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Even the title is suggestive of something else. Dreaming takes
us into unknown territories, and when the dreams are wild …
who then can insist on their boundaries?
Perhaps Slade and Reynolds (or whichever of them came up with
the name of the show) are playfully suggesting that this show
itself may become irresistibly attractive simply because of its
title. Wildest dreams, after all, may be sexual, and - in its
way - here indeed is a show about the growing sexual attraction
between a worldly newspaper reporter and a schoolgirl moving
towards womanhood. It's just that Slade and Reynolds have no
pretensions, and the truth is that there are no other writers
in British musical theatre who simply expect to be taken, as
it were, at face value. Those wanting innocent fun and simple
delight may be satisfied, but there is material here for those
whose expectations are more intellectual. It's as if a box of
delights has been printed with the words - WILDEST DREAMS - and
of course with that temptation to se what will be revealed, who
could resist opening the box? Not even Pandora.
Beyond its title, Wildest Dreams, even at a superficial glance,
has a substantial claim to literacy. There are jokes at work
here, in the characters names, for example. Harriet Gray, the
young heroine's unmarried aunt, has a name that suggests dullness.
We know it won't be so, especially when Dorothy Reynolds has
not only had a hand in creating her (perhaps single-handedly)
but also plays her with such sure sophistication. This woman
could not be grey.
And the name jokes continue. The self-conscious composer of
art-songs is called Stephen Bent, a joke that has taken on a
rather different meaning in the forty years since the show was
written. But try saying the name over and over. It sounds real.
It is years away from Salad Days. >>> |
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Then there is the heroine's name: Carol Arden. Carol denotes
femininity, and Arden suggests strength. It's another artful
touch from the authors. For a hero, we have the magnificently
named Mark Raven. Could any more masculine name have been found?
Gone is any suggestion of the hero of Salad Days (Tim, for heaven's
sake). Mark Raven sounds a man of muscular proportions, firm,
fair, a name to inspire confidence in his manhood.
On the sidelines, to denote the small-town artistic dimensions
of the local community, is the patroness Mrs Birdview. We need
know little else about her ambitions beyond her name. Parochialism
is alive and well, and - anyway - this is the level at which
Wildest Dreams functions most successfully.
As to the setting of Wildest Dreams… It takes place,
supposedly, in Gloucestershire, a county of which Slade was fond
and where his family had a much-loved home. But the name itself,
Nelderham, is a joke that few who turned up at the Vaudeville
Theatre can have appreciated. During the run of Salad Days, two
of the most persistent of its patrons were a Mr and Mrs Nelder,
who always sat in the same seats in the stalls. I wonder if they
ever knew that the village in which Wildest Dreams is set was
named after them?
It is curious, too, that Nelderham's local beauty spot should
be called Clumpington Hill. There is something disconcertingly
clumsy about that name, something that acts naturally against
any romantic connotations that should attach to a place where
lovers meet and come together. People make love at a spot whose
name suggests clod-hopping. It's a measure of how Slade and Reynolds
don't take themselves quite seriously. But this is the story
of a girl on the hill, Clumpington Hill, a story of wit and strange
textures that have never been properly appreciated. Slade and
Reynolds were already working on a new show when they abandoned
it to write Wildest Dreams. It was to end their partnership,
but in many ways it is the quintessential Slade-Reynolds musical.
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