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Lusty librarian was an unlikely Casanova
by Conrad Astley26/ 5/2005
LARKIN With Women, Ben Brown's study of poet Philip Larkin's
complicated love life, is coming to the city after successful runs
at Alan Ayckbourn's Scarborough theatre and in Leeds.
The writer and librarian, who became one of Britain's most
well-known post war poets, shunned the fame brought to him by his
poems such as This Be The Verse, and seemed awkward and
reclusive.
He never married, but was closely involved with three women -
lecturer Monica, the strict Catholic library assistant Maeve, and
his secretary Betty - relationships that overlapped.
The events of the play take place over three decades, during which
he had very different relationships with the women, but there was a
three-year period when he was emotionally entangled with all of
them.
As Cameron Stewart, playing the poet at the Manchester production,
said: "He's quite an unlikely Casanova, but then Casanova himself
worked as a librarian."
The play has some personal significance for Cameron, who was a
student at Hull University during the late 70s when Larkin, by that
point well known for his poetry, was still working at the
university's library.
He even spent some of his time there living in a flat, which had
previously been occupied by the poet, and in which some of the
play's action takes place.
He said: "I knew he lived there at the time. When he talks about
looking through the window at the park, I know exactly what he's
describing.
"He was very well known and of course we used to see him, but the
thing to do was not to let on you'd seen him.
"He kept himself very much apart from the students, I suppose he
didn't want to be constantly hassled by a load of people who had
just come out of adolescence, which seems reasonable."
Cameron, who has been researching the poet's life, said Larkin was
a complicated character full of contradictions.
Despite being convinced of his own genius, and being recognised
during his lifetime, he was often unhappy about his work - turning
down the Poet Laureateship after the death of John Betjeman as he
said he had writer's block.
He was also a very private man - saying he could not achieve his
ambition of writing novels because he didn't know enough about
other people.
However, the play is an attempt to give the public an insight into
his mind.
He said: "It reveals Larkin through his relationships with
women.
"To say they're used as vehicles for the play isn't quite fair on
them, but you get to see a lot about what he was like, and about
his viewpoints, through how he related to these women.
"He was very anti-marriage, but he seems to have been a very sexual
man. However, he kept a lot of it very quiet.
"He probably wasn't as successful as he'd liked to have been.
"He was somewhat thwarted, as many people were at the time because
of the strict social customs."
The actor, who writes poetry himself, said he hoped the play would
inspire people to look at Larkin's work again.
He said: "It's very relevant poetry, and it's fairly timeless
stuff.
"There's a bleakness to it, but there's a bleakness to a lot of
art.
"The play will probably stimulate people to read the poems. There's
been a bit of a revival over the last few years but generally
people don't tend to read poetry these days."
Current Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, who wrote a biography of
Larkin, will visit the theatre to speak about him on June 23.
The play runs at the Library Theatre from June 10-July 2.
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