Live Like Pigs
Cast & Crew
Cast
| A Doctor | Anne Blake |
|---|---|
| A Police Sergeant | Stratford Johns |
| An Official | Alfred Lynch |
| Big Rachel | Anna Manahan |
| Blackmouth | Robert Shaw |
| Col | Alan Dobie |
| Daffodil | Frances Cuka |
| Doreen | Jacqueline Hussey |
| Mr Jackson | Nigel Davenport |
| Mrs Jackson | Peggy Anne Clifford |
| Rosie | Margaretta D’Arcy |
| Sailor Sawney | Wilfrid Lawson |
| Sally | Daphne Foreman |
| The Old Croaker | Madge Brindley |
Crew | |
| Ballads Sung & Set by | A L Lloyd |
| Designer | Alan Tagg |
| Director | George Devine |
| Director | Anthony Page |
Photographs
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Photo credits
Observations
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Sometime in the 50s Robert Shaw was in a new West End play as the young male lead. Well-known character actor of his day, Wilfrid Lawson, played his father. Wilfrid kept to himself never really speaking to any actor offstage, even at the pub between shows. This rankled young Shaw and he made a bet with his fellow actors he could get Lawson to talk with him. Shaw approached Lawson who sat at the bar and said…
SHAW: So, Mr. Lawson… we had a pretty good matinee today, don’t you agree?”
Wilfrid sat silently nursing his pint.
SHAW: What do think of our leading lady?
Nothing from Lawson.
SHAW: You think she’s much of an actress?
Nothing.
Shaw remembering Lawson was a stout supporter of the crown asked him what he thought of Her Majesty. Lawson sipped his beer silently. Shaw got a little more angry and started in on the Monarchy.
SHAW: So Wilfrid, you love the bloody Queen, ay?
Still nothing.
SHAW: I bet you’d like to f*ck the Queen, ay Wilfrid? Ay?But nothing penetrated (so to speak) his silence, and Shaw losing the bet, had to buy the drinks that afternoon for his friends.
Later that night, in the middle of that evening’s performance, during an intimate scene between Robert Shaw’s character and his lover, while Shaw was waxing poetically about the sea, Wilfrid made an unscripted, unannounced entrance, very upstage, singing an Irish sea shanty.
SHAW :(improvising in character) Father? What are you doing here? I was just-
LAWSON: (In a ghostly lament) Roooberrrt!
SHAW: What’s that? Father? What’s that you were you singing?
LAWSON: (louder) Roooberrrt!! Rooooberrrrt!!
SHAW: (turning to look directly upstage at him) Father! Why do you keep calling me Robert? You know that’s not my name!
LAWSON: (Shouting) ROBERRRRT!!!!
SHAW: (finally breaking character) Yes! What is it Father??
LAWSON: I would love to f*ck the Queen!!And Wilfrid Lawson disappears offstage leaving Robert Shaw onstage to muddle through the rest of the scene. Play closed shortly thereafter.
*As told to me by Wayne Tippit, an extraordinary actor and Robert Shaw’s understudy in Old Times 1971.
**After further research I believe it was the Royal Court’s 1958 production of John Arden’s Live Like Pigs.
Frances Cuka played his lover
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