While promoting a UK theatre tour for Joan Collins, why did Triumph Entertainment Ltd change the title of Alan Melville's very successful 1952 play Dear Charles to Full Circle?
It was, of course, a marketing ploy, but there was no need for this deception.
Based on Les Enfants d'Edouard by Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon, Alan Melville's skilful adaptation endowed the play with sparkling wit and charm and after 50 years it deserved a professional revival in its own identity.
Nevertheless, director Patrick Garland came up with a glossy first-class show as seen at Brighton's Theatre Royal, albeit as Full Circle.
Following its original West End run of more than a year in 1952/3, Dear Charles was performed in numerous provincial repertory theatres, including the Palace Pier Theatre at Brighton where, on the opening night, the leading lady omitted several vital pages of the first act, thus rendering the plot incomprehensible. And that was the night Brighton resident Alan Melville decided to visit the theatre.
In 1983 he very kindly assisted Brighton's Myra Stewart Players with their amateur production of Dear Charles. The photo shows him celebrating his 70th birthday with the cast.
-Bert Hobden, Brighton
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