Mr. Bunt

Mr. Bunt is a three-act children's fantasy play by American poet, painter, playwright Ira Mallory Remsen. It was performed in the summer of 1924, at the Forest Theater in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Novelist, and playwright John Northern Hilliard played the role of Danny, a circus clown. It was the first time a play was presented at the Forest Theater with its own music composed for it and directed by the composer Frederick Preston Search with his own orchestra.

Summary


On his return from Pasadena to Carmel in 1924, Remsen produced the three-act fantasy play entitled Mr. Bunt, about an imaginary playmate, which was produced at the Forest Theater from July 3 through 5th. It won the $100 award for the best original play submitted in the annual play contest held by the Forest Theater Society. The play was adapted for the outdoor amphitheater in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The play was similar to novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan.

Mr. Bunt was planned and written in Remsen's studio on Dolores Street in downtown Carmel. The manuscript for the play was entitled Mr. Bunt, Concerning The Invisible Playmates Of Our Childhood, and was dedicated to his wife Helen "Yodee" Remsen, and published by the Seven Arts Press.

The Ira Resmen executive committee was established to cover all aspects of the production for the play. This included publicity, casting, music, costumes, makeup, construction, lighting (by local photographer Lewis Josselyn), and stage hands. The play was produced under the direction of Remsen and Blanche Tolmie.

The setting was an open space in the forest with trees and flowers centered about a maple tree and a hill of yellow buttercups. The changes of scene were affected by a carved Swiss wooden toy with three sides, each side representing a scene. The Greeks called this a periaktos. It was on rollers and easily turned. Side one was a cottage in the woods; side two, the twisted roots of a maple tree and the head of an owl; and side three was the canvas of the circus tent.

The first act opened with the cottage in the woods, which stood on the right of the stage. Gyem, was the woodsprite, Mr. Bunt, had the title role, with children as fairies. The second act opened with trumpets, circus riders, and other animals. There was a circus band, bareback riders, clowns, freaks, and sideshow artists.

Characters


The cast of characters if from the official Mr. Bunt 1924 program.

In The Cottage In The Wood:
 * Rose - Helen Judson
 * Dabs - Dale Leidig
 * Annie - Valentine M. Porter

In The Circus:
 * Jim - Charles King Van Riper
 * Lu - Phyllis Blake
 * Danny - John Northern Hilliard

In The Maple Tree:
 * Owl - Winsor Josselyn
 * Gyem - Caryl Jones
 * The Sandman - Calvin H. Luther
 * Gateman - Paul Flanders
 * Buttons - Denman Whitney
 * First Fairy - Barbara Lewis
 * Second Fairy - Barrian Cator

In Trouble:
 * Mrs. Geshisish - Christine Burton
 * Mr. Bunt - Scott Douglas
 * Faries, Circus troupe

Reviews


The performance of Mr. Bunt had mixed reviews.

"Mr. Bunt is a breath of the unexpected-humorous, pathetic, and graceful gesture of the imagination. It is also a play and was produced in the Carmel last summer in the Forest Theater, surely a perfect setting for this whimsical fantasy of child and adult make believe. Mr. Bunt, who was 'made up' by Annie as she crooned the classic 'bye, Baby Bunting' to her doll, is a distinct addition to the small group of Twentieth Century fairies-though he isn't rightly a fairy at all but an 'invisible playmate,' a new-fangled name for an ancient and honorable order. Mr. Remsen is most engaging when treating of the order, old and new, and his two children are inimitable. He is less happy in his handling of the adult situation. Sentimentally overlays sentiment and his grown-ups as well as some of his fairies suffer severely from romance, that disease of the symbolic. Mr. Bunt presents fascinating opportunities for the imaginative stage director, opportunity, too, for the actor, for such a play must be done very well indeed or not done at all."

"The first act is purely fantastical. In it Remsen introduces his idea of fairyland-a new and strange place with a delightful element of the amazing and the grotesque. Gyem, the woodsprite, who darted into the hearts of the audience at Remsen's production on Inchling two years ago, will again be seen in this play. Mr. Bunt, the title role, one of the tiny folk, will be played by Scott Douglas, a young actor. The fairies are now being trained by Miss Blanche Tolmie, of Carmel, assistant producer of the play. Miss Tolmie produced Remen's Inchling at the Forest Theater in the summer of 1920. The second act opens with a blare of trumpets, the noise and rush of the circus riders, the shrieks of the animals. This scene the producers will strive to make one of the big features of Mr. Blunt. There will be a regular circus band, bareback riders, clowns, not to mention all the freaks and sideshow artists. Here is the realistic element which runs throughout the play. In this strain Lu, the circus girl, is the leading part which will be played by Phyllis Blake, a young actress of San Francisco. The other two important grown-up roles are Jim the clown, which will be taken by Charles Van Riper; and Danny, by John Northern Hilliard."

An afterword to the manuscript was written by theater producer Maurice Browne.

"Mr. Remsen has honored me by an invitation to write a footnote to Mr. Bunt. The extraordinary charm of the production which Mr. Bunt was given intensified this feeling. First, there was the magic of that fairy glade which is Carmel's Forest Theater - the stillness of the great trees, the rare call of a bird, the deep heart of night under the stars and near the sea; we came and we went by lantern light, and our voices and our feet fell gently on the pine needles and the quiet earth... The particular mood of Mr. Bunt is one of which our theater, like our life, today has desperate need. It is the mood of 'Prunella' and of Peter Plan.... It is at least a happy augury that so delicate and kind a work of the human imagination as Mr. Bunt should be the first in a series of projected publications of Carmel plays. May it have worthy successors."

Adaptations
Remsen's play Mr. Bunt was presented again at the Forest Theater from Friday July 11 through Sunday 13, 1952. It was produced by the Forest Theater Guild and directed by Blanche Tolmie.