''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, Brighton is a theatre in Brighton, 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 Assent for ...

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 non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...

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 development ...

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. Making his initial impact as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956), and encouraged the emerging wave of ...

of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

''. ''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 a retired 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''; ...

*Robert Barnes – John Horsley *Mabel Groomkirby –

Alison Leggatt Alison Joy Leggatt (7 February 1904 – 15 July 1990) was an English 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 in the Royal Alber ...

*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 Meredit ...

*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, London, she originally intended to be a singer ...

*Arthur Groomkirby –

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American 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 1960s, pla ...

*Stan Honeyblock – Douglas Livingstone *Judge –

Douglas Wilmer Douglas Wilmer (8 January 1920 – 31 March 2016) was an English actor, best known for playing Sherlock Holmes in the 1965 TV series ''Sherlock Holmes''. Early life Wilmer was born in Brentford, Middlesex, and received his education at King' ...

*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 "offbeat" scientist, teacher and doctor characters. Ea ...

*Defence Counsel –

Graham Armitage Graham Armitage (24 April 1936 – 6 March 1999) was an English stage, film and television actor. Armitage was born in Blackpool in Lancashire, the son of Albert Edward Armitage (1908–1959) and Isabel W. ''née'' Bailes (1909–). In 1947 Harv ...

*Policeman - Alan Gibson *Usher - Jeremy Longhurst *Clerk of the Court - Robert Levis ::Source: ''N. F. Simpson, The Collected Plays'', Faber & Faber 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 daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' 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 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 and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

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 f ...

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 19 ...

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