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Uncategorized September 19, 2010

MUSEUM PIECES

Space and Light is the title of a new Edward Gordon Craig exhibition in the V&A’s Theatre Galleries, but both elements were in short supply at the official opening on Friday evening. We were crammed round a large model rhinoceros, the theatrical significance of which eluded me – unless there was an implicit reference to …

Uncategorized September 5, 2010

GOING TO PRESS!

A brief word from the editor I’m delighted to announce that Edward is putting the final finishing touches to his eagerly awaited volume of essays, and that the completed manuscript will be with the publishers this week. Slim Chances and Unscheduled Appearances will be officially launched in early spring. A National Theatre Platform is being planned …

Uncategorized August 30, 2010

TO MOSCOW! TO MOSCOW! TO MOSCOW!

For years after I had played Vershinin in Three Sisters, one of his speeches would come back to me like a snatch of an old tune and I would speak it aloud wherever I happened to be: I often think: what if we could, consciously, begin our lives anew. If only a life that had …

Uncategorized August 23, 2010

YOUNG ILLUSIONISTS

If this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?                                                                J. B. Priestley Dreamboats and Petticoats, Playhouse, London, 2010 The Roses and …

Uncategorized August 16, 2010

MAGIC CARPETS

The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests … Bean (our dog) gave the seal of approval to our new Afghan carpet – yes Afghan, and from the province of Kunduz. Not a mile away from Kilburn’s Tricycle Theatre, where I saw the twelve plays about Afghanistan I’ve spoken of so …

Uncategorized August 9, 2010

A NUANCE OF UNDERSTANDING

Helen: The spotlight was on you and you alone, and you weren’t even young men; you were children. … David: All right, then. Go on. What did we do with this spotlight? Helen: You did what any child would do. You danced in it.                        …

Uncategorized August 2, 2010

FINDING A VOICE

     All I have is a voice      To undo the folded lie,      The romantic lie in the brain      Of the sensual man-in-the-street      And the lie of Authority      Whose buildings grope the sky:      There is no such thing as the State      …

Uncategorized July 26, 2010

POPERY, PUPPETRY, PASHTUNS AND PICASSO

In response to your charming comments about Bean, I open with a picture of her relaxing between diplomatic missions: ************ I can see the Pope chain-smoking now. Are you old enough to remember? I am, though I never actually saw the play, way back in 1968. It was called Hadrian VII and had been adapted …