BECAUSE WE MUST (1937)

A little modern play which gave Vivien Leigh her first West End part

Genre: Comedy

Playwright: Ingaret Giffard

Directed: Norman Marshall

Stage Manager: Bernard Gordon

Location: Wyndham's Theatre

Opened: February 5, 1937 (the play closed within a month)

Cast: Vivien Leigh (Pamela Golding-Ffrench), Margaret Emden (Mrs. Golding-Ffrench), Enid Lindsey (Mrs. Mainwaring), Mary Hilton (Margaret Chansy), Catherine Lacey (Diana Fellows), Peggy Talbot-Daniel (Mary), Alan Napier (Sir Basil Graham), Jill Furse (Judith Chansy), Anne Firth (Olga Jevins), Ann Casson (Hilda Mainwaring), Wallace Douglas (Richard Dobbs), and Elizabeth Gilbert (a girl)

On opening night of Because We Must Vivien Leigh gave each member of the cast a copy of the American best seller Gone With the Wind. Vivien also told John Gliddon that she felt she was ideal to play Scarlett in Selznick's planned film version.

Biographer Anne Edwards about the play: Because We Must was a light effort by playwright Ingaret Giffard, and Vivien's role was the only dimensional and theatrical one in the play. Need overbalanced judgment, for it is doubtful that she would have accepted the part in view of her lack of belief in the play's merits if she thought there was another choice.

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