Dancing for love
IN this week’s Memory Lane, we take a look back at a play performed by Bacup Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society in 1952.
Our regular nostalgia contributor Peter Fisher has sent us a selection of images from The Dancing Years, performed by the society at the Empire Theatre, Bacup.
The show is a play written and composed by Ivor Novello, and was performed from Monday, October 13, to Saturday, October 18, nightly at 7.15pm, with a Saturday matinee at 2.15pm.
The play tells the story of Rudi Kleber, a penniless composer who lives at an inn on the outskirts of Vienna, but finds himself unable to pay his rent.
Grete, the niece of the house, adores Rudi, and the show opens on them at dawn in the garden of the inn, having been off picking blossoms on the mountains. While they were out, Rudi has been evicted and his treasured piano left in the garden.
The piano has been sold by Rudi’s furious landlady, to recoup his unpaid rent bill, and beside it stands a basket filled with his manuscript compositions.
A group of actresses and their escorts arrive in the garden to have breakfast, having been out all night. Among them is Maria Zeigler, a singing star. Rudi plays for the group and puts his latest waltz up for auction.
Maria is fascinated by the music and its handsome composer and buys it for her new show, while also persuading her lover, Prince Charles Metterling, to give Rudi a studio in which to work.
Grete, fearing she will lose her love, makes Rudi promise not to ask anyone to marry him until he has given her first refusal.
Rudi goes on to complete an opera, Lorelei, for Maria, and it is an instant success - but in writing it Rudi has fallen in love with Maria.
The play then moves forward in time, to three years later, when a great gala of Rudi’s music is being prepared.
Maria, however, is not entirely happy, as Rudi has still not asked her to marry him, staying faithful to his promise to Grete.
Grete then returns from abroad, where she has been training as a dancer and has blossomed into womanhood.
She realises that Rudi loves Maria and refuses his offer of marriage.
Maria, however, overhears the proposal, and, not understanding that it was offered out of a sense of duty, flies into a rage and marries the ever-faithful prince.
Rudi explains, but it is too late - Maria is married and Rudi is heartbroken.
The characters meet again in 1927, when Rudi sees his son, Carl, with Maria, who the prince has acknowledged as his own.
The boy only knows Rudi as a composer of music.
In 1938, Rudi returns to Vienna after a prolonged exile, devoting his life to rescuing his old friends from Nazi aggression.
He was jailed for his efforts and only escaped the death penalty with the help of Maria and her husband.
As the play ends, we take a look back at Rudi and Maria’s relationship, in The Dancing Years.
Picture 1 shows the dancing girls in the show, while Picture 2 shows Rudi and Maria.
Picture 3 is a shot of