destruction with a traumatic Nietzshean drive and panache. Leigh eventually crucifies himself against a meccano cross with a smile of delighted doomed glee. Chris Jordan’s score is conceived as nothing less than a complete rock opera, it contributes a major part to the success of the piece …….

Robert Cushman : review: The Observer 1975 .. In the middle of the dream, blending wit and enchantment, is the most idyllic tableau to be found on the London stage: a Polynesian paradise, represented by palm, bare breasted girls, a couple of doves, a fruit vendor & zany but harmonious additions, an old man knitting in a deck chair and a live chicken. The scene of course is created only to be destroyed would be fair enough except that the cynicism is cranked up in excess of the situation.

Roderic and Rowan-Bourge Cathedral

And now we pack the van and off to Europe

All photos © Sheila Burnett

A Stage stormed! l’horreur!

A Stage stormed! l’horreur!

It was bound to happen. Pip predicted it might happen, It happened in Paris. We were headlined Concert classique à Dachau par le Pip Simmons Theatre Group de Londres, Schubert,Liszt,Beethovan au pays de l’horreur

An Die Musik has gained a reputation and is sold out for a week, every seat is taken. The play starts as the audience arrive, Rod in his stripe prison jacket and yellow star plays the accordion whilst our audience take to their seats. We start the first act with a dumb show melodrama, a caricature of Jewish life around the family table. I represent Anne Frank and Emil is my Dad, Roderic is Mum and Pete is the brother. Olly in Nazi uniform serves us doves to eat whilst doing wicked things to me. This all takes place whilst the concentration camp orchestra, Chris, Rod, Rowan & Ben play a haunting operetta: No More! No More! No More! The sound of an air raid siren marks the end of Part 1 and as the siren screams we leave the stage and return for Part 2. Pete is now the Nazi guard and all of us are in our raggedy uniforms with the yellow star.

The lights come on, shocking and bright after the darkness of Part 1 and this is when the stage is stormed. A strategy had been talked about in case this should ever happen, we only had to do it this once. Pete our prison guard orders us all to stand in a line, and then orders us off the stage which we did in complete silence. Emil and I dashed up to the rafters looking down on the stage to see what was going on. We watched as about 20 angry French students rant and rave le français shouting this show is glorified fascism on the stage below us, we found out more later …..

Olly Rod & Pete

Ian Brown, artistic Director-West Yorkshire Playhouse was in the audience that night & he wrote ………

During this performance, the stage was stormed by what I presume was a radical anti-fascist group who thought the play was about glorified fascism. There were about 15 of them and had some violent arguments onstage with the management before the audience was ushered out.Sometimes when you see radical things onstage, you do wonder whether anyone will stand up and say, “ actually, I’ve had enough of this, you should be ashamed of yourselves” Odd thing about this protest, It actually felt quite fascist! Its a very strange sensation when real life meets theatre. I was very mindful of the actors who were milling in the foyer with us.

Anna Furse-Professor of Theatre also in the audience remembers …..

The show left an indelible mark on me. It continues to make me reflect on the ethics of representation, what we ask people to look at and why – the basis of the whole protest in Paris in fact. I go to the Recamier to see Pip Simmons Theatre Group, minutes in protestors throw paper on stage and rush it, shouting to the audience to stop the performance. People start fighting. Three rows ahead an elderly man is hit and I hear him call out: but I’m Jewish. I was there!” The safety curtain comes down. Show cancelled. We are reimbursed & invited back a few days later where I join the post show gathering, down in some dark place. (This is the theatre bar which is in the basement )

The stage looks like this after every show before being re-set

The stage looks like this setting up

Pip and Pete a picnic in the Belgium hills, we are lucky guests, first time I have goat cheese

Jenny Topper at that time the artistic Director of Hampstead Theatre chose An Die Music for Dramatic Moments: 26 for the Art/theatre Guardian 1996:

With a devastating lack of sentimentality, the company explored the fate of those inmates of a nameless concentration camp who, having been made the fools and play-things of the SS, were finally forced to play themselves to their deaths. I remember the rigorous selflessness of the actors (as near to self abasement as you would dare to go) and their austere dignity as naked and playing their instruments, they entered the gas chamber.I remember the hopeless beauty of the music-Schubert & Beethoven & the emotional and ethical challenges the piece presented to its audience.

Later on in the tour, larking around backstage

Photos taken backstage of our slowly disintegrating outfits. I had 2 Anna Frank dresses and alternated them, the stripes were interchangeable

Another night in Paris, Emil is ill, he can’t do the show and has to stay in bed, doctors orders. Me panic, what can I do without Emil, he is my Dad, he leads I follow, my world is with my Dad and I will be on my own. We all have our little chairs with sawn off legs for the first half, the dumb show. Pip puts a photo of Emil on the table where Dad is supposed to sit and talks me through it. This is the night it happens, I suddenly get it. I am on my own, no one to rely on, I am am free to roam the stage like an eerie dark forest. Roderic (Mum) reaches out to bring me back to my little chair and I stay in this magic place for 90 minutes. Pip pinches my cheek after the show and says Muzzeltoff and Emil is really pissed off that we have done one of our best without him.

Occasionally this show takes its toll on us, thankfully never all at the same time, I had someone come up to me after the show when it had been my turn to hang naked from the trapeze only to say ‘I hate you for doing that’ you shrug it off because I don’t hate me for doing it, the trapeze exercise was random, someone different each night, it looked worst than it was, a dramatic devise that never fails to shock, not uncommon in the 70’s. We do this show An Die Musik 159 times, sometimes it is so brilliant but sometimes in a matinée and a small audience, the exposure is cruel, you never know which way it’s going to go, sometimes we do a routine performance just to get through it, we all know how to do this.

Ben Bazell tuning up backstage

All photos © Sheila Burnett

The Mickery Theatre-Amsterdam : An Attitude, Not a Place!

Next stop:

The Mickery, Amsterdam, an old cinema converted into a black box. Renowned for presenting obscure, profound international avant-garde theatre under its noted director, Ritsaert ten Cate.

The Mickery Theatre was in a different time zone. It had its own magazine and its own doctor, its own Alsation Tromp (named after a brand of Dutch gin) and production photographers Maria Austria and later Bob Van Danzig who were able like magic to conjure up photos taken in the darkest and most challenging of theatre lighting.

The Mickery also had its own special fragrance, a mixture of canals, beer and strong shag. Strong shag the roll up tobacco of choice, it hung in the air and whatever time of day you arrived, you could still smell the smoke from the night before. Everyone smoked, maybe Emil didn’t smoke. There were two Pinball machines at the back of the dark bar; it was always dark at the Mickery.

We watched and performed more theatre here than anywhere. ‘The Mickery was not a place but an attitude’ and so it was here An Die Musik arrived, a show that commemorated the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Holland. The house of Anne Frank was nearby … we had an audience, an amazing audience, but then PSTG always did at the Mickery Theatre

Pieter Mickery Barman, open all day plus freshly squeezed orange juice on demand

Pieter: Mickery barman, open all day with freshly squeezed orange juice on demand & Heineken the rest of the time

Flashback: My first time in Amsterdam, first time at the Mickery and first time I met Pip Simmons

The show is Dave and Goliath by Nice Pussy 1973

Nice Pussy was formed by two former members of The Pip Simmons Theatre Group; Chris Jordan and Warren Hooper plus newcomer Rod Beddall. I was girl Friday of the group, I did costume, props & sound. I had my first passport and my first experience of touring, a small tour with an Old Ambulance for the equipment and a Mini Moke. My first time in Amsterdam, my first time at the Mickery Theatre. Dave & Goliath were performing, It was a matinee; not many people showed up. I was upstairs in the wide dark Mickery lighting booth doing the sound and Pip arrived unannounced, put his finger to mouth shush. So this is Pip Simmons: hair, mustachio, ciggie, big white afghan coat, red Merc parked outside!

The boys didn’t know he was in, Pip was checking Rod out to see if he would make a good Dracula. Chris Jordan writer of all PSTG music and founder member had suggested Rod Beddall as Dracula for the forming of the new group. That’s how it happened back in the day. This bloke Rod is big, bald, plays all instruments, can sing and eat raw chicken giblets. He got the job! and I his missus came too this time the following year meanwhile, I was just Girl Friday

Rod Beddall, Chris Jordan, Warren Hooper

Nice Pussy outside the Mickery Theatre, I didn’t like the name, the other choices were worst

Flash forward to 1976: An Die Musik, a show that is as difficult to watch as it is to do.

We are lucky to have the unending hospitality from people who understand and sympathise with the play. During the big freeze of 1976, we are invited to go ice skating by the Mickery Administrator, Otto. We have ice skating boots, are fed and warm and then off we go skating on the Prinsengacht Canal.

Rod, Emil, Rowan & Sheila

Ben Bazell, a former Rocky in the Rocky Horror Picture Show remembers…

“I remember this photo very well. Tim was just two years old, having spent his birthday travelling from Paris, past Brussels and on to A’dam. Catherine and Tim had been with us for about five weeks. One memory from this time was that the group – despite our public persona were so kind and indulgent. Not everyone’s idea of fun to have a toddler along on tour, I’m sure. Tim really enjoyed their company at the breakfast table and we got the occasional offer from group members to take him out in his sturdy Silver Cross pushchair. On this day I think you and Rod and Dick had agreed to take Tim out on a little jaunt to give Catherine and me a bit of a break. Looking at the picture reminds me too of how cold it was. It seemed everyone had some skates somewhere…”

Ben, Rod, Cathy, Richard and Tim in the pram outside the Museum Hotel

Rudi Engelander, theatre critic, dramaturg & friend of the Mickery, born in the Netherlands, who had the idea for An Die Musik which Pip based the show on

An extract from an interview:

“The Nature of collaboration within the Pip Simmons Theatre Group. Pip – he never directed in the sense of do this or that – he gave great responsibility to the actors to fill in in whatever they were doing… and he would look at the total picture and the pacing. But actors have always had a great independence in this work. Scripts emerged – I mean both production and script emerged, [it] was developed, while going along really. He was the final arbiter of everything there of course – the theatre group was called Pip Simmons Theatre Group, as simple as that …. And everybody enjoyed it because they knew that working with him they would have a great time and would probably make some work that’s worthwhile performing.”

PIP SIMMONS THEATRE GROUP ARCHIVE PHOTOS © SHEILA BURNETT DRACULA REHEARSALS SAGMOLENDRIFT & VOORSCHOTERLAAN ROTTERDAM - AUGUST 1974 PIP SIMMONS RUDI ENGELANDER

Pip Simmons and Rudi Engelander.

Sunday Times Review 1975 “….a show within a show, ostensibly a musical entertainment taking place in a concentration camp. The concert party consisting of prisoners performing under the threatening baton of a Nazi guard begins with a short ‘operetta’ entitled ‘The Dream of Anne Frank’. The final image imprints itself indelibly, the doomed musicians seem to sit on the clouds like The Heavenly host in a Giotto painting. Hatred has been purged. Simmons here surpasses Grotowski.”

We do 159 performances of An Die Musik, the last being May 1976 in a Danish shopping centre

Oslo or bust ……… 1975 melts in to 1976

‘Keep on Smiling ……. 1975 melts in to 1976

The days and dates begin to merge. I carry a diary with me; I look at it frequently. I buy a road atlas of Europe so I know where we are going, what border are we crossing, what country are we in. It’s getting colder, we are on the way to Oslo. This is a long journey driving from Denmark. Many ferries; a cold, cold, long, dark journey. It begins to snow, we are now off the autobahn, we are on a mountain road. How does Rod know the way? No Satnav … he just hunkers down and drives and drives.

It’s very quiet in the cabin, unusual! Someone is usually larking about. Vision is nil, the windscreen wipers thunk, thunk, thunk the snow away as it piles up on the windscreen. Rod’s knuckles are white clutching the steering wheel. I’m sitting next to him, concentration is visceral.

I hear a tiny mumbling coming from someone, it’s Chris. Is he praying? It’s the only sound in the cab apart from the windscreen wipers. Chris is very quietly saying some verse. I think we are all going to die, and can feel my heart almost stop. Is that a deer ? No it’s an elk. Rod swerves and navigates the entire crew, the entire sets of 2 shows, a cockerel and 3 doves. Nobody dies. We get there, we arrive in Oslo. It’s late, it’s dark, it’s cold. We need a drink, the hotel is closed for drink. Not a sip.. No food, nothing till breakfast. We go to our rooms. I hug the radiator and wait until breakfast.

Chris in the Gustav Vigeland Sculpture Park, Oslo.

(an extract from unknown review) The Dream of the Ridiculous Man opens with Chris Jordan’s music – ‘Among the audience, English tramps wander around silently, they have a shifty look about them, a menacing smile on the lips suggesting they are about to ask for charity, on a screen, we see the face of a terrified young man, gentle music is playing, a girl in an old raincoat too big, waits at the front’

and we, the company, do our Tai Chi movements in our tatty raincoats, singing ‘its hard to be the only one who knows the truth …….’Oh the joy of doing this show. Meanwhile our sister show, An die Musik, is forever there as we alternate both shows on the 1975-76 tour. Pip drives separately with Dick Johnson our lighting man ahead of us in the van loaded with two shows on the the next venue.These are our venues, we manage to get home for Christmas 1975 and then continue the tour till May 1976.

United Kingdom: Oval House, ICA, Nuffield Theatre Southampton, Brum Studio Birmingham, Haymarket Leicester, Gulbenkian Theatre Newcastle, Crucible Sheffield, Leeds University, Gardner Centre Brighton, York Arts Centre, Exeter Northcott, University of Bradford, Bingley College, Bristol University, Lancaster University, Rochdale, University of Warwick, Norwich, Canterbury, Oxford, Nottingham University, Winchester, Cheltenham, Sunderland, Warrington, Leamington, Chapter Arts Cardiff, Glasgow Citizens. Europe: France: Nancy, Paris, Nice, Avignon, Bordeaux, Cannes, Aix-en-Provence, Caen, Amiens, Nevers, Grenoble, Macon, Tours, Sceaux, Dijon, Douai, Mulhouse, Thonon-les-Bains, Lyons, Aurillac, Chartres, Chambéry, Béziers, Bourges, Grasse, Lille, Mende, Privas. Italy: Milan, Rome. Germany: Hamburg, Munich, Bonn, Cologne. Belgium: Brussels, Antwerp. Holland: Mickery Theatre Amsterdam, Piccolo Theater Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Groningen, Enschede, Tilburg, Eindhoven, Apeldoorn, Nijmegen, Leiden, Haarlem, Dordrecht. Sweden: Stockholm, Östersund. Denmark: Holstebro, Copenhagen, Herning, Louisiana, Viborg, Odense, Aalborg, Tastrup, Aarhus, Kolding, Hillerod. Norway: Stavanger, Oslo.

The travel arrangements worked okay most of the time, except Ben remembers this: It’s breakfast time on the day of departure from Munich. We have two vehicles, it is my turn to ride with Pip! At the end of breks I go upstairs to my room to get my stuff and when I come down the bus is gone – no probs, so I sit and wait for Pip to appear. It is about fifteen minutes before I realise that Pip has left too! So, here I am in Munich, some decades before the advent of mobile phones, with no way of letting anyone know where I am and no way of knowing where everyone else is headed. All I know is that they’re going to Paris, but I have no idea which theatre or which hotel. I have enough money (just) to get to Paris, but what to do then?

I look at a map and see that they must cross into France just outside Strasbourg. I grab my bag and hotfoot to the Hauptbahnof. Single to Strasbourg please! I’ve already lost a bit of time by the time the train leaves, but reckon I should just be able to head them off at the pass! On arrival at Strasbourg, I jump into a cab ‘a la frontiere – vite, s’il vous plait’. The cabbie obliges – just as well. As we pull up at the crossing, the tour van miraculously appears. Grab bag, run towards van and get on. ‘Oh hi Ben, where’s Pip’ is the underwhelming reaction. Where indeed? Turns out that both parties thought I was with the other one. Later, I mentioned to Pip that he’d left me in Munich – I think he replied with a grunt.

Ben Backstage The Dream

The unending hospitality continues. An Die Musik, this show never fails to make generous folk want to look after us. The entire group is invited to the mountain house of a Belgium Millionaire, a friend of the theatre. I have goat cheese for the first time. Goat cheese wrapped in vine leaves. The wine runs freely only I have a boil on my bum and cystitis. I am on antibiotics and firmly told no alcohol … a bummer, but Pete found something nice in the van for me. Whilst everyone else drinks the drink, I smoke the smoke. You may be thinking it is the life of Riley, dining al fresco, but touring is physically demanding, and these diversions are welcome. At home in UK the company played to 100-200 seat venues and here in Europe to 500-1000 seat venues. Europe appear to appreciate this hybrid experimental/political theatre and the company was embraced.

Al fresco picnic, mountain home of a millionaire.

Sheila and Pete

Rowan remembers touring as a juxtaposition of squalor and luxury

We passed by stunning places in our claustrophobic customised Mercedes van filled with smoke and hangovers (only the alpha males allowed to drive). We ate in the greasiest of cafes, huddled into an infinity of hostelries, slunk into the darkest of dives after hours and stayed in some quite nice hotels. When Ben Bazell was there with his guide book he ensured our journeys were broken with enlightenment and culture – Is that how we ended up on Lake Como? I’d forgotten I’d ever been there. I remember though staying in an unusually comfortable hotel in Switzerland where we were brought breakfast in bed – maybe they didn’t want a scruffy crew like us in the dining room. I had a room to myself overlooking a lake and the coffee was the best ever.

Rowan – Lake Como.

Even though we have many venues, we sometimes have a week to travel. Roderic who speaks fluent French is in charge of Les Routiers the lunchtime stop to refresh when in France. Chris speaks a bit of German although no goat cheese wrapped in vine leaves in Germany. A takometer is fitted in to the cabin so driving is limited to the hours takometer allows. The van finds plenty to occupy en route the occasional zoo, cave, seaside or lake.

Rod and Rod look after the touring machine.

I, being wardrobe mistress, have to find a launderette. We have loads of those in the UK and can usually find one somewhere in Europe; and joy of joys, the occasional theatre offers this service, only I don’t usually find out till too late.In Oslo, not only is a bottle of whisky £100 but no laundrettes, none. The hotel says we have a laundering service, I reluctantly hand over a rancid bag of An die Musik costumes. Can’t even call them costumes, they are rags. The rags are returned beautifully laundered, each bandage (yes bandage in plural, many bandages) all lovingly pressed with a little tag with the name of the establishment. My Anne Frank dress has never looked lovelier, the little white collar starched and pressed and as for the boys grubby long johns full of holes, all carefully pressed and folded. What must have they thought of this strange tribe of English people who wear such rags. The bill was phenomenal, the price of a washing machine.

Much needed van stop, Chris and Roderic.

I’m fluent in only my mother tongue. I’m proud that I am now able to say please and thank you in most languages. I speak French, for instance I can say, hello, goodbye, good morning good night, another wine please, another beer please, another Croque Monsieur please and how much is that please, which I think is pretty good

Sgeila dressed to the nines to visit the Peking Opera-Paris 1976

Sheila dressed to the nines for a visit to La Scala Milan

And so 1975 melts in to 1976. The tour continues, we drive, unload, do show, load van, hotel, sleep, have days off, sometimes weeks when a show falls through, have some great food and some awful food, get bored, read books, explore cities, towns and whatever comes our way. We get used to the border crossings as Chris, affectionately called the carnet führer, collects our passports and then spends ages in customs explaining why we have a cockerel dove and a gun (prop) in the back of the van. Sometimes we are waved through, sometimes we are suspiciously inspected and patrolled and searched.

We do our last An Die Musik, we have performed this extraordinary show 159 times, and now we say goodbye to it in an old converted cinema housed in a shopping centre somewhere in the Danish suburbs

Tolling bells, howling dogs, creaking coffins: 1976

New tour new show starting in UK – Dracula rises from the dead 1976

I am a vampire lying in a coffin with the lid down wearing a vampire nighty covered in stage blood, a gloopy combination of glycerine and cochineal. It is the interval of Dracula 2. I hear the audience return, shuffling and mumbling; no one knows I’m here, all they see is a coffin on the stage. We have resurrected Dracula to be a companion show to tour with The Dream of the Ridiculous Man. This is York at York Arts Centre, a traverse space seating 200. The seats, some of them old pews are close together. York Arts Centre are really game and ring the old church bell 13 times before each performance to herald the arrival of Dracula!

Rod Beddall-Dracula rehearsals Silverthorne Rd Battersea 1976

It’s a matinee. We have an audience of school boys, 16-year-olds on a trip to the theatre. I lie in this coffin undetected for about 10 minutes. I am the undead, I have been staked through the heart, a fully formed vampire about to leap out of the coffin screaming for blood. I wait for my cue and when everyone is settled, I leap from my coffin howling. To my horror and their delight I over step my mark, and in my torn vampire nighty find myself face-to-face jumping in to the laps of a row of schoolboys from a catholic public school. I can see the whites of there wide innocent eyes; they can’t believe their luck and after the show, in the caffe bar, I am surrounded by eager schoolboys who want to know more about Bram Stoker.

Sheila & Chris backstage, Dracula – Drac/Dream tour

Row back to Silverthorne Rd, Battersea, rehearsals Summer 1976. Prepping a new tour a new show. We rehearse Mahagony… no good! Billy Bud, no good ! The Hunting of the Snark no good ! nothing works. Rowan leaves, Meirav Gary arrives and steps seamlessly into Rowan’s shoes. Dracula 1 the first show that us, the newly formed Pip Simmons Group did Rotterdam 1974 is resurrected. Welcome Drac 2 a no frills version that can travel with The Dream. A skip full of costumes is brought out of storage. Rod’s studded, petrified cod piece still in one piece. Rod shaves his head and struts his stuff in fishnets. Out come the swooshy cloaks and the vampire see-through nightgowns for the girlies, the straitjacket for Pete, the lunatic Renfield, and anything else that can be brushed down and reused.

Emil (Dr Seward) improvise more and more ingenious ways to piss each off as Emil becomes a bug-eyed Dr Strangelove and Pete a balmy fly-eating bozo.

Emil (Dr Seward) improvise more and more ingenious ways to piss each other off as Emil becomes a bug-eyed Dr Strangelove and Pete ( Renfield) a balmy fly-eating bozo. Rehearsals Silverthorne Rd Summer 1976

Dracula 2 is honed, songs re-learned, new coffin made, The Dream of the Ridiculous Man re-rehearsed, Tai Chi practiced with Meirave The doves get to play both shows, Dave the Cockerel, just the one. Two months rehearsal and we are ready to go. A well-oiled machine of nine actors, one director, one lighting designer, Joan Oliver (admin) one customised Mercedes van and the Volvo. I look after costume (one skip) Meirav (props in another skip) Ollie (doves and cockerel) Chris (all things electrical) Emil (all of his contraptions used in both shows) Rod and Rod load and unload the van, everyone looks after their own equipment and every able bodied member of the company helps lug skips, boxes, sets and livestock from van to stage, stage to van. The UK tour begins

Rod & Rod transport team

continued on :

Topless Shock on School Trip

The Beginning :1974: How a Brummie Art Student Joined the Pip Simmons Theatre Group

12 Actors in Rotterdam :1974: An Die Musik and Dracula ☆ Rehearsals Begin

We are a group of 9 actors, one director, one lighting man, and one dramaturg, 2 Americans, 2 Brummies, and 1 Dutchman, 6 Londoners 1 German and 2 doves

Le Festival d’ Avignon : 1975

An Die Musik goes to the Avignon Festival-Le Festival d’ Avignon 1975

Dream Rehearsals and Paradise on Brown Sea Island: 1975

Good versus evil, beauty versus corruption ☆ Oct 75 : May 76

The Tour Continues: Stars and Fire

A Stage stormed! l’horreur!

The Mickery Theatre-Amsterdam : An Attitude, Not a Place!

Next stop:

The Mickery, Amsterdam, an old cinema converted into a black box. Renowned for presenting obscure, profound international avant-garde theatre under its noted director, Ritsaert ten Cate.

Flashback: My first time in Amsterdam, first time at the Mickery and first time I met Pip Simmons

The show is Dave and Goliath by Nice Pussy 1973

Flash forward to 1976: An Die Musik, a show that is as difficult to watch as it is to do.

Ben Bazell, a former Rocky in the Rocky Horror Picture Show remembers…

Rudi Engelander, theatre critic, dramaturg & friend of the Mickery, born in the Netherlands, who had the idea for An Die Musik which Pip based the show on

We do 159 performances of An Die Musik, the last being May 1976 in a Danish shopping centre

Oslo or bust ……… 1975 melts in to 1976

‘Keep on Smiling ……. 1975 melts in to 1976

Tolling bells, howling dogs, creaking coffins: 1976

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