THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Written and produced by Gary Tippings
A Question of Duty, a two-act play which tells the surprising story of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's secret train in World War Two and features the grandfather of a Hertfordshire café owner, premiered at the Watersmeet Theatre in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, on July 25th. It drew standing ovations for the actors and for Gary Tippings, writer and producer of this, his first stage play.
It tells the little-known story of the relationships between General Eisenhower, Sgt. Albert Phillips, who ran the train, and Kay Summersby, the General's aide. Summersby and Ike had an extremely close relationship, as witnessed by Albert. Some have suggested a sexual relationship between the two, although people who knew both at the time have rejected that claim, as have most of Eisenhower's biographers.
Keith Joyce (54), the owner of Katie's Café at Rickmansworth station, which serves hundreds of passengers every day, spent years researching the lives of his late grandfather and Kay, who were both permanently assigned to the General's mobile command train as it crossed the UK and Europe. Looking through family archives, Keith realised that there was an amazing story to be told about Albert and his close relationship with Eisenhower, which had been hidden due to the secret nature of the operation, and that it would make a great film and play.
Set in December 1944, A Question of Duty takes place aboard General Eisenhower's mobile command train in the build-up to the final stages of World War II. The play follows a critical 24-hour period as Eisenhower prepares for the next stage of the Allied advance and responds to growing tensions with the Soviet Union. He is joined by Field Marshal Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (later Viscount Alanbrooke); Colonel Gault, a formal and rigid British Colonel; Kay Summersby, Eisenhower's aide; and Albert Phillips, the loyal British Sergeant.
While military plans are debated, the characters engage in private conversations that reveal the personal pressures behind public decisions. Kay must navigate the expectations of a male-dominated hierarchy while managing Eisenhower's household and his emotional state. The play explores themes of command, discretion, gender, and class. Based on real people and events, it offers a contained, dialogue-driven examination of wartime leadership and the often-overlooked roles of those who supported it from behind the scenes.
This is Tippings' first excursion into the world of the stage play, although he is a well-known writer of novels and short stories, and it was his decision to raise the money so that the first audiences to see it would be in Rickmansworth. As a first attempt, it is a brilliant effort, with a script that not only captures the various tensions on the train but also uses World War Two events to illustrate what was going on and why many of the tensions existed in the first place.
The meeting between the Allied leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin in Tehran, complete with graphic information about Winston Churchill, and the death of bandleader Glenn Miller which coincided with the visit of the secret train to Paris, are just two examples.
The actors (David Sayers from Netflix's Squid Game Series 3; Muireann Gallen, an Irish actor living in London who made her feature film debut in The Reckoning of Erin Morrigan at the 37th Galway Film Fleadh as Lieutenant Kay Summersby; Robert Maskell, Ernest Shackleton in Endurance and Mayor Fernando Wood in the stage premier of The Gangs of New York, as Field Marshal Alan Brooke; writer, director and actor Tama Matheson as Colonel Gault; Oliver Holland, a 'proud working-class actor' who has experience in immersive theatre, as Sgt. Albert Phillips) were well cast and superbly directed by Tama Mathewson. It always helps to get actors who bear a resemblance to the people that they were playing, and this was evident in the casting.
The play, which lasts just over two hours, is both enjoyable and thought-provoking. It dips into secret history; it looks at how we deal with both personal tensions and those that are thrust upon us, particularly in wartime.
The next big task for Gary and the team is to get this play into the West End and to tour the country. When they do this, they'll need to do something about the stage setting, which did not reflect a train. But in many ways that is not an important detail and can be remedied with a bit of revised set design. I have no doubt that this will happen and that wherever it goes, it will be well received.
Talking to Keith after the production, he said, "The more I found out about my grandfather, the more I realised that there was a great story to be told about him and his relationship, not only with the supreme allied commander, but also with his other staff who worked on the train." He added, "Since the production aired, even more information has come to light from family members. Especially about the relationship with Albert and the Eisenhower family after the war."
Gary Tippings said, "A Question of Duty is one of those plays set during the war that really surprises people, because it's not about battles or politics. It's about people. It's set in one railway carriage over the course of one night, and what makes it so powerful is how much happens just in the conversations. You don't need to be a history buff or regular theatergoer to enjoy this. If you've ever sat up late talking to someone and suddenly found yourself saying things you didn't expect, you'll get this play."
Talks are underway about a major film and a book about Albert and the train.
