Meet Mr Tombs

Richard Lawrence’s credit, as author and director, was given as Richard Lawrence Griffith.

Sydney Arnold was a last-minute replacement for Peter Swanwick.

Reviewed in The Stage on 22^nd October 1958 (‘Farce with Arthur English’, page 38).

“I wrote a play called MEET MR TOMBS which made the audience howl with laughter, yet certain phoney provincial critics panned it … In no uncertain words I waged ‘War’ in the local press against them and was heartily congratulated by theatregoers in Bristol, Nottingham and Manchester. In my opinion, with very few exceptions, critics are nothing more than frustrated writers who wield cowardly pens.” – Richard Lawrence (The Stage: Letters, 3^rd March 1960, page 18)

“I am one of the ‘phoney provincial critics’ that Mr Lawrence, author of the ill-fated MEET MR TOMBS, writes so disparagingly about … Mr Lawrence, smarting from the uncomplimentary notices, abused us in the local press. In a stream of invective, he suggested we were morons and the tone of his remarks certainly did his case, a pretty slight one anyway, a further disservice. The angry author has gone to great pains to talk of ‘the howls of laughter’ which his play produced. Frankly, I didn’t hear them.” – David Foot (The Stage: Letters, 17^th March 1960, page 18)

Cast & Crew

Cast

Observations

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