Toerien-Firth Company

Pieter Toerien and Shirley Firth went into partnership circa 1971. They presented Who Killed Santa Claus? Starring John Justin and Naomi Chance, with direction by Anthony Sharp in 1971. They also staged Don’t Start Without Me, directed by Roger Redfarn and starring Jeremy Hawk; and No sex Please, We’re British, directed by Allen Davis and starring Billy Boyle in 1971. They presented Wait Until Dark starring Shirley Anne Field at the Intimate in 1972. They presented the Francis Durbridge thriller Suddenly at Home and Royce Ryton’s Crown Matrimonial at the Intimate in 1973. The latter starred Owen Holder and Peggy Thorpe-Bates. They also brought Libby Morris to star in Just Libby in December 1973. Toerien-Firth brought Muriel Pavlow, Robert Flemyng, Robert Beatty and Ron Smerczak to star at the Intimate in Terence Rattigan’s In Praise of Love in 1974. They also got John Fernald to direct Hildegard Neil in a revival of Private Lives, and Heather Lloyd-Jones to star in Jerome Chodorov’s A Community of Two, directed by Chodorov at the Intimate in 1974. Toerien-Firth brought Maxine Audley and Richard Huggett with director Laurier Lister from England for Not Bloody Likely at the Intimate in 1975. They also brought Jeremy Hawk and Elspeth March for The Payoff at the Intimate in 1975. They revived Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire with Michael McGovern and Anne Rogers in 1975. In 1976 they brought back Owen Holder to star in Royce Ryton’s For the Woman I love; Hywel Bennett starred in Simon Gray’s Otherwise Engaged together with Sandra Duncan; West End director Frith Banbury staged a revival of Frederick Lonsdale’s 1920s comedy On Approval, starring Richard Todd and Moyra Fraser. Anthony Sharp directed Michael Atkinson, Shelagh Holliday and Michael McGovern in Double Edge for them in 1976. They took a lease on the Little Theatre and renamed it the Barnato Theatre, after mining magnate after mining magnate Barney Barnato. Their opening productions were Caught in the Act, (1976), Amadeus (1976), Royce Ryton’s The Other Side of the Swamp starring Ryton himself, together with Eckard Rabe under direction by Graham Armitage was staged at the Barnato in 1976. It ran for a year. They staged William Douglas Home’s The Kingfisher at the Intimate in 1977. They staged The Monkey Walk starring Barbara Kinghorn and British actor Richard Warwick, later replaced by Paul Jericco at the Barnato in 1977. They presented Anthony Marriott and John Chapmans’s Shut Your Eyes and Think of England, directed by Roger Redfarn and starring Peter Blythe (later replaced by Simon Merrick). It ran at the Intimate from 1978 to January 1979. They presented Terence Rattigan’s Cause Célèbre, directed by Joan Kemp-Welch and starring Mary Millar and William Lucas in 1978. It ran at the Andre Huguenet for nine months. Toerien-Firth staged Royce Ryton’s The Unvarnished Truth with Michael Richard, Anthony Fridjohn, Nicholas Ellenbogen and Lynne White and directed by Joan Kemp-Welch at the Intimate in 1979. Toerien-Firth produced Mothers and Fathers with Clive Parnell, Lesley Nott, Elizabeth Rae and Ian Winter which was staged at the Barnato in 1980. They staged Hugh Leonard’s A Life directed by Godfrey Quigley and starring Quigley and Margaret Inglis at the Brooke in 1980. They staged Mark Camelotti’s Happy Birthday starring Clive Scott at the Intimate in 1980. They staged Simon Gray’s Stage Struck directed by Stephen Hollis and starring Michael McGovern and Kenneth Baker in 1980. They staged Andrew Davies’ Rose starring Sandra Duncan at the Intimate in 1980/1981. Their lease of the Intimate Theatre was to expire on the 31 January 1983. Pieter Toerien and Shirley Firth staged their last joint production at the Intimate in September 1982 namely the Baxter Theatre production of Robert Kirby’s It’s a Boy starring Dale Cutts, Bo Petersen and James Irwin with direction by Keith Grenville. By January 1983 it had been re-cast with Charles Comyn, Anne Power and John Hayter and then moved to the Academy on the 2 February. **** Percy Tucker, 1997

Return to

Return to South African Theatre Venues, Companies, Societies, etc

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page