REVIEW: Mr Gillie

Richmond Theatre, London

Character: Tom Donnelly

“I do not like cages. I think that the few minutes between the door of the cage and the jaws of the cat make life worth living.”

The Story

William Gillie (Percy Cartwright) is a school headmaster who lives in the Scottish coal-mining village of Crult; a place where his pupils are fated for the domestic service or the mine. Undeterred by the misgivings of his long-suffering wife (Margo Boyd) and much against the ideals of the churchmen who pay his wages, Gillie perseveres in offering private tutoring in philosophy and literature to any of his pupils that shows some academic promise.

To date, not a single one of Gillie’s students have shown any real promise, leading the Education Committee to question his suitability as a teacher.

Things go from bad to worse when Pit Boy Tom Donnelly (Peter Wyngarde), a capable young writer, announces that he’s not only involved with Nelly (Pamela Galloway) – the daughter of the village doctor, but that they intend to elope to London. Soon public opinion turns against Gillie, who is accused of offering the two young lovers unsuitable careers advice and, moreover, for failing to stop them from consummating their affair on church property. The angriest of his accusers is none other than Dr Watson, who is enraged that he might lose his daughter to “A black-faced pit boy!”

Right: Peter as Pitboy, Tom Donnelly

Further to the pressure placed upon the Education Committee by Dr Watson, the village schoolhouse is inevitably closed down. Wageless and destitute, Gillie falls behind with the rent on his cottage, which leads to the landlord evicting the former teacher and his accommodating wife. Tragedy strikes when a van that’s been hired to take away the couple’s furniture, accidentally runs down Gillie and he’s killed.

Now on the ‘other side’, the teacher is put on trial by a saintly Procurator and Judge to decide whether Mr Gillie actually achieved anything in life, or if endeavour and wishes are good enough.

In Retrospect

‘Mr Gillie’ was first performed at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow, in 1950, and starred the legendary Alistair Sim in the lead role. Subsequently, it transferred to the Garrick Theatre in London and was filmed by the BBC.

The entire play is set in the Gillie’s front room, where copious amounts of tea are served to visitor that passes through the front door.

Each of the characters are affectionately depicted by author, James Bridie, who bestows upon them his own gift of wit and humanity. The scene where Gillie castigates the selfish doctor for wanting to keep his daughter at home, cooking and cleaning for him rather than allowing her to spread her wings, is especially good. His defence of the hard-nosed Nelly, is carried out in spite of his knowing that her determination to marry Tom – an immature adolescent from the same village, is doomed to failure. Of course, the middle-aged schoolmaster, in chastising Watson, fails to acknowledge that he himself has trapped his own wife into the same tedious existence.