ABSTRACT
In her later teenage years, after working on the history of the theatre in Ireland, Margaretta D’Arcy moved closer to her aspiration – involvement with the theatre. In 1948 she also joined the amateur Thespian Players at Bray. The Players were themselves a splinter group from another amateur company and had very few active members. Margaretta D’Arcy became a day student at Capon’s school, which probably meant that she lost out to some extent compared with those who boarded, but still overall the course disappointed her. D’Arcy was the most junior member of the company when it was opened by Sir Ralph Richardson on 21 September 1953. D’Arcy’s special friend at Hornchurch was the actor Christopher Burgess, later seen on television in Doctor Who, Jane Eyre, Sherlock Holmes and many other programmes.
