Another Christmas at Bell House:
A Brush With Art 

reviewed by Jane Jones

 

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How do you set a scene, introduce the audience to your characters and tell a story, all in the space of 15 minutes? Well, this past weekend’s A Brush with Art at Bell House managed to do so four times with four very different stories. The basic premise, proposed by Brian Green, was that various artists from different eras had had a connection with Dulwich. As usual with the Bell House Christmas shows the audience was divided into four groups and promenaded from room to room to watch the individual plays.

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In no particular order…

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Under Milkwood? featured Dylan Thomas (Mark Kelleher) and fellow Welshman and artist Alfred Janes (Andy Way), who briefly shared rooms in Earls Court in the 1930s, both actors adopting creditable Welsh accents. Thomas brings future wife Caitlin (Judy Douglas) to the lodgings for a drink against the rules of the landlady (Tracy Brook), and together the four actors provide a lively and entertaining snapshot of the bohemian life of this much-loved poet. It seems that Thomas was a regular visitor to the Half Moon pub after watching London Irish play rugby at Herne Hill Velodrome – who knew! Writer/director Brian Green used the clever device of Thomas being questioned by Janes to practice his interviewing technique in order to provide information on the poet’s background and works. And could the fact that he stayed with a friend in Milkwood Road have something to do with the title of his most famous work…?

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Anyone for Tennis? was written and directed by Gill Daly from an idea by Jill Alexander. This jaunty title somewhat belied the story of emotional entanglement between artists Ben and Winifred Nicholson (played by George Brooke-Smith and Heather Wilcox) and sculptor Barbara Hepworth (Katrina Rublowski). Narrated by Hepworth, whose sculpture Two Forms (Divided Circle) was stolen from Dulwich Park in 2011 and presumed melted down for scrap, the play provided a condensed account of the Nicholson’s marriage (they lived briefly near Dulwich Common), the championing of Ben Nicholson by businessman and art patron Marcus Brumwell (James Ward-Parrish) from early on in his career in the 1920s, and the marriage of Brumwell to tennis champion Irene Strachan (a believably sporty Elise Sorenson). Ben later left Winifred and their three children after meeting Barabara Hepworth, whom he later married (and divorced). Hepworth rather wistfully concludes that for artists, their art must take precedence over everything – even their families. By contrast, Brumwell remained married to Irene and went on to become a hugely influential figure in British art and advertising. The actors coped well with the cramped space and rapidly changing scenes, but so much biographical ground was covered in such a short time that one was left wanting to know more about these characters.

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Art for Art’s Sake?, written and directed by John Hedley, took us back to 1878 to the famous libel case brought by artist James Whistler against art critic John Ruskin, long-term resident of Denmark Hill, who had written a stinging review of Whistler’s Nocturne in Black and Gold. Hugh Blake-James convincingly portrayed the rather uptight polymath Ruskin with his strongly-held views on the purpose of art, in contrast to the modernist Whistler, played with appropriate flamboyance by Thys Dry. It was an entertaining conceit to have the audience as part of the court, instructed to “All rise” by Marcia Bennie, as a very credible usher, each time the judge (John Hedley) entered and left the court, and casting their votes at the end. Ruskin was, in actual fact, too ill to attend court and was represented by his friend Edward Burne-Jones, but this was entirely understandable artistic licence in the service of drama. Ruskin lost the case, but Whistler was only awarded damages of one farthing.

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And finally, in Frith and Froth, writer/director Liz Nicholson gave us a contemporary and humorous take on the changing fashions in life and art through the figure of Victorian painter William Frith, who lived for a time in Sydenham Rise. Actor William arrives for rehearsal where he is playing Frith in a play about his painting Derby Day, which was phenomenally popular in its day. But rather like the views of Ruskin, Frith’s style later fell out of favour as the world moved on. Roger Orr instantly won over the audience as grumpy William complaining about local transport problems (which caused a ripple of recognition), before the arrival of his director (played by Imogen Lewis with the right degree of forbearance). The news that a local influencer is coming along for some Instagrammable content does not go down well with William. Lizzie Tippetts made Barbara suitably irritating, but, in the end, she is able to win over William by helping him locate his lost dog through her followers on social media that he had been so ready to scorn.

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The writers are to be applauded for finding four such different and imaginative treatments for these artistic subjects. The links to Dulwich were sometimes rather tenuous but this could be forgiven for the sake of a theme. Some of the audience will have been familiar with some of the characters portrayed, but everyone will have left having learnt something new. Hats off to the actors who worked their magic four times in a row, without the usual lighting and sets to assist them. Together with stage manager Nick Duquemin and FOH team led by Jan Rae, everyone involved gave the audience a thoroughly enjoyable evening in this special Dulwich venue.