The Happiest days of Your Life (School Play) by John Dighton

The Happiest days of Your Life (School Play) by John Dighton

Thanks to Stuart McDonald for this contribution.

This play was performed at the City of Coventry Boarding School about 1965 and produced by teacher Terry Walker.

The Cast and Credits

Autographs of the actors

THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE by John Dighton

On the Original Play 
"Directed for Bawds by Colin Lawrence, this play was first performed in 1948 at the Apollo Theatre in London. John Dighton, who is perhaps best known for writing this well-loved farce, also co-wrote (with Frank Launder) the film adaptation in 1950, which starred Alistair Sim as Mr. Pond, Margaret Rutherford as Miss Whitchurch and, in one of her best-remembered roles, Joyce Grenfell as Miss Gossage - one of the most unforgettable films ever. Did the play appear dated and how ever would I be able to avoid those film performances colouring my view of this stage presentation?

The story is set at the end of WWII. The pupils and teachers of a South Coast girls' school (St Swithin’s) are relocated to alternative accommodation as their own school has been a casualty of wartime bombing. Thanks to a bureaucratic mix-up, they wind up sharing the quarters of a boys' school (Hilary Hall) in Hampshire. The harried headmaster and headmistress, together with both sets of teachers, try to keep visiting parents from discovering the dilemma as the whole thing turns into a battle of the sexes. These problems are forgotten however when news is received that a third school is to join them and all unite to repel boarders.

The essence of farce is timing and this was a confident, well-paced production. After the scene setting Act 1 came the frenetic mayhem of Act 2 with heads and teachers of both schools trying to keep the two sets of parents apart and Rainbow back and forth exchanging netball posts for cricket nets with grumbling reluctance. This all worked very well but I would liked to have seen the moment held at the end of Act 2 when Pond and the two masters came bounding in dressed in gymslips, rather than running straight on and off. Great visual curtain line that. Act 3 of course degenerates into total chaos. This was handled with such noise and energy that some of the dialogue was lost and I am not certain the ‘proposal’, of Dick Tassell to Miss Harper, was heard by many in the audience."

More on Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happiest_Days_of_Your_Life