Toerien-Firth Company
Pieter Toerien and Shirley Firth went into partnership circa 1971. They presented Who Killed Santa Claus? in 1971, Don't Start Without Me, No Sex Please, We're British, Wait Until Dark at the Intimate in 1972, Suddenly at Home, Crown Matrimonial. They also brought Libby Morris to star in Just Libby in December 1973. Terence Rattigan’s In Praise of Love was staged 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. Not Bloody Likely was presented at the Intimate in 1975 as well as The Payoff that same year.
They revived Tennessee Williams’s 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. Otherwise Engaged, On Approval and Double Edge followed.
They took a lease on the Little Theatre and renamed it the Barnato Theatre, 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.
They staged William Douglas Home’s The Kingfisher at the Intimate Theatre in 1977, The Monkey Walk (Barnato Theatre 1977), Shut Your Eyes and Think of England (Intimate from 1978 to January 1979), Cause Célèbre (1978. It ran at the André Huguenet Theatre for nine months), The Unvarnished Truth (Intimate in 1979), Mothers and Fathers ' Barnato Theatre 1980]], A Life (Brooke Theatre 1980), Happy Birthday ' (Intimate Theatre 1980), Stage Struck (1980), Rose (Intimate Theatre 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 there in September 1982 namely the Baxter Theatre production of Robert Kirby’s It's a Boy!.
Sources
Tucker, 1997.
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