South Yorkshire Times, April 25th, 1970
Another Fight For Hague …And A Boost For Culture
“Iron” Hague, Mexborough’s vaunted British heavyweight boxing champ., long dead, can bring still further honours to the town tomorrow (Saturday).
For Hague is central figure in one of two Mexborough plays presented at Nottingham in the bid for a chance of national drama awards
Shrewd thinking has given this golden chance to Mexborough’s lately fledged Demanton Experimental Theatre and to the longer established Mexborough Theatre Guild, respectively winner and runner-up in the town’s recent festival of one-act plays.
Affiliation
Two months ago it was decided to affiliate the local festival to the British Drama League for the first time. As a result the two successful groups have qualified for a place in the finals of B.D.L.’s national festival. At stake is a tilt at the regional, and English and British honours.
Demanton’s “Life and Fights of Iron Hague” – written by local journalist and Demanton leading light, Geoff Sargieson – has already gone down well in Mexborough…last week at the re-opened Rockingham Theatre, Schofield Street.
Now comes the acid test for this, and the Theatre Guild production “O’Flaterty V.C.” Little is known of the opposition, two other divisional finalists, but a Demanton official commented they must have already won two festivals to get there.
From Demanton’s viewpoint, it is a question of how the local Hague theme goes down outside Mexborough.
£10 award
Already divisional qualification has brought a £10 award. The English National finals would return a modest £25, not much more than travelling and staging costs, but more important for the Mexborough area, the link up with B.D.L. gives access to the world’s largest library of plays which can be rented at a reasonable charge, and the League also gives expert advice on all facets of dramatic technique. This could help considerably to inject new vitality into the long ailing cultural life of South Yorkshire.