THEATER PREVIEW:

“The Children’s Hour” was a scary piece of theater some 73 years ago. In fact, it scared off many potential actresses, according to Martie Ramm, who’s directing Golden West College’s upcoming revival of the Lillian Hellman drama.

“In 1934, when the original Broadway production of ‘The Children’s Hour’ was planned,” Ramm explains, “Broadway’s leading ladies would not take roles in the play, as they feared police would close it down.

“It was banned in Boston, Chicago and London, but allowed in France, where the French loved it. The uproar over its content also scared off the Pulitzer Prize selection committee, which refused to attend a single performance of the play.”

While the stage version — which opens Friday for two weekends in GWC’s Stage West Theater — admittedly is an oldie, the historical incident on which Hellman based her play goes all the way back to 1810.

At that time, in Edinburgh, Scotland, a student named Jane Cumming accused her school mistresses Jane Pirie and Marianne Woods of having an affair in the presence of their students.

Dame Cumming Gordon, the accuser’s influential grandmother, advised her friends to remove their daughters from the boarding school and within days the school was deserted and the two women had been deprived of their livelihood. Pirie and Woods eventually prevailed both in court and on appeal but given the damage done to their lives, the win was considered a hollow one.

“What drew me to ‘The Children’s Hour’ was the understanding of how a lie, one single lie, can affect the lives of so many in such horrid ways,” Ramm declares. “I believe everyone has had a lie perpetrated on them. I also believe everyone has dealt with the futility of trying to put back together what a lie has torn apart.”

Despite the chilly reception which initially greeted Hellman’s play in 1934, “the theme of the play kept it relevant enough to lead to a revival in 1952, at which time it also served as an open criticism of the hearings then being conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.”

Director William Wyler turned it into a movie starring Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn.

“Lillian Hellman was called to testify and was ultimately blacklisted in Hollywood,” Ramm adds. “This turmoil added fuel to the controversy over the play.”

Golden West College will present “The Children’s Hour” in its intimate Stage West Theater (formerly the Actors’ Playbox) for the next two weekends, with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets may be ordered at (714) 895-8150 or at www.gwctheater.com.

“Although written over 70 years ago, ‘The Children’s Hour’ remains a classic example of American melodrama,” director Ramm says.

“It is my hope that audiences will find it as compelling today as it was startling back then.”

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.