Once again, thanks to Terri Green who emailed me about the fact that I failed to deliver on my promise to write mini reviews of Noel Streatfeild's novels :-D
Curtain Up
By Noel Streatfeild
Illustrated by D. L. Mays
Publisher: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 288 pages
THIS is my all-time favourite Noel Streatfeild book. I like it even more than I do Ballet Shoes, which was the first Streatfeild I ever read.
The Fossil sisters, who are the main characters in Ballet Shoes, are also in Curtain Up. But they have off-stage roles, so to speak.
Like Ballet Shoes, Curtain Up focuses on three children, siblings Sorrel, Mark and Holly Forbes. They are motherless and live with their paternal grandfather while their father is away (the story is set during WW2 and the Forbes's father is in the Navy).
When their grandfather dies, the children are sent to live with their maternal grandmother in London. For the first time in their lives, the Forbeses learn that their mother came from a famous theatrical family (the Warrens) who did not approve of her marriage to a sailor.
The children are enrolled in the same stage school that the Fossils attended. Although the Warrens are famous, their grandmother is extravagant and doesn't have much money. It is hoped that the children have inherited the family talent and, eventually, help with finances by taking to the stage professionally. In the meantime, they can hardly afford their school fees. Luckily, Madame Fidolia, the director of the school, sees fit to award them scholarships from the Fossil sisters.
Sorrel gets Pauline's scholarship; Holly gets Posy's; and Mark gets Petrova's (in his case, not a theatrical scholarship since Petrova did not go on the stage, but one that is simply meant to help him with pocket money and fees, because the Fossils like to do things together).
Mark is appalled at the thought of acting and dancing. It turns out that he has a beautiful singing voice, but he has no interest in a career on the stage and wants to be a sailor instead.
Sorrel slowly comes to realise that she loves acting and tries her best at the academy. As for Holly, it soon becomes clear that she isn't good enough a dancer to receive the Posy Fossil scholarship (she later shows a talent for comedy). However, Posy decides to continue paying Holly's fees. However, she creates another scholarship for Miriam Cohen, who is the Forbes's cousin and a very promising ballet student.
Miriam is one of the Forbes's two cousins at the academy. She gets on well with the Forbeses, but the other cousin, Miranda Brain, is a brilliant actress who thinks highly of herself and treats her cousins with scorn and coldness.
I like this book because of the detail in which it describes the academy and the training that the children go through. The experience of rehearsing, performing and auditioning are also described and explained
in minute detail. It's fascinating for anyone who is even simply casually interested in theatre and the history of performing arts, and offers the added perspective of theatre-training during the war
I also like the characters, especially Sorrel and Mark. Sorrel's slow realisation that she loves acting and her progress as an actor is very interesting, and, since she is such a likeable character, most satisfying. The descriptions of Mark's singing are amusing, especially how absorbed he becomes with the roles he assumes when he sings so that he is completely oblivious of his surroundings and reality.
If you have read Ballet Shoes, you will recognise some characters from that book - not just the Fossils, who appear in the form of letters to the Forbeses, but also characters like Madame Fidolia, Miss Jay and Winifred.
What I like most about Streatfeild is how the children she creates are real and complex. They are not just "types", such as Enid Blyton's characters often are, but people with multi-layered, multi-dimensional personalities. A generally likeable character, such as Sorrel, is capable of showing a selfish, petulant side. And even when a character like Miranda is presented as someone who is spoilt and snobbish, the reader is also shown how talented and charming she can be.
P.S. I bought this book (see the picture) at a bookshop called The Students Service Centre, in Batu Pahat, Johore. I think I was about 12 and so the year was 1979. The price is written in pencil on the title page: RM3.90!
The edition still in print is, I believe, called Theatre Shoes (Streafeild's books were reissued in a "shoe" series: Ballet Shoes, Tennis Shoes, Skating Shoes and so on) and is, I've heard, abridged.
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