[Cover title:] In Reverse [A one-act monodrama, first produced by the Hampstead Theatre Club]

BLAKESTON, Oswell; FULLER, Rosalinde (actor); ROOSE EVANS, James (director)

Published by Charles Lahr at the Blue Moon Press, [London], 1956

About this Item

FIRST EDITION. Side-stapled pamphlet, pp. [4]. Cream paper wrappers, printed in black. Grubby and gently creased to edges, staples heavily rusted, with some adjacent bleed. Good+ Unusual. JiscLHD locates six copies (BL, Bodleian, NLS, Senate House, TCD, & V&A). A pleasing copy of Oswell Blakeston's unusual theatrical pamphlet, In Reverse, his sole "one-act monodrama," with Rosalinde Fuller in the role of 'Mary' and directed by James Roose Evans at the Hampstead Theatre Club on November 21, 1959; Mary performs "a seance in reverse," seeking to send a message to her "cocksure, complacent, insufferable" dead husband George. Born Henry Joseph Hasslacher (1907-1985), Blakeston was apprenticed into the British film industry, working with David Lean, before joining the experimental film group and publisher, POOL. He chose a new name for himself: 'Oswell Blakeston' apparently combined a borrowing from Osbert Sitwell and his mother's maiden name. Blakeston was prolific and varied in his output, which included poetry, crime fiction and travel books,alongside his film writings; he was also an artist and illustrator, who often collaborated with his partner, the British artist Max Chapman. Rosalinde Fuller (1892-1982) was a successful British actor and partner of the photographer, Francis Bruguière (with whom Blakeston co-created the 1927 British abstract film, Light Rhythms) who she had met in the USA in the 1920s, when she played Ophelia to John Barrymore's Hamlet on Broadway, as well as performing with the Provincetown Players. The couple returned to the UK in 1926, where she acted on stage and screen. In the mid-1950s, Fuller launched her own solo show of 'monodramas' (perhaps including In Reverse?), which she performed the following decade "across the world under the auspices of the British Council".

Seller Inventory # 3354

Bibliographic Details

• Title: [Cover title:] In Reverse [A one-act monodrama, first produced by the Hampstead Theatre Club]
• Publisher: Charles Lahr at the Blue Moon Press, [London]
• Publication Date: 1956
• Binding: Paper wrappers
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Good+
• Seller catalogs:
  • Signed & Association Copies
  • Stage & Screen