In 1974 the Student Group performed a one act play by Joe Orton, The Erpingham Camp. I played Erpingham, the (camp) (holiday) camp commander. In one scene I was required to change my informal dress for more formal attire — blazer for dinner jacket, and so on. Before removing my clothes I closed the shutters on the portrait of the Queen adorning my office wall, so as not to embarrass her. I stripped down to underwear.
I gave the discarded clothes to my Chaplain, who was to take them off stage and bring on my dress suit. He did the former, but did not return!
I improvised — flexing my muscles and adopting a series of manly poses — but the Chaplain still did not re-enter. Eventually I stormed, in an Erpingham manner, off stage, thinking (as Erpingham) "I will sack that Chaplain" and ( as John Martin) "Bloody stage-management! Bloody props! Bloody costumes!"
In the wings I stumbled over the prostrate body of the guy who was playing the Chaplain. He had collapsed in a dead faint — a stomach bug. The Director, Wyllie Longmore arrived and it was soon decided to cut the rest of the scene, proceed with the play, and that Wyllie should take over the Chaplain’s part. This he did, and there were people in the audience who never noticed that anything had gone wrong — despite the fact that the man who was playing the Chaplain was not black, whereas Wyllie (as many will remember) is!
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