Moira Shearer

   The Old Vic presented a lavish and highly criticized production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Edinburgh Festival in late August and early September 1954. Robert Helpmann, the former Sadler’s Wells dancer portrayed Oberon and Moira Shearer played Titania in her first major dramatic role. The play ran for 2 weeks between August 31^st and September 11^th at the Empire Theatre.

   During this run, on September 6^th, 7^th, 9^th and 10^th, the Glyndebourne opera company presented the dance-drama, A Soldier’s Tale, by Igor Stravinsky. Helpmann played the devil and Shearer was the princess. As the play was staged at 11 am each day and at a different theatre, the King’s, conflicts with The Dream were avoided. However, for Shearer and Helpmann the schedule must have been challenging.

   The cast for the Tale was completed by Terence Longdon as the soldier and Anthony Nicholls as the narrator. Longdon was also part of the cast for the Dream in which he played Lysander.

   A small, elevated stage was erected on the larger stage at the King’s Theatre and most of the performance took place on it. To one side and at a lower level in an improvised “pit” sat the small “orchestra” which comprised a violin and six other instruments.

Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Terence Longdon on stage during a performance of A Soldier’s Tale at the Edinburgh Festival in September, 1954. Photographer unknown.

Most of the dialogue was provided by the narrator. The soldier and the devil were both speaking roles, but Shearer’s performance was limited to dance and mime. Helpmann created the choreography.

   The play generated almost no contemporary critical review. The one, anonymous, review that has survived apparently found it difficult to say anything ill about it.

   “Such a work calls for highly specialized performers who can act and dance, and here the cast could not have been bettered. Robert Helpmann, in various diabolic moods, gives an electrifying performance as the Devil, and Terence Longdon skilfully portrays the struggles of the pitiable soldier and his joy of winning the Princess. Moira Shearer is surely everyone’s dream of a fairytale Princess, and her exquisite performance is captivating”.

Moira Shearer as the Princess and Terence Longdon as the Soldier during a performance of A Soldier’s Tale in Edinburgh, September, 1954. Photographer unknown.

Sol Hurok, the American impresario who had underwritten the tour of the Dream in the US and Canada, seems to have agreed with the above assessment. The British trade Journal, The Stage, reported that he was considering presenting matinees of the Tale at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York during the upcoming tour of the Dream.

Sources.

The Stage, September 30^th , 1954.