Greville Poke

Greville John Poke (19 August 1912 – 4 March 2000) was an arts administrator and a founding member of the English Stage Company. He served as the Honorary Secretary of the English Stage Company from 1954 to 1973 and chairman from 1973 to 1978.

Early life

Greville Poke's parents were Frederick Robert Poke and Ethel Esther Mulcaster. He was born on 19 August 1912 in Chelsea, and his father was a Fleet Street magazine owner. Poke was educated at Harrow School. 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.

The family operated a newspaper distribution business. Poke joined the business before becoming the editor of Everybody's, a weekly publication. His father had launched the magazine in 1913 as Competitor's Journal. 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 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.

Career at the English Stage Company Establishing the Company

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.

In March 1966 when the hearing resumed Poke, Gaskill and Esdaile pleaded not guilty. The court ruled that the performance violated the Theatres Act 1843 as the RCT was open several nights a week as a public theatre and was not just a private club. The ESC was fined £50 which was a token amount for a technical offence. The case of Saved contributed to the repeal of the Theatres Act 1843 in 1968. This liberated theatres from censorship. He warned the ESC that the Arts Council would protest against the action and might threaten to stop funding the company. Poke was correct: the Arts Council stated its objections and newspaper drama critics boycotted Royal Court performances. Backtracking, the directors admitted that they should have taken Poke’s advice and reinstated the company’s policy of inviting the press to productions.

Chairman

In 1970 Poke refused the offer of the Chairmanship of the ESC, but accepted when offered the position in 1973. He served as the chairman until 1978. Remaining on the council until the 1990s, Poke was president until his death in 2000.

Other interests

As well as the ESC, Poke was involved with several other theatrical organisations. He was chairman of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and Thorndike Theatre, Leatherhead. Financially he supported new stage productions including the musical 'Evita'. Poke was heavily involved in charitable work. This included supporting the Actors Centre, the Royal Theatrical Support Fund and the Richard Haines Charitable Trust.