The Blog

…..I was prostrate, out cold. I had expected a jab in the back, I had expected to be semi-conscious for the full 90 minutes. But I was fast asleep throughout. Coming to – several hours later – I felt dreamy, bouyant. I was in bed. At the end of the bed two feet were sticking up from the blankets, pink and very clean. Clearly worth a photograph – I reached for my phone, conveniently on the bedside table.

So if you’re one of several friends who recently received bewildering WhatsApp images of a pair of pink feet, my apologies. I was high as a kite.

Those anaesthetic drugs are mightily potent, thank goodness. During the ninety minutes a distinguished orthopaedic surgeon, Mr Gilbert Railton and his team had been busy with handsaw and chisel, removing a well-worn left hip joint and replacing it with a shiny, cunningly fashioned new one. Amazing stuff. Two days later I was on my way home in my own personal ambulance, having been looked after magnificently by the NHS nurses, physios and staff at Epsom Hospital. I had, if you will pardon the expression, fallen on my feet – for this is reckoned to be one of the very best orthopaedic units anywhere. Having been driven there by two kind neighbours, I found myself in a small very modern ward, with just two other patients – one of whom was a wealthy businessman who had cancelled a booking for private surgery. He’d realised he would be in the same hospital with the same surgeon, with the same degree of support from the same medical team – albeit in a solo room with presumably a wider choice of food – and for which his bill would have been around thirteen thousand pounds!

I realise from today’s news of the advancing Covid Second Wave that I’ve been incredibly lucky to hit a window when the beleaguered NHS still has space for some “non-essential” operations. I’ve been limping about the world for a decade now, an uncertain gait aggravated somewhat by a collision with a bus in New Oxford St a few years back. All I have to do is work through a six-week programme of physiotherapy exercises – then stand back! Is there a dance teacher out there who’d care this autumn to swap some top-level audition prep for a beginner’s course in Salsa?

And meanwhile what of the other, non-operating theatres? Literally non-operating at present, alas, with some brave exceptions. A glance into the media shows a world teeming with actors and production teams desperate to get out there and strut their stuff – and incidentally there has been a noticeable increase in requests for acting coaching on this TYA website – but what of the venues, where crusts may be earned? For sure the film and TV production wheels are turning, albeit fitfully, but the percentage of drama school grads lucky enough to be handed a film or TV contract on completing their course is more neglible now than ever before.

HOWEVER, theatre folk are persistent and dogged, and to a person Micawberists, so ways to re-open are being found. From the tiniest art centres to the biggest West End theatres, things are stirring. For instance, Jeremy Drakes reported performing in September at the admirable if diminutive Old Sorting Office in Barnes, as part of the #briefencounters initiative, to enthusiastic 50-strong audiences seated at tables in groups of no more than 6, where the customers could buy food and drink.

Larger-scale, profit-dependent “commercial” theatres operate on slim profit margins, so to close down hundreds of seats due to Covid social separation is a major challenge. Back in July Andrew Lloyd Webber ran a “test” performance at the London Palladium starring Beverley Knight to get a feel of the impact of the new restrictions. Here’s what the auditorium looked like, with unavailable seats marked with crosses.

Picture: The Stage

You can see the problem. And yet – as of yesterday, campaigning by Lloyd Weber and others has produced a result, as you will have seen in the news, at least with regard to some pantomimes – including the one at the Palladium – as the National Lottery gallops to the rescue.

There’s also a panto planned for the Garrick, but the lucky nine other productions to be awarded Lottery support have yet to be announced. Since producer Michael Harrison has welcomed the Lottery announcement so eagerly, it’s a fairly safe bet that some of the thirty-plus regional venues for which his Qdos company supplied Christmas shows last year – from Aberdeen to Bristol, from Newcastle to Richmond in Surrey – will benefit.

However also, as of next month, unless the Covid Second Wave suddenly triggers a government theatres closure – a horrible thought but hey, keep watching the news – if you want to see a West End Show other than a panto, tickets for some are already on sale. For example SIX, the hit musical about Henry V111’s wives, is selling out fast at the Lyric (opening November 7) and the touring version will set off to visit major theatres throughout the country – with venues booked through till February 2022!

Being a commercial theatre producer always involves taking huge risks – it’s estimated that only 1 in 10 West End shows achieves a profit – so all credit to the managements who are taking edgy decisions to rekindle a crucial part of our country’s creative life. See below for links.

Propping up commercial pantomime producers is one thing – BUT what of the “non-commercial” venues and companies? What of the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, what of the Brewhouse at Taunton? What of the Bush, the Kiln and the rest of the brilliant London “fringe”? Across the country local producing theatres, companies and touring venues are still nervously waiting to see how much or how little of the Chancellor’s July £1.57 billion “arts rescue package” may or may not come their way.

STOP PRESS NEWS

Since the above paragraph was written, the news has started to come in (October 12) of the new funding allocations. The full list will be issued later today, but as of 9am this morning Keswick Theatre by the Lake gets a “rescue” grant of £878,492, the Bristol Old Vic gets £610,466, the Young Vic £961,455, and London’s tiny Finborough Theatre £60,000. At all of those places you can almost hear the collective “Phew!!!” while many others will still be chewing their nails to the quick. Good luck if you’re one of those – we’ll be watching the news closely today.

Down on the South Bank, the National Theatre has re-configured the Olivier auditorium as a socially-distanced space.

It will open with the Roy Willams play Death of England: Delroy on October 21st, with Michael Balogun following Rafe Spall’s acclaimed pre-pandemic performance in Death of England in February.

Over at Stratford on Avon the RSC is planning productions of The Winter’s Tale and The Comedy of Errors, delayed until the Spring of 2021. This gives us pause to reflect that William Shakespeare would have found the closure of our theatres all too familiar, at a time of recurring waves not of coronavirus, rather then of the horrific bubonic plague. While in post-op isolation I found Maggie O’Farrell’s prize-winning novel “Hamnet” a revelation, a superbly written insight into the circumstances around the creation of his most famous play.

And by the Thames at Southwark, at Shakespeare’s Globe – where Michelle Terry and her team produce amazing work without any government funding at all, the brave sign outside the gate says it all

LINKS:

SIX – THE MUSICAL https://www.sixthemusical.com/london?gclid=Cj0KCQjwt4X8BRCPARIsABmcnOosdVdTmpxXVtBwy830Keo4O-TltP5HIGEKk87HMGMBdL1H4v9Hq1QaAobVEALw_wcB

Other musicals – PRETTY WOMAN, HOME FROM AWAY, THE LION KING etc https://www.atgtickets.com/

DEATH OF ENGLAND:DELROY https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/death-of-england-delroy

OLD SORTING OFFICE, BARNES https://www.osoarts.org.uk/whats-on

Meanwhile – many professional productions are still out there in Cyberspace, available at home via on-line streaming:

https://discover.ticketmaster.co.uk/theatre/our-guide-to-streaming-the-best-theatre-at-home-49832

Enjoy the season, keep the faith.

The time will come when why, we shall smile…

Are there words not yet exhausted? Unique unprecedented world-changing life-changing unheared-of unseen disturbing distressing unknowable scary weird tragic …

Cataclysmic events spark stories – wars, riots, earthquakes, tsunami, erupting volcanoes, plane crashes, train crashes, road pile-ups, revolutions, assassinations, terrorist attacks, fires, floods – and now Pestilence. The biggest Corona Story may well be a tale of Changed Perceptions, of how our lives can and should work – politically, economically, socially, morally.

Within weeks of a resounding election victory a British Conservative Government commits itself to spending far, far more public money than its derided socialist election opponents had ever proposed. A country supposedly a haven of decency and fair play witnesses ten per cent of its population ruthlessly grabbing and hoarding twenty per cent of available domestic commodities, while the needy are left staring at empty shelves.

Soon after gently and mercilessly shedding light on Morality as perceived by a so-called Senior Royal, Emily Maitlis has in a Newnight introduction asked of our post-Virus state “what level of social settlement will need to be put in place to stop inequality becoming even more stark?”

Woah there Jones! Is not this blog a light-hearted discourse on the Life Theatrical? For Matters Social Political or Moral we can turn to Peston, O’Brien and Buerk, not to mention Ms Maitlis herself! Quite so. I confess, the names of those 3 distinguished male commentators when put together suggest a 1930s tap-dance act…

So: for me all this really kicked in at the Young Vic Theatre on Tuesday March 10. I was with my NYU Tisch students, to see NORA: A DOLL’S HOUSE – Steff Smith’s refreshing, perceptive new take on Ibsen’s 1879 feminist masterpiece, given a striking production by Elizabeth Freestone, in a collaboration between the Young Vic and the Glasgow Citizens theatres.

The production has a strong, emotional climax, and as the auditiorum lights came up at the end I wasn’t entirely surprised to see my group staying in their seats, looking quite distressed. Then I noticed several were staring at their mobile phones, in tears…During the evening they had all received an urgent email message from New York University that all European study centres were closing immediately, and they should seek ways of returning to the States as quickly as possible. Given that they were only half way through their time in London, only half way through a range of creative projects including for most of them an opportunity to act in Shakespeare at RADA, this was traumatic.

I was upset too – they’re a lovely lot, I didn’t want to lose them half way through my course, which I assumed would now be cancelled. HOWEVER, this is the Age of ZOOM!! Two weeks later, there I am waving at my computer and there on the screen are 15 of my 18 students waving back! Ok as a group they’ve shrunk a bit – they’re only thumb-nail size, but as soon as one of them speaks she or he becomes the main picture. Just in time for Easter – a Miracle! I was only vaguely aware of Zoom – a sort of rather more advanced version of Skype – but after a few training sessions I’ve worked out how to use it – well, some of it – and it’s a joy to chat with these cheery souls, now scattered between New York, Chicago, Texas and California.

The substance of the course – visits to live theatre performances in London – has had, inevitably, to be adapted. But each day more recorded London theatre shows become available on the Web so we can retain links with London’s theatre world, albeit digitally – and the new technology often provides a pretty darned near facsmile of a “live” experience. A good example has been the Royal Court’s “streamed” production of David Ireland’s CYPRUS AVENUE. Terrific, sharp writing and remarkable acting, especially from Stephen Rea – taking us into the surreal world of violence born from conviction, I guess the greatest curse of mankind. Because I believe what I believe I am right, and to kill for my belief is the greatest virtue. Be prepared to laugh in the early scenes – but don’t watch the closing scenes late at night. You have been warned. Link below.

In a time when free-lancers are desperate for work, I feel a hint of guilt that – for now at least – a few of us can still earn a crust teaching online. Interestingly, training enquiries via this TYA website have steadily increased as the Virus takes hold. The UK drama schools have gone over to auditioning by Skype or Zoom, so forgive me if I briefly salute the TYA coaching team, and point out that we’re here constantly on-line, offering no-nonsense top quality actor and communications training – now more than ever with a view to how you look when you act for a camera. End of commercial break.

One of the many Big Questions posed at present for theatre folk is, after the Virus fades, how long will it take audiences to re-discover the theatre-going habit? Will Netflix and Digital Theatre and NT at Home have eroded any desire to get up and go out, to take the risk of sitting next to total strangers in a crowded room? And will anyone be able to afford tickets anyway? Today on the radio they’re talking of the worst economic slump since the 1920s… The economic crises of the 20s and 30s generated glamorous escapist movies in the cinema, and lavish escapist musicals onstage – somehow I suspect the modern response will be the Golden Age of Netflix – or has that already dawned?

But for now, there’s a wealth of recent and fairly recent theatre successes to be enjoyed digitally, either for free or for a modest payment, from Phoebe’s “Fleabag” to Michelle’s “Hamlet” at the Globe, from Howard Brenton on Indian politics at Hampstead to the heady mix of Ayckbourn/Lloyd Webber/Wodehouse in “By Jeeves!” – a truly rare event whose announcement I am poised to engrave in the diary. I missed this high-pedigree stage musical in its short West End life – it struggled at the box-office, yet Andrew LW claims it as one of his favourite-ever shows. Link below.

The New York students who were deprived of their Shakespeare opportunities in Gower St will nonetheless be given a chance to rehearse and perform a Shakespeare play online – RADA is to attempt one of the Roman plays on Zoom. I’ve come across lots of Zoom choral and orchestral events, and a few groups of actors are experimenting with small-cast short scripts, but as yet I know of no other Shakespeare play launching into Cyberspace, with remotely isolated actors, starting from scratch. Do you? I’m sure plans are afoot for many online wonders – especially as the Edinburgh Festival 2020 has already been cancelled. Let us know about new initiatives – use the Comments tag on this blog, and we’ll spread the news.

And in the midst of all the worries, spring sunshine abounds in the UK. On my one permitted exercise walk per day I just can’t stop clicking…

LINKS:

CYPRUS AVENUE https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/cyprus-avenue-film/

FLEABAG (In Support of Covid19 charities, including Acting for Others) http://ondemand.sohotheatre.com/

SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE STREAMING https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/watch/

HAMPSTEAD THEATRE STREAMING

https://www.theguardian.com/stagevideo/2020/apr/13/watch-drawing-the-line-a-drama-about-indias-partition-video

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER STREAMING https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLeErO8nXsc

Winter is upon us – or what passes for winter in leaf-strewn Surrey as the world warms. So far all we’ve had is gusty wind and prolonged dollops of rain – but nowhere near as much as further north. And how lucky we are – I witnessed the effects of flood on homes in Cockermouth a year or two back, and they are horrible – your house doesn’t just get wet, it gets ruined. Raw sewage soaks into the carpets and the furniture, and above all into the walls – and that’s the lasting, merciless effect, which takes months or years to deal with.

So to start this entry I thought I’d include a cheering image or two of country landscapes, as painted by Anna Teasdale – an old friend who passed away a few weeks ago, in my view one of the great unsung talents of British landscape painting. At the end of the blog there are links to where you can find originals and prints of her lovely work.

Given my vintage – from a time when footballers weren’t allowed to earn more than twenty quid a week, no, really – there’s no wonder this blog sometimes nods to the passing of friends and heroes, since over the decades I’ve gathered so many of both. But I rejoice in knowing younger folk read this, so let’s move swiftly to matters theatrical around London. I’ve linked up with a new troupe of creative students recently arrived from over the Pond, and have started exploring the current scene.

There’s just so much of it, all one can do is pick a few dumplings from the stew and hope they’re tasty. So far we’ve seen only three: “Cyrano” at the Playhouse, “The Welkin” at the National – both strong pieces of work, with striking lead performances by James McAvoy and Maxine Peake respectively – and then last week, “Pass Over” at the Kiln, Kilburn. And well, as a famous Greek thinker once announced from his bathtub, Eureka!

“Pass Over” isn’t a new play – its author Antoinette Nwandu first created it with the famous Chicago-based Steppenwolf company in 2018, and went on to do a film version with Spike Lee. The premise sounds bizarre – “Exodus” crossed with “Waiting for Godot” – but if you’re in London, make the effort – go and see it. I came away reckoning it could rank as historic an event as the arrival in London of “Godot” itself in 1955 at the Arts Theatre via a young director called Peter Hall. There’s undeniably outstanding work in Kilburn from the cast, director Indhu Rubasingham and her creative and tech teams.

However having now discussed it with a group of thoughtful American students, several of whom had never seen or read “Waiting for Godot” – I realised that my reactions were those of a white European theatre addict – very different, for instance from those of a young black American woman experiencing a live theatre play production for only the third time in her life (and the other two were the London shows mentioned above).

It’s writing which stays with you, and like Beckett’s original – OK, leaves you pondering Big Questions about Life, but in fact its setting is very precise, and poses queries for here and now – specifically in the context of the on-going arbitrary killing of black people on the streets of American cities. The Black Lives Matter movement is still raw and urgent, as the hopes and aspirations of Obama’s presidency fade into history. Since these are very real, very immediate issues for those living in Trump’s America, how useful is a play in a theatre?

If you can, please go and see it – it provokes much talk and many thoughts. For instance one of our group found out that in the Steppenwolf version the Valdimir and Estragon equivalent characters are teenagers – whereas in London the two brilliant actors (Paapa Essiedu and Gershwyn Eustace Jnr) play at their own 30-something age. Is this a significant choice?

It may be set firmly in America, but you leave the theatre reflecting on its resonance for our country, not least the steady surge of knife crime on London streets. Meanwhile a man in a beanie hat skulks Downing St, trying to sneak racist weirdos through the back door. It’s an image as strange and disturbing as any dreamed up by Sam Beckett.

And talking of weird images, here’s one that almost made me fall off my sofa whilst watching television last Friday night.

Why so? Well it’s a clip shown in a BBC4 documentary fronted by Billy Bragg about the way Lonnie Donegan’s hit record of a song called “Rock Island Line” hugely influenced the flowering of British rock’n’roll – the emergence of groups like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles – in the early sixties. Those of you who weren’t around then may recognise the name, as Lonnie Donegan is featured in the recent Oscar-winning Renee Zellweger movie “Judy”. The guitarist with his back to the camera in this picture is Lonnie, and the cove with the double-bass is me.

The clip was filmed in Manchester, at the Granada TV studios. In the BBC documentary there are two tiny excerpts, just a few seconds long.

The story behind this is that during the 1964 General Election Johnny Hamp – a famous Granada producer, who gave the Beatles their first TV break – had decided to feature on his nightly “Scene at Six Thirty” show acts who had been top of what was then called The Hit Parade during other recent elections. “Rock Island Line’ had been top two elections previously, and Lonnie happened to be on tour in Manchester that week in ’64. He didn’t have a band at that time so Hamp requested the casting department to supply a couple of “comedy actors” to mime to the record on washboard and tea-chest double bass, two homely instruments much used in “skiffle” music – Lonnie was known as the King of Skiffle.

As a student at the Manchester University drama department with an Equity card, I was that week doing some extra-work on “Coronation St” – so Carolyn Bartlett in the casting office sent me along. The fee bought my first car – a blue Ford Popular, bought off my schoolmate Dave Welpton for £40 – pretty dashing, eh? Did wonders for my image. It had a sign on the back saying “Disabled Driver No Hand Signals”.

If you’re in the UK you can catch Billy Bragg’s doc on iPlayer until March 21st, the link is below. Apart from my two fleeting appearances, it’s well worth checking out if you’re interested in the Golden Age of British Rock’n’Roll. For example, apparently early skiffle sessions with Donegan and the Chris Barber Band took place in the upper room of the Round House pub on Wardour St, where a teenage Mick Jagger used to go and watch, and in the doc Billy chats with survivors from John Lennon’s pre-Beatles skifflers, the Quarrymen.

Anyway, I had no idea that my microscopic contribution to rock history still existed, and there it was lingering in a dusty archive. Like Tutankhamun.

We’re just off to see Conor McPherson’s new version of “Uncle Vanya” at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Stay tuned.

• LINKS

Anna Teasdale obituary:https://blogs.bl.uk/sound-and-vision/2020/01/anna-teasdale.html

Original paintings available at: http://www.gallerylefortfineart.com/artist.php?i=37

Prints: https://www.myartprints.co.uk/a/teasdale.html?sfl=1&INCLUDE=LIST

ROCK ISLAND LINE: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000433l

KILN THEATRE: https://kilntheatre.com/whats-on/pass-over/

“Since almost everyone can talk, it hardly seems fair that only a few come to be admired for it.” Thus the great Clive James, who finally left us this week, after talking and writing brilliantly through many months – indeed years – of painfully borrowed time, and who anyone with ears to hear or eyes to read admired beyond description. What a talent. What a loss.

My evenings this week have been filled with a “binge” catch-up on the first two series of “The Crown” and one episode contains a re-creation of the legendary 1960s political satire “Beyond the Fringe”. This brilliantly cheeky show launched a quartet of amazing careers – Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller, who sadly also has now departed.

Among Dr Miller’s awesome range of achievements were many celebrated theatre projects, including in recent years directing final year students at RADA – however a much earlier production today swam back into memory. In 1970 one of my great pals was Norman Beaton, whom I went to watch deliver a super-cool Ariel in Miller’s post-colonial version of “The Tempest” at the Mermaid Theatre. I was quite surprised to track down this image a few hours ago – the show also featured Rudi Walker as Caliban.

There’s a 2015 conversation between Clive James and Jonathan Miller on Youtube – link below.

Ok, now please pay attention. This contribution is written in November, which is the AUTUMN – not, repeat not Christmas! For weeks I have fought my way through throngs of shoppers with ring-a-jing music swilling in the air, Christmas trees sprayed with fake snow stacked outside a church, a neighbouring house has sparkly lights and paper bells in the window. This is November folks, damp bonfire ashes still smoulder, bedraggled poppies are still pinned to lapels, why don’t we just enjoy this season – there are rich gold-brown leaves to be scuffed through, woodsmoke to be savoured, it’s the time of roast chestnuts and toffee apples, the football, hockey and rugby leagues in full – if muddy -swing.

Well OK, if you’re one of our Kiwi or Oz readers no doubt you’re just pulling the tabs off a few tubes while settling to a Test match under the springtime sun, while here in the Old Country we are fighting to keep the turning year’s precious traditions, as the Philistines drag us towards a Trumpian dystopia. If today’s alarming election polls are right, as Britain’s New Johnsonian Age unfolds next Christmas in the shopping malls green-masked Santas will sing of special-offer hip replacements and tinsel-bright teeth implants, available through US Big Pharma Finance! Ching-a-ling!

In September and some way into October here in London the summer fitfully lingered, long enough for my happy troupe of student visitors from New York to enjoy outdoor theatre shows in our capital – and the one which they all seemed to love was “Evita” at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. This paired-down, gutsy new version of the Lloyd-Webber musical is coming back in 2020 to be re-staged at the Barbican. Casting has yet to be announced – but I hope they’re bringing back Sarah Pauly as Evita – at the Park she was quite terrific.

We also caught “As You Like It” at Shakespeare’s Globe – with a brilliant, sparky Rosalind from RADAgrad Jack Laskey – but now the nights have drawn in the Globe’s actors have retreated to their indoor Jacobean playhouse, the Wanamaker. About to be on offer are candle-lit versions of “Henry V1″and “Richard 111” – but be warned! This is an exquisite space, and the experience of watching a play in flickering light with the honeyed perfume of beeswax in the air is pure magic – UNLESS you have been persuaded to buy one of the low-cost seats in the upper galleries, from whence you will see but a fraction of the stage, and the wooden bench on which you perch will get harder and harder as the play goes on…

As the afternoons shortened in October I didn’t take much persuading to spend a few days with my friends Doug and Kate down at Le Cap d’Antibes. The lingering sun allowed a couple of swims in the sea, and a wondrous al fresco lunch at the famous Colombe d’Or restaurant in St Paul de Vence, up in the hills above the Cote d’Azur. The hotel, its restaurant and terrace are littered with important works of art, the place echoes with shades of parties thrown in the 60s by Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, and the food – of course – is mouth-watering. The day we were there a rather up-market British vintage car club turned up for lunch, the car-park a-gleam with polished chrome…

And so back to a soggy Kingston, to my sofa and the box set. And talking of posh cars – where do they get the ones in “The Crown”? They must have raided every vintage car collection in Europe, finding glorious examples of spot-on appropriate vehicles, from an Austin A40 to a Silver Wraith Convertible. Talk about production values – Netflix don’t stint on budgets. If you don’t have Netflix you can now get the first two series on DVD and I think it would make anyone a great present – be they monarchist or republican – when the festivities do arrive (towards the end of next month, in case you’d forgotten.)

I now unreservedly take back any doubt I cast earlier on Matt Smith’s tackling of the nuances of class difference. His Philip Mountbatten, alongside Claire Foy’s remarkable Elizabeth Windsor, is totally convincing – and the pair of them deliver Peter Morgan’s extraordinary scripts with insight and great acting skill. The scripts are of course made-up private conversations and imagined events – but the research that’s gone into both well-documented history and the inevitable accumulation of gossip and rumour has clearly been intense, and Morgan’s writing matches his cast’s acting. So I salute all concerned, and a big hand please for Casting Director Nina Gold – not least for the utterly inspired choice of Vanessa Kirby as Margaret, giving as detailed and nuanced a performance as you’ll see on any screen anywhere this decade.

(I haven’t yet taken in all of Season 3 – it would be interesting to know how fellow addicts of the early seasons feel about the new cast.)

Earlier this month, as the all-too-real history of 20th century wars was recalled in the days around November the 11th, I was asked by Music Director Peter Broadbent to read some poetry relevant to remembrance at a concert given at St Gabriel’s Church in Pimlico. This was with the very distinguished choir, The Joyful Company of Singers, and it was a real privilege to work with such a fine, gloriously in tune ensemble. The work included superb compositions by the late Malcolm Williamson, which you can hear the choir singing on the link below.

Alas I never met Clive James – however in his later years his failing health wouldn’t permit him to fly, so on several occasions he crossed the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2, during the time when I was in charge of companies of RADA graduates giving classical theatre shows on board. Two of our actors one day reported they had encountered Clive taking a morning stroll, and he’d approached them to say how refreshing it was to hear “Shakespeare spoken properly”. That’s a report which made all of us at Gower Street very, very proud, not to say Joyful.

LINKS

Clive James talking with Jonathan Miller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4BUp4AylZE

The Joyful Company of Singers: https://youtu.be/e-8nL02r-FE

There are many good things about Stratford upon Avon, and many remarkable people who live there. Not least a doughty crew of scribes, of locally-based journalists, authors and other thinking, articulate folk, who meet under the banner of “Bran and Chaff”. Each year they hold a lunch to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday, an alternative to the annual Shakespeare Birthday Lunch and procession, an event dating back to 1824.

The “official” Birthday Lunch involves presenting a trophy sponsored by a Stratford jewellery company, the Pragnell Award, to a distinguished theatre practitioner, academic or organisation. This year it went to the celebrated Polish Shakespearian Professor Jerzy Limon, and previous recipients include many theatrical dames and knights, such as Judi Dench and Anthony Sher.

The “Bran and Chaffers” offer a slightly lower-key, Not-the-Pragnell award, to someone who has served the Shakespearian cause, but with perhaps not quite so noticeable a profile, such as the quietly brilliant actor David Troughton, Liz Flower of the Flower’s Brewery Family (who organised for years the “official” lunch) and the poet and former director of the Stratford Poetry Festival, Roger Pringle. So I was hugely honoured to be offered their 2019 award, on the strength of my having steered the training of a number of today’s eminent Shakespearian actors.

Now, while it’s true graduates from my time as head of actor training at RADA feature strongly on any recent list of great classical performances, I would be the last to claim any personal credit for their achievements, or for those of the extraordinary team of specialist tutors who actually delivered the teaching I was tasked to co-ordinate. But co-ordinate I did, and with my wondrously wise and caring colleagues Patricia Myers and Nick Barter did our best to look after and guide these unique, special young talents on their way into an uncertain, unpredictable trade.

Since then we’ve seen some amazing work, including for instance a range of Hamlets – Ben Whishaw, Maxine Peake, Jack Laskey, Tom Hiddleston, Michelle Terry – plus, with reference to Stratford, Ed Bennett’s famous 2008 short-notice RSC take-over from the injured David Tennant, recorded by The New York Times as “Bennett…an actor who had been given the opportunity of his career and knew just what to do with it.” That’s our boy!

I had two bites at this particular cherry. Sandy Holt, the moving spirit behind Bran and Chaff, had persuaded the outstanding Irish artist Eve Parnell to create as the award a Shakespeare-inspired picture, and Eve had agreed to fly over specially to present it at the lunch on April 27. But that was the weekend, if you remember, when the British isles were hit by a hurricane-level storm, and all flights out of Dublin were cancelled – so we proceeded with the lunch, and I was given a photo of the picture instead! And we had a terrific meal in the restaurant atop the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and were treated to tales of Performing the Bard by two brilliant former RSC company members, Nicholas Day and Hannah Young.

Later, it was decided that another date would be set for Eve to present the award in person – and so on a July Monday, the Bran and Chaffers hosted another gathering, at the Falcon Hotel Stratford – and this time the winds from Ireland were fair, Eve arrived and bestowed on me her lovely piece of work.

It’s an ink drawing of Touchstone in “As You Like It” and he’s saying “The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wisemen do foolishly…”

We can only hope there is a Touchstone somewhere in Downing St…

And so here’s the summer, and it finds me at new location. Instead of each morning staring at Canada geese swarming a reservoir in east London, I now start each day with Canada geese swarming the river to the capital’s south west, and witness a parade of river-users – rowers, swimmers, skullers, sailors, fishers, fishes, ducks, gulls, geese and cormorants. Upstream is Kingston, Hampton Court and Garrick’s Villa, downstream is Teddington Lock – where the the tides reach – Richmond, Twickenham and after a few winding miles, London. These are places resonant with the nation’s history and sometimes with my own, so watch this space for further reflections as the year unfolds.

So how is your summer reading? I have three recommendations to offer TYA blog readers. For those intrigued by the ways in which the craft of acting can be taught and learned, Vladimir Mirodan’s The Actor and the Character is now available in paperback – a rich, detailed exploration of how the acting process has intertwined with our understanding of human behaviour throughout history.

Hot off the press is a wonderfully succinct, practical book on how to make sure people people really listen to – and remember – you and what you’ve got to say. No surprises that it’s written by a terrific actor and director, now also a highly successful international business trainer, Dominic Colenso. The title says it all – Impact.

And for those hungry for more about a glove-maker’s son from Stratford who became history’s most celebrated playwright and poet, seek out Nicholas Fogg’s Hidden Shakespeare – a book about a Stratford lad by a Stratford lad, taking the reader into fascinating new and unexpected territory.

Meanwhile, are any of you still thinking of joining a summer school? If you like the idea of studying performance skills in the Mediterranean, I hear quite cheap flights can still be found this year even though this is peak season. And it may still be possible to find a late place on a course in a wonderful location by an olive grove in Greece, where several of my distinguished former RADA colleagues have put together an intriguing programme. Check out the Kalamata Drama web-site on the link at the bottom of this page.

Back in Stratford in April, although I was the only guest collecting a Bran and Chaff prize, Sandy made sure we actors all went home with a really clever “goody bag”, including mini-sculptures by local artist Claire Brierley. Here they are – Shakespeare again, this time the King and the Fool, fashioned from small shards of wood off-cuts. Good aren’t they? There’s a link about Claire below – check out her work when you visit Warwickshire.

And now I find there are three Fools in my room…Touchstone on the wall, the wood-chip Fool on the shelf…and then, when I moved house, in a dusty case I found this picture, a 1970s black & white image taken during a camera rehearsal for a Thames Television version of “King Lear”.

Who might be the goofy wispy-haired Fool gazing wistfully at Nuncle? And observe the King – played by the late great Irish actor Patrick Magee – seen here flicking the ash off his cigarette…You can read more about this amazing, sadly missed star on the link below.

And while we’re on Stratford and its remarkable inhabitants, few are as remarkable as the traveller, admired writer and revered teacher Jay Norris, who this year on Bastille Day celebrated her birthday with an enthusiastic swim in the pool on a ship circumnavigating the UK – Happy 99th, Jay!

Links – click to visit the relevant web-site:

Nicholas Day, actor

Hannah Young, actor

Eve Parnell, Artist

Claire Brierley, Artist

The Actor and the Character

Impact

Hidden Shakespeare

Kalamata International Drama Summer School

Patrick Magee – Drunk, Hell-raiser..and star

This was Egypt three weeks ago. Before Egypt I was briefly in India. Anything – oh anything – to get away from Brexit….

Last time I wrote about New Zealand, where all our thoughts flew when we heard of the terrorist attack, and to whose citizens we can only send sympathy, love and admiration for the quiet dignity of their response. I’ve a few more lovely memories of my time there still to share, but for now let’s briefly catch up on travels and events elsewhere.

As regular readers know, a fairly weird range of projects comes my way, including sometimes on ships. This time it was to create theatre workshops reflecting “A Thousand and One Nights”, for passengers on a ship sailing from India to Egypt via the Red Sea. The team was me, Cyphers director Marcus Bazley, and Pallavi Patel, recently Costume Supervisor for the Indian Disney stage musical of “Aladdin”. Pallavi lives in Mumbai (which she and most locals still, by the way call “Bombay”) so we flew there to join her and the ship.

It was frustrating to leave the plane and cross in a single hour by taxi one of the world’s more amazing cities and immediately to set off elsewhere. Swirling traffic, ladies in saris clinging to the backs of men on scooters hurtling past dusty water trucks, amazing Victorian architecture, glimpses of cricket, and of the dazzling inner-city beach at Chowpatty.

• 

• 

We decided to base our workshops on just one of the Arabian Nights stories, the original tale of “Aladdin” as translated by the Victorian polymath Sir Richard Burton. His is a rather different tale from that told to generations of British Christmas pantomime audiences, and indeed from the story as told by Disney. The thing about Richard Burton, apart from sharing a name with a legendary Welsh actor, was that he was a dead ringer for Freddie Mercury…..

The tale of the street urchin and his magic lamp as told by Burton makes lively workshop material – and was complemented on the ship by lectures by the distinguished and irrepressible writer Tahir Shah. Tahir has written over twenty books, including “In Arabian Nights”, which contains the true story of how he survived solitary confinement in a Pakistani jail after his arrest on charges of spying (subsequently dropped). There’s a link to finding out more about the wondrous World of Tahir – adventurer, writer and film-maker – at the end of this post.

On our way to the Red Sea we called in at Oman for coconuts and bananas and marvelled at white, white sand and nodding palms.

The Gulf of Aden is a pirate zone, so for a while extra armed security appeared on board, who slipped away as we sailed north, with the Yemen then Saudi Arabia to our right, to our left the ancient Land of Punt. This, called by the ancient Egyptians the “Land of the Gods”, is modern Djibouti and northern Ethiopia. We sailed by, latter day Sinbads, and with our fellow-passengers re-told the magic lamp story, all of us decked out in Pallavi’s lovely costumes, past lands where ancient conflicts still seethe, and where all-too-present starvation prowls.

• 

• 

• 

All adventures come to an end, and a few hours after land-fall in Egypt (where we met the above camel – called, believe it or not, Sinbad) we were bound for Gatwick – and the next day back to, oh dear, benighted, Brexit-bound Britain.

But hey, for now theatre life in London thrives, and my lovely students from NYU Tisch have been savouring rich fare – work for instance featuring former students from Gower St days – Naomi Frederick in “Agnes Collander” at the Jermyn St Theatre, and Tom Hiddleston in “Betrayal” at the Pinter.

So soon after leaving Egypt it was almost as exotic to go with my Americans to discover the gloriously resurrected theatre at Alexandra Palace, once host to performers like Gracie Fields, Ellen Terry and RADA’s revered founder, Herbert Beerbohm Tree. In amongst the vast spaces of the East Court, the Palm Court, the Skating Rink and beside the world’s oldest television news studio you will find a magnificent performance space.

There we saw a strong “Richard the Third”, co-produced at Bristol and Northampton, on tour to those places and beyond – and soon afterwards caught the version of “Richard the Second” currently at the Wanamaker Playhouse. This all-female company is led by Adjoah Andoh’s fiercely passionate Richard, who the night we were in drew a sour chuckle from the audience on Richard’s assertion that England “…has made a shameful conquest of itself”. No, let’s not mention the “B” word! Let’s reluctantly offer a warning to any of you who haven’t yet visited this playhouse. It’s a magical place, a beautiful creation from original architect’s plans of a 17th century theatre, in which all productions are lit by bees-wax candles.

But you should know that while the seats above the front row of the upper level are attractively inexpensive, the sight-lines are villainous. For much of the time you can only see about a third of the stage, so that we felt we’d experienced much of “Richard 11” more as a radio play, rather than a stage show.

One other special event to mention – Ireland’s currently most charismatic actor Cillian Murphy is giving an extraordinary performance at the Barbican in “Grief is the Thing with Feathers”, a production co-produced by Complicité and Judith Dimant’s new Wayward Productions. If you’re a “Peaky Blinders” fan like me, or if you’ve not yet seen this guy, do go and watch. His character is obsessed with, and becomes occupied by the Crow as personalised in the famous Ted Hughes poem. Weird, brilliant and disturbing.

Now, today is a Significant Day in that it marks the 80th birthday of the most successful British playwright, the writer whose shrewd, wise, witty – and sometimes edgy – comedies have added to the gaiety of our nation (and many others) for six decades. Happy Birthday, Sir Alan Ayckbourn. In Scarborough and across the globe the theatre world salutes!

In September, Sir Alan’s EIGHTY-THIRD play will be produced – called, appropriately enough “Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present”.

Links:

Tahir Shah: http://www.tahirshah.com/

Pallavi Patel: https://pallavipatel.com/

Cyphers Theatre Company: https://www.cyphers.org.uk/

P.S. You will have noticed that the pictures in this post are oddly of different sizes. This is because WordPress have introduced a new format and I simply can’t fathom how best to edit and post photos – so if you have any ideas as to how to get this under control – please share via the Comments link. “Tis charity to show…”