In London’s West End there are scores of theatres with decorated facades – but this one is outstanding.
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- It is easy to walk past Odeon Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue and not notice the amazing frieze running along above the ground floor.
It’s too bad that today most people would have little idea of the stories behind the figures in the frieze. If you take time to look at the sculptured reliefs, you will see the story of “Drama through the Ages”.
The theatre was built in 1931 with T.P. Bennett as architect, but it is the frieze that makes this building so special. It was cast in stone by Gilbert Bayes, one of the best sculptors of the time. He did significant work around London including the massive “Queen of Time” group above the entrance to Selfridges on Oxford Street and two of the statues on the façade of the V&A Museum.
The frieze is not chronological – so I will show it as it appears on the building
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- Medieval minstrels and monks start the parade on the left hand corner of the frieze.
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- In the scene above, St. George kneels before an angel who crowns him with a laurel wreath. As the Patron Saint of Britain, he often appeared in the Mystery Plays. Behind him stands a winged boy holding arrows. The princess he saved holds his horse, and a small but aggressive-looking dragon seems to preparing to growl or spit some fire.
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- Here’s a Greek Chorus with the actors carrying masks for Tragedy and Comedy. They are led by the Coryphaeus holding a mirror. (Coryphaeus was the leader who spoke for the chorus in Greek plays.)
Roman Gladiators
and Imperial Rome
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- And then the Bacchanalia
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- The story of Drama in England must include the work of William Shakespeare and several characters from his plays appear in the frieze. On the left behind the clown, a morose Hamlet stands holding poor Yorick’s skull. Then Lady Macbeth looks spooky in her robes.
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- From Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titania sits on the back of a cart while Puck plays with puppets on a string. Henry Vi stands behind his shield; finally there is Nick Bottom with his donkey head.
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- In this section two elegant Georgian ladies wave their fans, watched by a man in a tricorn hat and greatcoat. A thoughtful, scowling man (with a puppet in his pocket) leans against a Punch and Judy tent, where Punch sits gloating over the body of his wife Judy. A dog poses in his ruff collar and a one-man-band attracts an audience.
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- Next – the Romantics
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- Finally – the Twentieth Century theatre is represented by a chorus line of modern girls doing the Charleston. It has been suggested that the man with the long coat who is holding a pipe is Sherlock Holmes, played by Tod Slaughter, an actor who was famous for playing villains in the theatre in the early 1930s.
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- The figures that go around the corners represent two plays: “St. Joan” by George Bernard Shaw
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- “Khaki” was a hit in 1924 in which an unwilling conscript becomes a war hero when he outwits villainous officers. The play attracted the attention of the censors who did not like seeing officers portrayed in such a negative way, and the play was changed and then went on to be a hit.
Both of these hit plays have main characters who struggle against crushing authority. Perhaps the choice of these plays reflect the political beliefs of the sculptor Gilbert Bayes.
This theatre is an outstanding example of the exuberant public sculpture that
makes London a wonderful place to explore.
They certainly don’t build Cine-Worlds like this today, must to our loss.
The information about the frieze comes from these websites. “Ornamental Passions” is a great source of information about London. It’s similar to what I do but looks at things individually rather than linking lots of things around London as I usually do.
All photos were taken by Cathey Leitch @Cathey Leitch, 2015