Many people might assume that the first words spoken on the stage of the new Shakespeare playhouse in Stratford-upon-Avon when it opened in 1932 were written by Shakespeare, but in fact they were by John Masefield.
Now, 56 years after the poet laureate’s death, Masefield’s words will be heard there again in an adaptation by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) of his 1935 children’s adventure novel, The Box of Delights.
In 1932 he had been inspired to write a poem for the opening of the Shakespeare Memorial theatre – today the Royal Shakespeare theatre (RST) – after he watched in horror as the original 1879 building was destroyed by fire in 1926.
In an unpublished letter, he despaired: “I went to see it burning and it was like poetry dying.”
His poem, A Message from England’s Poet Laureate, described the theatre’s “blackened shell”. He wrote: “I saw its ruins, black in smoke that rolled … Now a new House has risen.”
Masefield had been appointed poet laureate in 1930, having worked as a journalist on the Manchester Guardian early in his career, writing book reviews, among other contributions.
Dr Philip W Errington, a senior specialist at Peter Harrington Rare Books, leading antiquarian specialists, and an expert on Masefield, has been working with the RSC as a consultant on The Box of Delights, which will be performed at the RST between 31 October and 7 January.
He told the Guardian: “It is absolutely the case that the first words spoken on the stage of the newly rebuilt Shakespeare Memorial theatre were by Masefield rather than Shakespeare as he was poet laureate. He also had an association with Stratford. He had written a book on Shakespeare in 1911 and was forever going to see productions.”
Despite the honour of being placed ahead of Shakespeare at the theatre’s opening, Masefield was largely forgotten today, he said. “There are two poems, Sea-Fever and Cargoes, which John Betjeman once said would be remembered as long as the language lasts, and actually those two still are quite well known in certain circles, if you ask carefully. Then there’s The Box of Delights, which is still relatively well known. But otherwise, he’s completely sunk without a trace.”
Asked why, Errington added: “He was a very bad businessman and when people came to him and asked to do movie adaptations of his plays and novels, he simply said no or held out for ridiculously high contracts.
“He was the one that suffered because ultimately they never made the films. The one that really hurts is that Richard Burton was going to be in a filmed version of Masefield’s play Good Friday. If Richard Burton had been in a biblical play that was shown every Easter, you would still know about it, but that play has just been forgotten.”
Describing Masefield’s work as “magnificent”, he said: “It warrants a revival. The RSC putting on the play is a great thing … a wonderful Christmas story.”
The play’s director, Justin Audibert, said: “It’s a show that features trains, boats, planes, mythical creatures, a good and a very bad magician, and characters that magically turn into tiny versions of themselves, characters that transform into animals that fly through the air and swim in the sea. How exciting is that?
“We’re telling the story through the imagination of a child, so the staging promises to be a fantastic mix of the inventive and the breathtaking. With its classic good versus evil narrative, and three young children as the heroes, you can see its influence on books like the Harry Potter series.”
