Purple and Russet: An Historical Pageant-Play
Pageant type
Performances
Place: Scala Theatre, Tottenham Court Road (Camden Town) (Camden Town, Middlesex, England)
Year: 1946
Indoors/outdoors: Indoors
Number of performances: 6
Notes
28 October–2 November 1946
[28 October–1 November 1946 at 6.45pm; 2 November at 2.30 and 6.45pm. It is highly likely that there would have been no Sunday performance.]
Name of pageant master and other named staff
- Production by [Pageant Master]: Parry,
Hugh
- Music Composed, Arranged and Directed
by: Sydney Sharvell
- Dances Arranged by Margaret Howard
Notes
Patrons included Viscountess Snowden, Sir Frank S. Alexander (former Mayor of London), Sir Isaac Foot, MP.
Names of executive committee or equivalent
Executive Committee
- Hon. Chairman: Mr J. Rider Smith
- Hon. Treasurer: Mr R.C. Hart
- Hon. Pageant Secretary: Mr F.W. Turney
- Hon. Director of Stewards: Mr Ernest
Jeffs
- Hon. Mistress of the Robes: Mrs Hugh
Parry
- Hon. Assistant Mistresses of the Robes: Miss Maud Read
Names of script-writer(s) and other credited author(s)
- Parry, Hugh
Names of composers
- Sharvell, Sydney
Numbers of performers
130 - 170Financial information
n/a
Object of any funds raised
Proceeds to the London Congregational Union
Linked occasion
n/a
Audience information
- Grandstand: No
- Grandstand capacity: n/a
- Total audience: n/a
Prices of admission and seats: highest–lowest
10s 6d–2s 6d.
Associated events
n/a
Pageant outline
Episode I. The King’s Challenge
Scene 1. Le Bal Masque Whitehall, 3 January 1642.
Scene 2. The Queen’s Room, Whitehall, 4 January 1642.
Scene 3. A Room in the House of John Pym
Scene 4. The House of Commons, January 4, 1642
Episode II. The Challenge is Taken
Scene 1. Huntingdon, May 1st, 1642
Interval
Episode III. Purple at Grips with Russet
Scene 1. The Cromwell Home under the cloud of Civil War, October, 1642
Scene 2. A farm-house on the outskirts of Abingdon, April 3, 1643
Scene 3. Cromwell’s House – formerly Pym’s house – in Drury Lane. The eve of the Battle of Naseby, June 14, 1645
Scene 4. The Parliamentary Headquarters at Naseby, June 14, 1645
Scene 5. The King’s Room at Hampton Court, November 11, 1647.
Finale. The Triumph of Faith, Peace and Liberty
Key historical figures mentioned
- Henrietta Maria [Princess Henrietta
Maria of France] (1609–1669) queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland,
consort of Charles I
- Charles I (1600–1649) king of
England, Scotland, and Ireland
- Pym, John (1584–1643) politician
- Digby, John, first earl of Bristol
(1580–1653) diplomat and politician
- Hampden, John (1595–1643) politician
- Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658) lord
protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland
- Holles, Denzil, first Baron Holles
(1598–1680) politician
- Strode, William (bap. 1594, d. 1645) politician
- Ireton, Henry (bap. 1611, d. 1651) parliamentarian
army officer and regicide
- Cromwell, Richard (1626–1712) lord
protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland
- Cromwell, Henry (1628–1674) soldier,
politician, and lord lieutenant of Ireland
- Montagu, Edward, second earl of
Manchester (1602–1671) politician and parliamentarian army officer
- Fairfax, Thomas, third Lord Fairfax of Cameron
(1612–1671) parliamentarian army officer
- Skippon, Philip, appointed Lord Skippon
under the protectorate (d. 1660) parliamentarian army officer and politician
- Whitelocke, Bulstrode, appointed Lord
Whitelocke under the protectorate (1605–1675) lawyer and politician [also
known as Whitelock, Bulstrode]
- Lely, Sir Peter (1618–1680) portrait
painter and art collector
- Wentworth, Sir Peter (1592–1675) politician
- Thurloe, John (bap. 1616, d. 1668) government
official
Musical production
n/a
Newspaper coverage of pageant
n/a
Book of words
- Parry, Hugh. Purple and Russet: An Historical Pageant-Play. Guildford, 1939.
[Due to the Second World War, the Pageant was not performed until 1946.]
Other primary published materials
- Purple and Russet: Historical Pageant Play [Programme]. London, 1946.
References in secondary literature
n/a
Archival holdings connected to pageant
- Copy of the book of words in the British Library.
- Digital images of programme available at Picclick.com, accessed 4 October 2016, http://picclick.co.uk/Purple-and-Russet-Historical-Pageant-Play-1946-theatre-232057550699.html
Sources used in preparation of pageant
n/a
Summary
Hugh Parry, a Welsh Congregationalist minister, wrote a number of historical pageants over many years. These told the story of the emergence and growth of forms of Protestant Dissent. They included the Pageant of Nonconformity in London (1912) and the Mayflower Tercentenary Pageant, which was performed in a number of places including Plymouth and Cambridge in 1920; the Pageant of Faith and Freedom, London (1926); and Light Over England (1938), staged to commemorate the quatercentenary of the translation of the Bible into English (of which one reviewer for the Times wrote that ‘Even the genealogical trees of the Bible are not so dull as this’)1.
Purple and Russet told the story of the first English Civil War from a perspective sympathetic to both Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, the latter of course being a great hero among Nonconformists. Cromwell, indeed, was widely popular during the Second World War as a defender of religious tolerance and conscience, as well as on account of being a great soldier and politician. As the pageant was written in 1939, and only staged seven years later, it is likely that the Historical Pageants Council, which published the book of words, believed that the immediate post-war era was a good time to perform the pageant. Whilst nonconformity was in decline in the inter-war years, and would go into steeper decline in the decades after 1945, Purple and Russet demonstrated a continued appeal for its history, attracting a number of prominent patrons.
Footnotes
1. ^ Times, 21 September 1938, 8.
How to cite this entry
Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alex Hutton, Paul Readman, ‘Purple and Russet: An Historical Pageant-Play’, The Redress of the Past, http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1401/