dracula - Sburnett

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

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

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