18, Earls Terrace, London, W.8. - Gives plans for his trip to Europe; "Five Finger Exercise" is a hit with good reviews and standing ovations, Hobson reviewed it twice saying many nice things.
An auspicious day, the mail brought PS's letter and Robbie [Robert Lantz?] sent the reviews [of 'Equus'], and his mother left the country for three weeks: 'All I need now is to see an eagle tearing a lamb in the sky'; is delighted the Shaffer-Dexter combination has scored again, give his congratulations to John Dexter, [Harold] Hobson's review gave him pleasure; has been watching the Watergate hearings and the total effect is not all negative, repelled by corruption but impressed by the quality of the senators on the Ervin Committee and the 'good guys' among the witnesses; drive out and enjoy the view with Tom on weekends, are building a house, which includes a room for Peter and Paul [Giovanni], a bucolic setting, 'cows outnumber queens a hundred to one', a welcome change from the Ile de Feu; has had the Dubuffet photographed but would like to go slowly with its sale as summer is a slow time. Give his love to Paul and Carolyn and Tony.
29 ff. of cuttings relating to 'Five Finger Exercise', with ff. 1-13 relating to the London production at the Comedy Theatre, and ff. 14-29 relating to the New York production at the Music Box Theatre.
Material relating to the London production includes two handbills, a programme and 19 cuttings of theatre reviews, including "Changing Fashions in the English Theatre" by John Bowen in 'The Listener', "Eating People is Wrong" by Alan Brien in 'The Spectator', "An Author and Actor" by Harold Hobson in 'The Sunday Times' (July 27 1958), and "Peter Shaffer Calls for Magic and Mystery" by R. B. Marriott in 'The Stage' (July 13, 1958); other cuttings are from the 'Cambridge Daily News', 'Daily Express', 'Daily Mail', 'Daily Telegraph', 'Evening News', 'Financial Times', 'The Illustrated London News', 'New Statesman', 'News of the World', 'The Stage', 'The Star', 'The Times', and 'The Times Literary Supplement'.
Material relating to the New York production includes the cover of 'Playbill' and 11 cuttings of theatre reviews and advertisements for the New York production. The cuttings are taken from 'Life Magazine', 'The New Yorker', and other unidentified newspapers, and include two articles by Brooks Atkinson in 'The New York Times', and Richard Watts Jr.'s 'A Powerful New Play from England' (in an unidentfied newspaper), as well as two articles by Peter Shaffer: "labels aren't for playwrights", in 'Theatre Arts', Feb. 1960, and "The Cannibal Theatre" in the 'Atlantic Monthly'.
21 ff. of material relating to the production at the Globe Theatre, comprising ff. 30-50 of the scrapbook. There are six publicity photographs taken on the street outside the theatre, three of PS taken by Laon Maybanke, and three of Victor Spinetti taken and signed by Paul [J?] Winham. The printed material consists of a handbill and 27 cuttings, most of them theatre reviews from a variety of U.K. newspapers and magazines including a review by Harold Hobson, Bernard Levin's "I'm glad I've caught up" in the 'Daily Mail' of 8 Jan. 1963, and a feature on Peter as one of "[David] Kossoff's Friends" with a portrait sketch and short biography. There are two reviews from outside the U.K.: "Du sillage de Shakespeare à une réussite en un acte" from the 'Tribune de Genève' of 5 July 1962 and Richard Watts Jr.'s "Detective out of Lewis Carroll" in the 'New York Post' of July 1962.
9 ff. of material relating to the production at the Chichester Festival Theatre, comprising ff. 63-72 of the scrapbook. There are 15 cuttings, most of them theatre reviews, including Bernard Levin's "The greatest play of our generation" from the 'Daily Mail' of 8 July 1964 and its follow-up "I was right -- It is the best new play" written after a second visit, and the third "Thank you Mr S for the greatest play in my lifetime" written on the play's transfer to London; other critics include Bamber Gascoigne, J. W. Lambert, and Harold Hobson.
11 ff. of cuttings of reviews of 'Black Comedy', with ff. 73-80 relating to the production at the Chichester Festival Theatre in July 1965 and ff. 81-83 relating to the production at the Old Vic in March 1966. Reviewers include Harold Hobson, Herbert Kretzmer, Milton Shulman, [Philip] Hope-Wallace and B. A. Young.