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The Shakespearean Performances of Sir John Gielgud

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The Shakespearean Performances of Sir John Gielgud THE SHAKESPEAREAN PERFORMANCES OF SIR JOHN GIELGUD by Robert James Frost Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Birmingham. The Shakespeare Institute October 1983 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. 1st of 2 files Introduction and Chapters 1-3 The remaining chapters and the appendices are in an additional file SYNOPSIS This thesis is a study of the stage history of six plays and three seasons of Shakespeare at the Old Vie as they are related to one man: Sir John Gielgud. Through the assembly of various sorts of evidence ranging from promptbooks, sound-recordings, reviews, programmes, inter­ views, correspondence, designer's blue-prints, I have attempted to reconstruct the performances and the productions in order to assess Gielgud's contribution as a Shakespearean actor and director. The plays looke^ at are Richard II, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear and The Tempest, the Old Vie seasons those from 1929 to 1931. Each chapter, except for the first on the Old Vie which considers a repertory of productions of different plays performed by the same company, examines a series of separate productions of one play in chronological sequence to highlight developments in Gielgud's technique over the years and his response to the more widespread changes in the tradition of the stage interpretation of Shakespeare. So the selection of roles and productions was governed by the idea of examining trends and to set Gielgud's work in the context of the accumulating tradition of the play's interpretation in performance, not to look at single productions only. The resulting selection focuses on Gielgud, the actor and director, at various points throughout his entire career. The earliest production considered is in 1929, the latest in 1974. The conclusion then attempts to draw Gielgud's involvement with Richard II, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear and The Tempest together to establish an overall view of their relationship in the light of the principal currents of change in the theatre from the early part of this century to the present day. The appendices at the back list the full range of Gielgud's Shakespeare, including his film appearances, and the dates of openings with complete casts of the productions concentrated on in the text. The thesis is approximately l^QOOO words in length. My thanks go out to Doug Gray, Chris Burton, and Donna Laniberton for advice and technical assistance with photographic reproduction. I am also grateful to all the actors, directors and other people professionally involved in the theatre who have spared the time from busy working schedules to answer inquiries and reply to my correspondence - particularly to Sir John Gielgud, and II ry Andrews for the interest he showed in the work and the personal contribution of a tape-recorded interview. Sheila Fermoy of H. M. Tennent Ltd. was very kind in talking over the subject with me and providing practical assistance in the form of source material, photocopying facilities, and a corner to work in. Molly Sole of the Old Vie and the staff of the Script Department of the National Theatre also put up with the inconvenience of my presence in bustling office conditions over extended periods. To them all I wish to say an explicit thankyou and to the rest, who know who they are. No one is responsible for the errors in this thesis but myself, of course. 1. 'like the herald Mercury / new lighted on a heaven-kissing hill -' (Hamlet, III.4.59) CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1. Shakespeare at the Old Vie : 1929 - 1931. 8 2. Richard II. 72 3. Hamlet. 139 4. Much Ado About Nothing. 243 5. King Lear. 320 6. The Tempest. 409 CONCLUSION 506 APPENDICES 1: Chronological Table of Shakespearean Parts 520 and Productions. 2: Cast Lists and the Opening Dates of Performances 523 discussed in each Chapter (including the Theatres where the Openings took place). BIBLIOGRAPHY 556 PLATES Page 1. Frontispiece: 'like the herald Mercury / New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill - ' (Hamlet , III. 4. 2. Richard II, Old Vie, 1929. 78 3. Richard II and Queen, Queen's, 1939. 99 4. Richard II and Queen, Lyric, Haranersmith, 1952. 127 5. Hamlet and Queen, Old Vie, 1930. 145 6. Hamlet, New, 1934. - 158 7. Hamlet, Empire /Saint James's, New York, 1936. 175 8. Hamlet, Elsinore Castle, 1939. 206 9. Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Haymarket, 1944. 218 10. Ground Plans of Mariano Andreu's set for Much Ado About Nothing. 251 11. The Masque, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 1950. 273 12. Benedick, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 1950. 287 13. Benedick and Beatrice, Phoenix, 1952. 3^1 14. King Lear, Old Vie, 1931. 325 15. King Lear, Old Vie, 1940. 331 16. King Lear, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 1950. 3^8 17. King Lear, 1.1, 1.4, I I. 4, Theatre Royal, Bright on, 1955. 382 18. King Lear, IV. 6, III. 4, V.3. 384 19. Prospero, Old Vie, 1930, a woodcut by Powell Lloyd. 415 20. Prospero and Ariel, Old Vie, 1940. 426 21. Prospero and Ariel, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre/ 435 DruryLane, 1957, 22. Prospero and Ariel, National Theatre (Old Vie), 1974. 465 INTRODUCTION In this thesis I look at some of Sir John Gielgud's major Shakespearean roles and productions, offering a reconstruction and commentary based on promptbooks, sound recordings, reviews, programmes, interviews, correspondence, and designer's blue-prints. The first chapter examines Gielgud's seasons at the Old Vie from 1929 to 1931 - the period of his emergence as an actor of Shakespeare, although Gielgud had \ appeared in sane of the plays beforehand. It was during these seasons, which contain so many of his Shakespeare debuts, that his special vocation was established. The next five chapters then each deal with a series of productions of one play that Gielgud initially appeared in at the Old Vie in which he has made an important contribution to theatre history. Productions are examined in chronological sequences within the chapters in order to highlight trends of interpretation and to suggest the way Gielgud's treatment of Shakespeare has altered and developed as he aged, became more experienced, and built on his playing in previous revivals. The continuities between productions and their differences of emphasis show how the process of stage interpretation has sometimes enriched the meaning and sometimes distorted the plays themselves. Thus the critical issues of textual analysis in Richard II, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear and The Tempest receive attention as they are expressed through the history of Gielgud's performances and productions in the theatre. Gielgud, of course, has made a much wider contribution to Shakespearean performance than is represented by these plays alone. Appendix One (A Chronological Table of Parts and Productions) displays a formidable list of titles revealing the full scope of his professional familiarity with the canon that receive small mention, if any, in this thesis - plays as diverse as Measure for Measure (1950), Twelfth Night (1955), The Winter's Tale (1951), and Henry VIII (1958). Some of these productions lacked sufficient documentation, the promptbooks having disappeared and reviews never appearing because the newspapers were taken up with other matters such as the war with Hitler's Germany. In certain cases they went beyond the theatre into the different media of film and television, making comparisons difficult and posing intricate questions such as in what relationship does Orson Welles's film The Chimes At Midnight, in which Gielgud p1\ye^ Henry IV, stand to the stage plays Henry IV PartG One and Two. A third factor was that no long-term trends, as far as Gielgud's development was concerned, would be apparent in a single production however well documented and influential it was. One coula not study the evolution of Angela in Measure for Measure as, one could with Gielgud's successive Lears, when he appeared only in the Peter Brook production of 1950. Moreover, a single production represents a single view of a play - that of the director - and where Gielgud was directed by someone else a range of viewpoints was required for the purposes of this study in order to establish an accumulative impression of his personal style. Gielgud's work in Richard II, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear and The Tempest was in contact with a wider theatrical milieu over the years. There is already a good deal of biographical literature which touches on Gielgud's Shakespeare. Ronald Hayman's biography, John Gielgud (1971), as well as offering an account of Gielgud's life, contains a useful appendix with a list of plays, production dates and roles chronicling the main events of Gielgud's career up to 1970. Early Stages (1939) is an autobiography covering the earlier part of Gielgud's life up to his American Hamlet in 1936 and Gielgud has published three other volumes of reminiscences and comment on the theatre: Stage Directions (1963), Distinguished Company (1972) and An Actor and His Time (1979) based on a series of radio interviews with John Miller. The latter is especially rich in illustrations of Gielgud in various parts and productions.
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