''One Way Pendulum'', described on the title page as "A Farce in a New Dimension", is a play by N. F. Simpson. It was first performed at the

Theatre Royal, Brighton The Theatre Royal is a theatre in Brighton, East Sussex, England presenting a range of West End and touring musicals and plays, along with performances of opera and ballet. History In 1806, the Prince of Wales (later George IV) gave Royal Assen ...

on 14 December 1959, before playing at London's

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...

from 22 December, later transferring to the

Criterion Theatre The Criterion Theatre is a West End theatre at Piccadilly Circus in the City of Westminster, and is a Grade II* listed building. It has a seating capacity of 588. Building the theatre In 1870, the caterers Spiers and Pond began developmen ...

where it ran until 11 June 1960. The play was adapted for the cinema in 1965.

History

N. F. Simpson had come late to writing plays. In 1957, when in his late thirties, his play ''A Resounding Tinkle'' had won third prize in a playwriting competition organised by

Kenneth Tynan Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Initially making his mark as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised John Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956) and encouraged the emerging wave ...

of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

''. ''One Way Pendulum'' was Simpson's second full length play.

Original cast

*Kirby Groomkirby –

Roddy Maude-Roxby Roderick A. Maude-Roxby (born 2 April 1930) is an English actor. He has appeared in numerous films, such as Walt Disney's ''The Aristocats'', where he voiced the greedy butler Edgar Balthazar (his only voice role); '' Unconditional Love''; and C ...

*Robert Barnes – John Horsley *Mabel Groomkirby –

Alison Leggatt Alison Joy Leggatt (7 February 1904 – 15 July 1990) was an English character actor, character actress. Career Born in the Kensington district of London, Leggatt trained under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then based ...

*Sylvia Groomkirby –

Patsy Rowlands Patricia Amy Rowlands (19 January 1931 – 22 January 2005) was an English actress who is best remembered for her roles in the ''Carry On'' films series, as Betty Lewis in the ITV Thames sitcom '' Bless This House'', and as Alice Meredith ...

*Aunt Mildred –

Patsy Byrne Patricia Anne Thirza Byrne (13 July 1933 – 17 June 2014) was an English actress, best known for her role as "Nursie" in ''Blackadder II'' as well as Malcolm's domineering Mother, Mrs Stoneway in all seven series of the ITV comedy '' Watching ...

*Myra Gantry –

Gwen Nelson Gwendoline Alexandra Nelson (30 June 1901 – 15 October 1990) was an English actress who was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court Theatre Company. Born in Muswell Hill, Middlesex, she originally intended to be a s ...

*Arthur Groomkirby –

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American jazz fusion guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the ...

*Stan Honeyblock – Douglas Livingstone *Judge –

Douglas Wilmer Douglas Norman Wilmer (8 January 1920 – 31 March 2016) was an English actor, best known for playing Sherlock Holmes in the eponymous 1965 TV series. Early life Wilmer was born 8 January 1920 in Brentford, Middlesex, to Harry Bradlaugh Wilme ...

*Prosecuting Counsel –

Graham Crowden Clement Graham Crowden (30 November 1922 – 19 October 2010) was a Scottish actor. He was best known for his many appearances in television comedy dramas and films, often playing eccentric scientist, teacher and doctor characters. Early life C ...

*Defence Counsel –

Graham Armitage Graham Armitage (24 April 1936 – 6 March 1999) was an English stage, film and television actor. From 1973 he lived and worked in South Africa, where he had spent part of his childhood. Early life and education Armitage was born in Blackpool i ...

*Policeman - Alan Gibson *Usher - Jeremy Longhurst *Clerk of the Court - Robert Levis ::Source: ''N. F. Simpson, The Collected Plays'',

Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

2013.

Plot

Subtitled on the Royal Court's posters as "an evening of high drung and slarrit", the play is in the absurdist tradition. It contains numerous diversions and non-sequiturs, such as people riding to hounds on camels, and a game of three-handed whist played by two participants, without cards, in the dark, but the core consists of the efforts of the son of the house, Kirby, to teach a collection of talking weight machines, which he has stolen, to sing the Hallelujah chorus from ''

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

'', and his father's decision to build a replica of the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

in the sitting room. Elsewhere in the household Mrs Groomkirby is so obsessed with cooking that she employs a neighbour to come in twice a week to help eat the food, and the daughter, Sylvia is dissatisfied with the length of her arms. In Mr Groomkirby's home-made Old Bailey a judge and counsel appear; Kirby is put on trial for mass murder (he kills people so as to indulge his passion for wearing black mourning) and his father is discredited as a witness under cross-examination, for failing to prove that he isn't in Chester-le-Street."Non Sequiturs Ad Nauseam", ''The Times'', 23 December 1959, p. 9

Critical reception

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' found the tone of the play too relentlessly illogical to be consistently funny. Tynan took a contrasting view: "On the strength of his new play, One Way Pendulum, I suspect Mr Simpson to be the possessor of the subtlest mind ever devoted by an Englishman to the writing of farce". Later critical opinion has been that the play is probably Simpson's finest.Coveney, Michael
Obituary: N F Simpson
''The Guardian'', 31 August 2011 The critic

Michael Coveney Michael Coveney (born 24 July 1948) is a British theatre critic. Education and career Coveney was born in London and educated at St Ignatius’ College in Stamford Hill, and Worcester College, Oxford. After graduation, he worked as a script ...

commented in 2011 that the author "mixed a comic brew that derived more recognisably from the worlds of

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

and

the Goons ''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September ...

." The play had 40 performances at the

East 74th Street Theater The East 74th Street Theater, sometimes spelled as the East 74th Street Theatre, was an Off-Broadway theater at 334 East 74th Street in Manhattan, New York City, United States. History Frank Day Tuttle, a theatrical and radio producer and dir ...

in New York City.

Adaptations

The play was adapted for the cinema, under the same title, in 1964. Of the original stage cast, Alison Leggatt, Douglas Wilmer and Graham Crowden recreated their roles in the film."One Way Pendulum"
British Film Institute, retrieved 14 September 2015

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:One Way Pendulum 1959 plays Theatre of the Absurd