Hyacinth's chance to be royalty
PATRICIA Routledge famously starred as the appallingly snobbish Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances, and in Hetty Wainthrop Investigates as the elderly Lancashire sleuth.Now she is returning to the stage at The Lowry, where she was last seen in Alan Bennett's Office Suite, playing Queen Mary, our own Queen's grandmother and a character about as different to her much-loved TV creations as it is possible to imagine.
Royce Ryton's hit play Crown Matrimonial is an exploration of the events that led to the abdication crisis of 1936 after King Edward VIII fell in love with the married, previously divorced, American Wallis Simpson.
Routledge, a formidable woman who's not backward about expressing her views, says the production is, "that very rare thing, a `well-made' play. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. It is very carefully plotted, and the way it develops is quite astonishing. Without you even realising it, you're given a whole picture of the politics of the day."
She adds: "I can remember the abdication crisis very, very, clearly because it was something that all the adults talked about in hushed tones in front of us children. And, certainly where I then lived, in Birkenhead, Wallis Simpson was not a popular lady. I think that it is fair to say that if she had appeared on the streets there she might well have been lynched, or pelted with something nasty!
"What scared me about the play initially was that I had to pare away every emotional response to the situation. Her general bearing is one of complete and utter containment, and that shows in the way that you carry yourself. She has a stillness of the face, and nothing, absolutely nothing, bubbles to the surface.
George V
"I actually did once see Queen Mary in person," she recalls. "She and George V came up to Merseyside, just before his death, to open the Mersey Tunnel. That was just for VIPs, of course, but afterwards they came over to Birkenhead, to open a new civic library, and I was there, across the road, with my mother and my brother, and with my little flag in my hand, and waving it, as proud as punch!"
Another remarkable thing about Crown Matrimonial, says Routledge, is that it was the very first play to portray then-living members of the royal family on a live stage.
"The Queen Mother was still with us - in the play she is still Duchess of York - and Mrs Simpson was still around when it first appeared in London.
"I saw one of the first performances and it impressed me then, and it impresses me now. A lesser dramatist would have invented a scene where Queen Mary met Wallis Simpson, and they had a confrontation.
"Great drama, of course. But Ryton sticks to the truth, avoids that trap, and makes the structure even better. Now that's what I call good writing!"
Routledge still gets recognised today as Keeping Up Appearances' monstrous Hyacinth Bucket. "I've lost track of the number of times that I've got into a cab and the driver has said, `You're not going to tell me how to drive, are you?'"
Crown Matrimonial is at The Lowry until Saturday, July 26. £12 - £24. Click here to book.
Published: Fri, 18 July, 2008
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