The Amazing and Preposterous Constance Smedley

This is a story, which outlines the life of a truly amazing lady, with very many achievements to her credit. During her six year stay in Minchinhampton she gave local people a taste for performance with her spectacular Pageant of Progress in Stroud, using people from the surrounding villages.  This led to the emergence of The Cotswold Players. The play would not have been written had it not been for ‘the fickle finger of fate’ coming into play. In 2007 the author received a collection of material, which included letters, newspaper cuttings, photographs and other papers dating from 1908 to 1922, relating to Constance Smedley and her family, which had been rescued from a builders bonfire at a barn that was being repaired. These combined with extra research on the lady has resulted in this extremely informative and entertaining play, which spans the years 1903 to 1915.

When I looked at the programme and noted there were to be seven scene changes I groaned inwardly but I need not have worried it was all cleverly executed. The basic set remained the same with costume rails at the back, pieces of furniture and a very important wooden trunk, which were moved into position by the cast to represent a change of scene. The set had been well furnished and dressed with items of the period. The wooden trunk was a large ‘dressing up box’ from which they took items changing them from their characters in the play to story tellers filling in details, it was reminiscent of ‘Oh What A Lovely War’. The actors walked across the stage with placards telling us where the scene was set and took costumes from the rails if they needed a costume change. The costumes and hairstyles all took us to the early 1900’s and were well worn.

For much of the time the characters who were not directly involved in the action were sitting at the back of the stage but this did not detract in any way. The play had a strong cast with each actor having developed their individual roles with conviction. Sally-Anne Beer in the title role showed the many facets of the character, particularly the great determination, which drove Constance on to all her achievements despite her physical disability. She handled the walking sticks and the wheelchair expertly, portraying the weakness in her legs very well. She must have been a very difficult lady to predict and live with.  Nicola Hurst, who showed equal strength of character and determination, but in a less flamboyant way, played sister Di. There was a good contrast of personality between the sisters and she showed she was equally as passionate about science as Constance was about ‘the arts’. Alistair Anderson, as their brother Billy, had created a character, which was true to his final school report of being ‘lacking in moral fibre’, and not taken seriously by the rest of the family; although you could not help feeling sympathy for him when he tried to do ‘the right thing’ by going to war and his father interfered. Tim Howard gave a sympathetic performance as Mr Smedley, their father, he was quite indulgent and understanding, not the domineering authoritative figure normally associated with this period of history. Claire Greenwood gave a strong performance as Annie Smedley, their mother, there was no doubt as to where the girls had acquired their energy and determination. James Oliver as Maxwell Armfield, Constance’s husband, was prepared to be supportive and give her the freedom to be creative that she needed, but he appeared a little too gentle at times, he must have had quite a strong character to be able to embark on all their joint endeavours. Peter Cluer provided the musical interludes on the piano and took on the cameo role of Frank Gwyn-Evans, who initially asked Constance to create the Pageant and then had the unenviable task of suggesting that she put on a play which was not her own work, a brave man. 

Director Rob Penman had taken the play by Frank Hatt, who had worked closely with the company, and brought to life a piece of local social history. It has inspired me to find out more about The Amazing and Preposterous Constance Smedley. I am sure he is glad that he did not work with the 1,300 actors, eight stage managers, horses, ponies and flocks of sheep, which were in the original Pageant. Congratulations everyone.

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