The Blog

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.

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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.

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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.

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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…”

 

There’s a remarkable image in the final scene of Florian Zeller’s play “The Father”:

ANDRÉ:  I feel as if… I feel as if I’m losing all my leaves, one after another.

WOMAN: Your leaves? What are you talking about?

ANDRÉ:  The branches! And the wind… I don’t understand what’s happening any more…..

For the opening night at Wyndham’s Theatre, Kirsty Oswald  – inspired by this scene – made a striking portrait of Ken Cranham as André, and gave all of us in the company copies. Now as the leaves in my garden turn and scatter over the reservoir, Kirsty’s picture keeps coming back into my mind, recalling a rich, lovely time working on an extraordinary play with a quite exceptional, special company. I hope she won’t mind my reproducing it here.

A further prompt for these memories has been another fine play exploring the worrying territory of dementia, this time by the American writer Sharr White, who in his story shows the disintegrating world of a female scientist, ironically suffering the very condition into which she is conducting important research. The play is THE OTHER PLACE, and is currently at The Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, London. Skilfully directed by Claire van Kampen, the central role is given a powerful and disturbing performance by Karen Archer, who is also co-producer. The show is a collaboration between the Park Theatre and the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, to which it migrates after the Finsbury Park run, which finishes on October 20th. (Links below)

KAREN ARCHER is a remarkable talent, who tackles work and life with formidable energy.

She joined Martin Wimbush and I in 2017 to help re-create a play about the first Duke of Wellington, a project Martin and I have wheeled out intermittently at various venues over several decades.  Its latest title is MISS WILSON’S WATERLOO, an unrolling of the Iron Duke’s adventures during a late-in-life  (mythical) encounter with the most notorious of his many mistresses, Harriette Wilson – a role tackled with some zest by Ms Archer.  We presented it initially at sea on board a private cruise ship between Amsterdam and Hamburg, and subsequently last April at the Le Colombier Theatre at Cordes-sur-Ciel in South-West France. Karen’s contributions to the project as a company member (and merciless script editor) were inspiring and revitalising  – bringing a splash of sophisticated glamour to our story, which went down wonderfully well with the (largely British ex-pat) audience in France.

We were also made splendidly welcome by Donald Douglas and his Friends of English Theatre in this gorgeous corner of Europe, who provided generous – indeed lavish – accommodation and hospitality – and a well equipped, modern theatre with an efficient, supportive tech and admin team.

If you’re minded to explore that region – rich with history and scenery – don’t fail to find Cordes and its theatre – again, link below.

 Production photos by JENNY CUNDY

It did, I must say, seem a bit odd to take a play about the Duke of Wellington – in British history a famous conqueror of the French – to a theatre in France, but then most of our audience on this occasion were Brits, so there were no – at least audible – murmurs of dissent. I understand French historians regard the battle of Waterloo as a draw. I’m quite certain Michel Barnier does…

I came across another largely French story this month – “Picasso’s Women”, produced by Colette Redgrave – a project I helped on its way a couple of years ago – at the Gallery Different in Percy St. It’s a good, thought-provoking glimpse into the love-life of a Great European Genius, and makes an ideal on-site show for an art gallery. Oh, and includes three excellent performances, including a welcome appearance as Fernande Olivier by the estimable Judith Paris. I gather the project is available to all gallery-owners across Europe and beyond – link below.

What a cross you must bear as the offspring of a legend! No I’m not talking about Cressida Wyn Jones, who copes admirably, but about Finty Williams, actor daughter of two other actors, one of whom is our profession’s most revered icon, Dame Judi Dench! Finty has taken on one of her mother’s celebrated roles from the early 90s – Barbara in Hugh Whitemore’s terrific real-life espionage story PACK OF LIES – at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark – and succeeds wonderfully. It’s a brittle, sweet and heart-breaking performance in a spot-on, crisp period production by Hannah Chissick, and is not to be missed.

Tracy-Ann Oberman, Finty Williams, Macy Nyman Picture: Evening Standard

I love the play – I directed it at Keswick not long after its West End run, with Debbie Farrington as the daughter, who had played the part in London. Michael Williams, Finty’s dad, who had co-starred with Dame Judi came to see our production. The play concerns the Kroger spy case of the early 60s, and has many a resonance of the recent dark dealings in Salisbury and elsewhere. Michael talked about meeting the original M15 officer who dealt with the case, and who is the basis for the narrator character in the play. Apparently the MI5 man came to the first night, and when asked to comment afterwards he  bristled slightly and then  – inevitably – simply murmured “Pack of lies….”

LINKS:

THE OTHER PLACE   London: https://www.parktheatre.co.uk/whats-on/the-other-place

Keswick: https://www.theatrebythelake.com/production/17974/The-Other-Place

FRIENDS OF ENGLISH THEATRE, CORDES sur CIEL: https://www.fetatlecolombier.com/aboutus

PICASSO’S WOMEN: http://www.picassos-women.co.uk/

PACK OF LIES: https://www.menierchocolatefactory.com/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=47B366FF-3E61-4888-98FD-DF46E2052134&sessionlanguage=&SessionSecurity::linkName=

 

P.S. You may wonder why Martin Wimbush and I have so often trotted out a play about the Duke of Wellington over such a long period.  So do we, sometimes. I suppose the pictures below may be clue. As they say in Private Eye, could they by chance be related?

Martin Wimbush                                                                                       Duke of Wellington

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