Star Chamber.

Research.

Star Chamber was one of ten one act plays Noel Coward wrote. The play was first performed in London on the 21st March 1936 and was only performed once in its original run.

The characters each have there own individual style and sense of humor. After the initial read through i thought that this play was very similar to "The Vicar Of Dibley" as some of the characters seemed really similar. Also the fact that in the TV programme they often hold committee style meetings. After watching a few episodes of this i noticed that we could use the some the the characteristic of the characters in "The Vicar of Dibley" and apply them to the ones in "Star Chamber".

For example character "Letitia Cropley" is very similar to Violet Vibart as they are both the types of characters who don't really contribute to the meeting very much and are the older members. I think that "David Horton" is very similar to Mr Farmer (Mrs Farmer in our interpretation) as they are the only normal ones within the group. Everyone else seems to be very over the top and melodramatic.

I think Xenia is a mixture between a few characters in The Vicar of Dibley. I think her position in the group is very similar the the Vicar Geraldine Grainger due to the fact they are both the head people in there society. However i imagine Xenia to have a personality slightly similar to that of Alice Tinker, perhaps not quite as dippy. Because Xenia is very close to her dog and talks about her dog an awful lot it kind of makes her seem a slightly senile. I took this idea to the next rehearsal and tried to put it into practice.

The plot.

A meeting takes place of the management committee of a theatrical charity, the "Garrick Haven Fund", to benefit a retirement home for destitute actresses. The committee consists of actors, who sit around a table. The stylish president of the board, the actress Xenia James, is accompanied by her dog named Atherton, who is Xenia's best friend. The dog is banished to the prop room for smelling bad.