CHARLES and Stanley Dorrill had to crack down on unruly behaviour by undergraduates during their time as managers at the New Theatre, Oxford.

Students engaged in a practice called ‘ragging’, the purpose of which appears to have been to cause as much mayhem as possible in the auditorium.

The two Dorrills – father and son – kept a black book which noted the names of people guilty of creating disturbances.

In neat handwriting, it recalled how undergraduates were ejected from the theatre, and often banned, for such offences as blowing a horn in the circle during performances, knocking off an attendant’s hat, damaging theatre doors and throwing missiles on to the stage.

The names of some later eminent people were apparently included in the book, and the Dorrills had no hesitation of reminding them of their youthful transgressions.

Ragging later died out as undergraduates became better behaved, although the black book remained in the theatre safe, an entertaining relic of a bygone age.

As we recalled (Memory Lane, September 17), Charles started work in the box office when the theatre in George Street opened in 1886 and became manager in 1908. When he died in 1912, Stanley succeeded him and ran the theatre until 1955 when his son John took over. The theatre was sold to the Howard and Wyndham’s entertainment group in 1972.

Stanley was responsible for rebuilding the theatre as we know it today. The new building was opened with a great fanfare on February 26, 1934.

In his early days in charge, Stanley had to submit his programme for each term to the Vice-Chancellor of the University, to be approved as suitable for undergraduates.

One of his particular hates was theatre critics.

In 1959, he wrote to the Oxford Mail: “The often faintly-damning – I could put it stronger – reviews by your critics, presumably young men with perhaps little knowledge of the theatre, can, I think, be very harmful to the ‘live’ theatre.

“We learn of theatres all over the country closing down, a fact which perhaps has escaped the notice of your critics.”

He once barred Don Chapman, the Mail’s theatre critic for many years, for one critical review. But they later resolved their differences and became good friends.