Chapter 3. Small Shows
Stag
What turned out to be next was 'Stag', a new work co-written by Chris and me, but before that there were a couple of smaller-scale events...
Peterloo
'Peterloo' was a documentary piece of theatre I had written during my earlier Qualtagh days after leaving university, which was now revived in a completely reworked version*, having been commissioned by the then newly opened Bury Arts Centre. Transferring the notorious events leading up to and surrounding the infamous Peterloo Massacre in St Peter's Fields Manchester in 1819 to a circus ring, the show was sub-titled 'The Greatest Show On Earth', and featured a cast of 10 or 12 or so as clowns, jugglers, and other circus-style performers, all drawn from Genesis members. I had studied this particular period for my thesis at university and had managed to uncover a whole host of folk songs and ballads written at the time, which Chris superbly arranged and worked seamlessly into the production. (One of these – 'I'll Weave A Gay Garland' – to a version of the old tune of 'Liliburlero' later became a staple of the group Elf that Chris formed with singers and musicians from Genesis). The show toured to schools and arts centres and we did, I think, about 6 performances.
(*As we shall see, reviving, and hopefully improving on, former works became something of a recurring pattern with Genesis).
And Afterwards At...
This was a wonderfully irreverent and anarchic review full of songs and sketches, very much in the mould of 'Beyond The Fringe' (Peter Cooke, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller et al) and 'Monty Python, largely put together by Chris Hawley, Bill Johnson and Norman Partington from Genesis, with several more songs contributed by Chris, including a glorious spoof of Paul McCartney's 'Mull of Kintyre', now transformed into 'Bloody Flat Tyre', which was brilliantly done. I had little to do with this production, and so I recall the great pleasure I had being an audience member revelling in the originality and wit of it all.
The whole show was conceived as a wedding reception - “and afterwards at...” - with Chris Hawley and Alison Holden, as the newly weds, greeting each member of the audience as we arrived and thanking us very politely for the toaster. Highlights for me included Mike Shaft in an outrageous kilt as a Customs Official at the newly created border between England and Scotland, and the wonderfully bonkers sketch 'Shakespeare on Ice' with the actors “skating” around the stage in their socks, spouting cod Shakespeare.
As Chris D. has mentioned in his entry, the reviews were spectacularly bad. In fact they were so terrible that Chris Hawley read extracts from them on the 2nd night as part of the show, and he, Bill and Norman were positively delighted by them, for they yet again showed that Genesis had hit a nerve and been successful in departing from anything that might have been construed as “mainstream”.
But Chris H. & Norman were natural comics, whose talents would have flowered more recently on BBC3 or Radio 4, and their constant stream of banter and one-liners enlivened rehearsals throughout the Genesis period. When Amanda and I got married, they wrote and performed a really rude but very funny sketch for our reception, with extremely phallic fake mic's in a wonderful parody of Alan Wicker.
(In fact, 'And Afterwards At' was not performed until 1978, but in my memory it takes place between 'Hair' and 'Stag', possibly because that was when Amanda and I got married and Chris & Norman performed this sketch).
Back to Stag
And so it was that, after these interludes, Genesis launched their next major musical, which was 'Stag'.