This year the Opera House is celebrating 125 years’ history and this proud anniversary reminds us that the performing arts have always held a special place in island life. This was amply confirmed recently when Valérie Noël, Librarian at the Lord Coutanche Library, Société Jersiaise, came across two fascinating scrapbooks. Their creator, Kenneth Britton, had been one of the brightest lights of Jersey’s vibrant amateur theatre world for over 20 years and he kept meticulous records of all the productions he was involved in – concert parties, revues, pantomimes and straight plays. The programmes, photographs and press cuttings are all there in great number, even throughout the Occupation.
Young Kenneth, who was born in Jersey in 1904, trained as a costumier in London and unsuccessfully looked for work there with Charles B. Cochran, the London impresario. He returned to Jersey and was soon involved in local productions. The scrapbook shows that the year 1933 was a very busy one for him and the Springfield Theatre. In January he produced the pantomime, Sinbad the Sailor, and in March, Spring Cocktails, a vaudeville piece. In April he was cast in the musical The Geisha produced by the Jersey Green Room Club and in November he was the producer of the musical Sally.
His talents were not restricted to costume design, he acted, sang, danced and even appeared in a Shakespeare play and in collaboration with Richard Whinnerah, he continued to produce two or three shows a year whilst moving on from the Springfield Theatre, to the Forum and the Playhouse, with his wartime productions at the Opera House.
During the Occupation Kenneth’s ingenuity designing costumes at a time when even essentials were in very short supply must have tested him to the limit but the theatre had an important role in raising morale as indicated by a 1944 poem in The Evening Post signed ‘Amanda’:
‘The Opera House has harboured
Keen bands of amateurs
And audiences come thronging in
For laughter, thrills and tears.
We’ve given them an antidote for
Three long tedious years.’ …..
The postscript of the story is a sad one. An article in the Chroniques de Jersey reveals that in May 1952 Kenneth Britton aged 48 took his own life at his house, La Baule in Grouville. The inquest reported that he had been ill for a while and that the death of his mother in November had come as an overwhelming blow.
An earlier handwritten piece dedicated to Kenneth Britton makes a worthy epitaph:
Was ever one so versatile?
Had ever other so much style
To make the simplest things worth-while as Kenneth?
For many years we’ve had delight
Watching his talent shaping right,
And now, behold him at his height, our Kenneth.
Singing or acting, either one –
Whichever ‘tis – all say ‘Well done!’
For pleasing is to everyone – our Kenneth.
Kenneth confessed that in the event of a fire he would rescue these scrapbooks above all else. Happily, they have survived and are in safe keeping and amateur theatre still thrives in Jersey, established on solid foundations a hundred years ago and more.
JS, volunteer at the Lord Coutanche Library
