Add MS 81329 B

John Gielgud Archive. Leaves from another notebook recording the activities of the Mars Theatre, also written by John Gielgud; 1910–1920. Although these leaves are quite evidently torn from a notebook very similar to 81329 A, they cannot be identified with the leaves torn out of that book, nor are they part of the 'Book 2' promised in one of 81329 A’s title-pages. The surviving title-page reads 'Vol. 1 Records of the Mars Theatre (Programmes etc.)' and has a photograph attached of Val, John, and Eleanor Gielgud with the little theatre in the background. A close-up picture of the theatre itself was formerly loosely inserted behind the front leaf of this collection. The last two plays detailed in these pages, 'Pompey the Great', 'produced April 21^st 1918; special all-star performance by the Royal Dramatic Society by permission of Mr. John Masefield', and 'Strafford', '(birthday anniversary) produced April 15^th 1918' are the only two plays not also listed in 81329 A. The details of the plays in these pages do not have the names of the actors attached to the list of dramatis personae (unlike the details in Add. 81329 A) but each play is dated here, and there is a double-page spread which lists 'The company of the Mars Theatre from 1910–1920'. A later hand has used the back of the last leaf to write a draft of a poem in pencil, beginning 'High over the crystal sea'. The hand has not been identified, but is not John Gielgud’s.