When Sonnie Hale's comedy "The French Mistress" opened at Windsor in 1959, the local paper's theatre critic was fairly sniffy about it. In fact the play had been bought for a London tryout after its premiere several years earlier, but that production had fallen through. This time, however, the play's success was to bring multiple West End stage offers and national press coverage...
Slough, Eton & Windsor Observer
March 26, 1959 p3
NOTES ON THE SHOWS
BELIEVED to be the first French actress to be invited to come to this country especially to appear with a repertory company, Nelly Borgeaud will star in the title role of "The French Mistress" which opens at Windsor Theatre Royal on Easter Monday.
The play is about the havoc caused in an English boys' school by the arrival of a young and attractive French mistress.
The play is by Robert Monro —the nom de plume of comedian Sonnie Hale, who will play opposite Mlle Borgeaud as the school governor who brings order out of chaos.
Joan Riley appears to have been the resident director at the Theatre Royal.
Others in the cast are Peter Gray, Michael Meacham, Rosamund Burne, Vernon Smythe and Scott Finch, and the play is directed by Joan Riley.
THEATRE ROYAL WINDSOR
Box Office: Windsor 1107 & 1108
Lessees: Capoco Ltd. Licensee. John Counsell
For two weeks beginning 30th March.
Monday to Friday 7.30p.m., Saturday 8 p.m.
Matinees: Thursday 2.30p.m., Saturday 5p.m.
Sonnie Hale
Nelly Borgeaud Peter Grey
in
THE FRENCH MISTRESS
by Robert Monro.13th April (for two weeks)
LITTLE LAMBS EAT IVY
By Noel Langley.
Slough, Eton & Windsor Observer
3 Apr 1959 p3
NOTES ON THE SHOWS
THE Easter holiday play at Windsor Theatre Royal, Robert Monro's The French Mistress, is remarkable chiefly for the appearance in the title role of Nelly Borgeaud, a French actress.
Mlle Borgeaud, playing a young and pretty French teacher who joins the staff of an English boys' public school, is enchanting. The delicacy of her intonation, the serenity of her poise, the quick, economic effectiveness of her movements show what an unsubtle hash mast [sic] English actresses make of "French" parts.
It's a pity she did not have a better play in which to make her English debut. The effect of a girl on an all-male establishment is, basically funny, if predictable.
But the author tries to ensure that the laughs will last for three acts by introducing improbably coincidental references to a youthful French indiscretion of the headmaster which blights the love of his young son and the newcomer. I found it vulgar and unfunny.
He was almost certainly already terminally ill...
As the headmaster Sonnie Hale gave such a hesitant performance that, were he not the author (Robert Monro is his writing name), I should have thought he did not know his lines.
Peter Gray is excellent, and handsomer than ever with a beard, as his housemaster. Rosamund Burke gives a warmly comfortable performance as the nicest kind of matron, and Pearson Dodd, Richard Fox and Julian Yardley are an engaging trio of rascals from the lower school.
The play is directed by Joan Riley.
Return to Sonnie Hale index page
See a programme transcript from the original 1955 production
See national press coverage of the 'comeback story'