09 Tuesday Feb 2016
Posted in Theatre
Tags
Alec Guinness, Baliol Holloway, Christopher Plummer, David Garrick, Edmund Kean, Ian McKellen, John Barrymore, Kenneth Branagh, Laurence Olivier, Mark Rylance, Richard III, William Shakespeare
Ten of them – because, having begun my Shakespeare Year yesterday with a talk about Shakespearean villains, I’m in this kind of mood…
David Garrick
Edmund Kean
Baliol Holloway
John Barrymore
Laurence Olivier
Alec Guinness
Christopher Plummer
Ian McKellen
Kenneth Branagh
Mark Rylance
25 Saturday Apr 2015
Posted in Things
Back in the day when I spoke very little English, my first meeting with Laurence Olivier happened through the dubbed version of his Richard III, in which Richard was voiced by Gino Cervi. Now, Cervi is a fine actor, but in Italy he is mostly known for playing the earthy mayor Peppone opposite Fernandel’s Don Camillo, in the movies based off Giovannino Guareschi’s books. So… let us say that it was a trifle disconcerting to have Richard speak with Peppone’s voice.
When, a few years later, I saw the movie in the original, I was prepared to fall for Olivier’s voice – except, I didn’t. Trouble is, I have a predilection for deep, dark voices. baritones, basses. Also, the way Olivier uses his voice – while deeply individual and very forceful… well, let us say it doesn’t always help.
Then, to make things a whole lot worse, I was pointed to Peter Sellers’ parody of Olivier’s Richard – via the Beatles…
There. See what I mean by “a whole lot worse”?
08 Saturday Feb 2014
Tags
Bodleian Libraries, Gordon Daviot, Gwen ffrangcon-Davies, John Gielgud, Josephine Tey, Laurence Olivier, Queen of Scots
I’ve been wanting to read Josephine Tey/Gordon Daviot’s Queen of Scots for ages, and never could – the only way, when you live in Italy, being to buy some insanely expensive old edition.
But I like Tey/Daviot’s plays, and I’ve loved her Dickon and her Richard of Bordeaux. It’s old-fashioned historical theatre the way I like it, the sort of plays that makes me wish I’d been there, in the West End, in the Thirties, when QoS premiered starring Gwen ffrangcon-Davies and Laurence Olivier, under the direction of John Gielgud.
So, as a last attempt before splurging, I decided to try for an international inter-library loan. I did my research, filled my form, and went to the library in town. The lady who presides over this kind of loans was sympathethic but not overly sanguine. British libraries, she said, are wary of entrusting their books to the Italian mail service – and small blame to them…
So, imagine my surprise when next day Ms. R. phoned to say she had my play – in pdf format. Only, it was rather bulky. Did I mind bringing a memory stick or something?
I didn’t mind, of course, and I am now the proud owner of a pdf of a 1934 Gollancz edition from the Bodleian Libraries – no less – which I will happily read over the weekend. Or more likely tonight.
And Ms. R. is an angel, and I love her dearly, and libraries are wonderful institutions, and how would we live without the net – and we all lived happily ever after.
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