Greville Poke

The company had claimed that it was being run as a private club, and was therefore exempt from the Theatres Act of 1843.

Poke, the secretary, William Gaskill, the director and Esdaile, the licensee, were summoned to a hearing at Marlborough Magistrates Court to represent the ESC.

The Lord Chamberlain had denied Saved a licence unless two scenes were cut, including one in which a baby is stoned to death on stage.

The Director of Public Prosecutions made eighteen summonses against the ESC prompted by the Chamberlain.

Greville John Poke (19 August 1912 – 4 March 2000) was an arts administrator and a founding member of the English Stage Company.

He was born on 19 August 1912 in Chelsea, and his father was a Fleet Street magazine owner.

Poke was educated at Harrow School.

His father had launched the magazine in 1913 as Competitor's Journal.

Poke married Patricia Lawrence (1925–1993) in the City of Westminster in 1947.

His wife was an actress and the couple had two sons, Christopher Frederick Lawrence Poke and the musician James John Lawrence Poke.

The family operated a newspaper distribution business.

Poke joined the business before becoming the editor of Everybody's, a weekly publication.

He studied History, Archaeology and Anthropology at Jesus College, University of Cambridge (1931–1934), where he took a third-class degree.

As a young man he was keen on acting in, and directing, amateur productions and going to the theatre.

Amalgamated Press took over the magazine in 1950, but Greville Poke stayed on as editor.

In 1953 he resigned and went on to sell advertising space for the Taw and Torridge Festival of the Arts in Devon that year.

This was managed by Ronald Duncan with Lord Harewood and Edward Blacksell.

Duncan and Poke had met at Cambridge.

He served as the Honorary Secretary of the English Stage Company from 1954 to 1973 and chairman from 1973 to 1978.

Greville Poke's parents were Frederick Robert Poke and Ethel Esther Mulcaster.

In 1954 Duncan invited Poke to become a member of a group known as the 'English Stage Society'.

The society's aims were to sponsor lectures and play-readings and particularly to support the founding of a permanent repertory company.

Duncan wanted to establish a theatre company devoted to the staging of non-commercial plays.

This led to the foundation of the English Stage Company (ESC) with assistance from the organisers of the festival, Oscar Lewenstein and later George Devine.

The ESC became a registered corporate body on 16 October 1954.

It altered its name from 'Society' to 'Company' to differentiate itself from existing organisations.

Poke was among the founding members of the ESC and took the role of Honorary Secretary from 1954 to 1973.

One of Poke's first actions was to assist in gaining the support of Neville Blond.

Blond was an influential industrialist and a skilled financial advisor.

In 1954 Poke and Duncan outlined the ESC's vision to Blond, who agreed that he would support them when the company had acquired a theatre.

Poke carried out negotiations to purchase Alfred Esdaile's rundown Kingsway Theatre.

This needed extensive refurbishment, so the company decided to lease the Royal Court Theatre (RCT) from Esdaile.

Nevertheless Blond joined the group and was its first ESC chairman from 1954 to 1970.

Poke was on the finance subcommittee and helped managed the company's accounts.

He also contributed his opinions about the theatre's artistic direction.

The ESC’s Artistic Director from 1956–65, was Devine.

Poke disagreed with him several times over the artistic control of the theatre and the choice of production.

Poke's taste was, on the whole, for traditional English drama.

Hence he voiced his concerns about the left-wing politics evident in many plays staged by the ESC and what he thought was their pessimistic tone.

In early 1966 the ESC was prosecuted for their production of Edward Bond's Saved staged in December 1965.