ZERO READS HALLIDAY | WELCOME

ZERO MAHLOWE – AN APPRECIATION BY BOB HARDY – January 2023

ZERO’s BACKGROUND
Born in London in 1930, Patricia Jones (later to change her name to Zero) was 21 when she first met both Eugene Halliday and his wife Peg. This was during a visit by her to the Isle of Man in the summer of 1951 when she heard first heard him speaking about his ideas to an informal group of people who had gathered to hear him speak on one of the island’s beaches. And it was as a direct consequence of these initial meetings that she began Working with him.

Patricia was at that time a full-time professional stage actress (stage name, Marah Stoles) who had been accepted as a student into The Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the age of 16. She came from a London family of classically trained musicians, and was the sister of the British trumpeter, Phillip Jones CBE.

She moved to Manchester where Eugene and Peg had a large house in Wellington Road which was, as Zero described it me, “(What) you might call a miniature artistic community,” finding temporarily work as an ASM at The Library Theatre, where she was soon after to first meet her future husband, David Mahlowe, who had come up from The Birmingham Repertory Theatre to perform in The Library Theatre’s winter Christmas production of ‘Alice In Wonderland’. During this run and after talking together, Zero took David along to one of the Wednesday informal discussion groups that took place at Eugene’s house and they continued to do so until the end of the play’s run, when Zero returned to London and David to Birmingham… Most importantly though, Zero continued her Working relationship with Eugene via a written correspondence, and significantly, so did David…

Not long after this Zero was taken on by The Library Theatre as a full-time actress, and was able to move to Manchester as a direct consequence. This of course allowed her to continue to meet and Work with Eugene, and to also attend his Wednesday group discussions.

Zero was now performing regularly with The Library Theatre Company, and at one point was cast in Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’. She suggested to the director that David Mahlowe be offered the part of Brutus. He accepted, and thus he too now became a full-time member of The Library Theatre Company.

In 1956 he and Zero married. However, it was soon after this that Peg became increasingly ill with MS. To help Eugene take care of her of this Zero and David took up residence permanently in Eugene’s house in Wellington Road. This arrangement was to continue there up until 1966 when the four of them moved to ‘Parklands’. A large house that was purchased by the Liverpool businessman Fred Freeman. And it was these five individuals founded the charity ISHVAL there.

From then on up until Eugene’s death in July of 1987 both Zero and David Mahlowe Worked with Eugene Halliday on a daily basis. Parklands was to continue on under the guidance of David Mahlowe, who was to die ten years later in 1998

It was not until 2004 that I began to meet with Zero on a regular basis, initially to interview her extensively about her life, and also the details of her approach to what was surely a unique situation – that of Working with Eugene Halliday on a daily basis for over 30 years. Happily we became friends during which time she was able to confirm to my satisfaction that Working was what Eugene was attempting to do continuously – and fundamentally this was all that he was doing.

RECORDING EUGENE HALLIDAYS WRITTEN WORK

I believe that, as a professionally trained actress along with her life-long experience of Working with Eugene Halliday, Zero Mahlowe was surely the ideal person to make these audio recordings of his writings. And as I had experience of working in a sound studios, both as a performer, and later on as a technical producer it seemed to be an ideal opportunity.

At first she was a somewhat reluctant, primarily because she had never done any work like this. But I explained to her that she actually had a vast experience of reading from book. Because after all that’s how actors began the process of absorbing the part they were to play in any particular performance. That is to say they read out aloud directly from the book (often with other actors from the same play doing likewise – called a ‘reading’) and when they had memorized their parts being and so ready to be directed, being ‘off book’.

I explained to her that directing an audiobook reading was exactly the same really as directing a play (something that I knew a great deal about as my daughter is the artistic director of a large theatre in America) the process was simple. She would read work with a chapter on her own, then when she felt ready, read it and I would record it – stopping for any part that either she or I felt didn’t illuminate what it was that Eugene had written. We would then both listen to an edited by me version that removed all the duplication and this would give us an initial ‘first take’ . She would then listen to this first edit and either give it her seal of approval or ask me to record this again. It looks and sounds a lot more complicated on paper than it actually is in real life if you know what you’re doing. But it can be a very lengthy process if you wish to do it properly.

I am grateful that I took the opportunity to take part in the making of these recordings.

Bob Hardy