DOCSLIB.ORG

Simpson, Richard – Interview Transcript

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Simpson, Richard – Interview Transcript THEATRE ARCHIVE PROJECT http://sounds.bl.uk Simpson, Richard – interview transcript Interviewer: Rahul Bahal 21 January 2012 Richard Simpson, actor, on: Angry Young Men, Anthony Richardson, Belgrave Theatre Coventry, Censorship, Sir Peter Hall, Harold Pinter, Jonathan Lynn, Sir Ben Kingsley, Look Back In Anger, Sir Ian McKellen, Nottingham Playhouse, Sir Trevor Nunn, PARADA, RADA, RSC, Sir Patrick Stewart, The Comedians. RB: So how did you first get involved in drama? RS: Well I was born in Skegness which is a seaside resort in Lincolnshire and I was a war child so there wasn’t a lot of theatre going on, obviously, except amateur work and I got it amateur at school. My father was a very good amateur actor; in fact, the night I was born he was performing in a farce called Lord Richard and The Pantry; so I was called Richard. But after the war, just immediately after the war, there was theatre in Skegness as there was in a lot of the country at that time, mainly weekly rep. When you talk about weekly rep to youngsters now they can’t believe it happened, that is a play a week. You can imagine what that was like. Plays in those days were mainly written in three acts so it was learning an act a night, and then performing in the evening. Absolutely incredible, but it was the law and there was two reps when I was still at school, at ‘Skeg’, and they wanted a young boy for a play called Frieda, so I was recruited in to that and then in my last year at school a famous Rattigan play called The Winslow Boy they wanted a young naval boy; so I did that. And then my father, God bless him, said ‘Do you really want to pursue this?’ because I was extremely shy at school I wouldn’t read aloud in the class, or anything like that. And he said ‘Do you want me to find if I can get you a drama school?’ Well drama schools in those days were, I don’t know if there were more than six, in London. I mean, can you imagine how many there are now? And he wrote to Sir Kenneth Bonds who was the principal then of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and he said ‘He’s very young’. I was just tipping sixteen I think. ‘Bring him up let’s have a look at him’, so I was brought to London, to Gower Street, and in those days, they had a junior academy long since gone, in Highgate called Preparatory Academy to The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and so I took the test for RADA and to my amazement they said ‘Yes, he can go to PARADA’. Well it turned out to be a, I wouldn’t say a racket, but it was supposed to be for young people, but there were of course older people coming out of the wall so we were a mixture and the first term was pretty disastrous. I got a terrible report which I glory unto this day reading it out, you know ‘This boy resents everything he was told’. Etcetera and I wasn’t, I didn’t resent anything I was just terrified, I was coming from a provincial background into what those days was... people going into drama on the whole were upper class; the girls particularly all came from finishing schools in Switzerland you know and all spoke like that [imitates accent]. I still have a Lincolnshire accent to a certain extent, in those days you had to learn to speak ‘posh’, like I do now. Now it’s just the reversal you must keep your provincial accent and so I did that, fortunately I then had to take the test for RADA proper, which I did. Got in, but the Forces intervened and in those days we had to do National Service. So I went in the RAF, http://sounds.bl.uk Page 1 of 8 Theatre Archive Project hoping to see the world because in those days, you didn’t get anywhere, and they posted me thirty miles down the road, at Cranwell in Lincolnshire, and I spent my two years, fortunately a good drama department, I ran the drama department and then I went back to RADA and then I started my career in weekly rep at a place called Bexhill-on-Sea, in Sussex and I stayed there for I think five years not doing a play every week, because in those days you started as a stage manager as well, or an acting stage manager. Acting, they used to call it, ASM, they still use the phrase acting stage manager, and the girls would start particularly acting ASM and, of course, at the end of the sixties, I think it was, that all changed, because stage managers suddenly became technical only, which they are to this day; a different branch entirely so that opportunity young actors had to learn their trade has gone, disappeared, because that’s how you started. So yes I started in weekly rep; again, am I rambling on too much before more questions? RB: Oh no, no, not at all. Not at all. RS: There was an order to the theatre in the sense that you started in the theatre, you hoped to progress to a posh rep, there weren’t many of those, but say, Birmingham I think was four weekly, Liverpool was two weekly, oh yes, magnificent and then you hoped to become a West End actor so you went up the ladder as it were. Then of course, overnight, television arrived and the order was thrown out, and of course you could almost start at the top in television, not quite like you can today, you still weren’t allowed to do television unless you done so much theatre work I think. So it all changed but we were very lucky I think I was talking to a colleague only the day before yesterday and I think we had the best time of all theatre wise, probably every generation says this, but I think it’s true that we did, because as I say, there were all these theatres across the country and of course they were getting better reps then after the war. For instance I went to Coventry and that was the first theatre to be built after the war and it’s called The Belgrade Coventry, because the Belgrade citizens gave the wood for the theatre in recognition of the war effort, you know and I went there and that was three weekly, and I stayed there three years, doing not always a great play, but many splendid plays, every three weeks, which is a tremendous way of gaining experience, which the young people today just don’t have; they probably go for one play, or two and that’s it. But there we were, we were even in repertoire as opposed to repertory I mean we did, a season of seven, six plays alternating them through that period, and I did that at Nottingham Play House as well much later, and of course the directors also had terrific training for instance when I was at Coventry, this young boy came along he looked all of fourteen years old, and when he got to his feet one day we thought he was a young stage manager, apparently. We had a very vague director called Anthony Richardson, not to be confused with the film director Tony Richardson, and this young man was Trevor Nunn, and of course Anthony more or less handed the season over to him quite soon and he proved he was of course a wonderful, wonderful talent and director, and Peter Hall came over from Stratford and took him away almost overnight and the rest is history; within I think five years he was appointed to lead the Royal Shakespeare Company. But he also had to act, he also had to perform. For instance I did Twelfth Night, and I gave my Malvolio and he gave his Fabian all those years ago and when I made a big career move, across to Leicester that was very well thought of theatre then, I mean again doing a play every three weeks and the young trainee director there was a man called Richard Eyre, well you know, and he had to do some acting it’s the way you discovered if you didn’t like acting you’d better be a director. Look at him now, our juvenile actor at Coventry was Ian McKellen and so on and so on. So you’ve got this great wealth of talent and when I went to the Royal Shakespeare Company because of Trevor, bless him, in 1967, the first production Trevor ever did, a Shakespeare production, was Taming Of the Shrew and it turned out to be a wonderful production. But I was one of the oldest members, and I was then I think thirty five, but everyone in it had had wealth of experience already. They’d come from Manchester rep. Patrick, now Sir Patrick Stewart, Ben Kingsley playing a huntsman, Sir Ben Kingsley, all these people. Whereas today, you get, I gather, an incredible mixture, you get some very experienced people but, on the whole, you get people who’ve had no real experience going into these top http://sounds.bl.uk Page 2 of 8 Theatre Archive Project companies, and it shows I think technique wise, vocally. That’s one of the other great complaints these days that you can’t hear them, and in our days most theatres not like Leicester were big, were large and you just had to accommodate that size and you did.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Shakespeare on Film, Video & Stage
    William Shakespeare on Film, Video and Stage Titles in bold red font with an asterisk (*) represent the crème de la crème – first choice titles in each category. These are the titles you’ll probably want to explore first. Titles in bold black font are the second- tier – outstanding films that are the next level of artistry and craftsmanship. Once you have experienced the top tier, these are where you should go next. They may not represent the highest achievement in each genre, but they are definitely a cut above the rest. Finally, the titles which are in a regular black font constitute the rest of the films within the genre. I would be the first to admit that some of these may actually be worthy of being “ranked” more highly, but it is a ridiculously subjective matter. Bibliography Shakespeare on Silent Film Robert Hamilton Ball, Theatre Arts Books, 1968. (Reissued by Routledge, 2016.) Shakespeare and the Film Roger Manvell, Praeger, 1971. Shakespeare on Film Jack J. Jorgens, Indiana University Press, 1977. Shakespeare on Television: An Anthology of Essays and Reviews J.C. Bulman, H.R. Coursen, eds., UPNE, 1988. The BBC Shakespeare Plays: Making the Televised Canon Susan Willis, The University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Shakespeare on Screen: An International Filmography and Videography Kenneth S. Rothwell, Neil Schuman Pub., 1991. Still in Movement: Shakespeare on Screen Lorne M. Buchman, Oxford University Press, 1991. Shakespeare Observed: Studies in Performance on Stage and Screen Samuel Crowl, Ohio University Press, 1992. Shakespeare and the Moving Image: The Plays on Film and Television Anthony Davies & Stanley Wells, eds., Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    [Show full text]
  • Pericles, Prince of Tyre Edited by Doreen Delvecchio and Antony Hammond Frontmatter More Information
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-29710-3 - Pericles, Prince of Tyre Edited by Doreen Delvecchio and Antony Hammond Frontmatter More information THE NEW CAMBRIDGE SHAKESPEARE general editor Brian Gibbons associate general editor A. R. Braunmuller, University of California, Los Angeles From the publication of the first volumes in 1984 the General Editor of the New Cambridge Shakespeare was Philip Brockbank and the Associate General Editors were Brian Gibbons and Robin Hood. From 1990 to 1994 the General Editor was Brian Gibbons and the Associate General Editors were A. R. Braunmuller and Robin Hood. PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE Over the last two decades there has been a resurgence of theatrical interest in Shakespeare’s Pericles, which has been rescued from comparative neglect and is now frequently performed. This development is charted in the Introduction to this edition, which differs radically from any other currently available. Doreen DelVecchio and Antony Hammond reject the current ortho- doxies: that the text is seriously corrupt and that the play is of divided authorship. They show how the 1609 quarto has features in common with the first quarto of King Lear,nowwidely regarded as being based on Shakespeare’s manuscript. Likewise they regard the arguments concerning divided authorship as unproven and misleading. Instead they show the play to be a unified aesthetic experience. The result is a view of Pericles far more enthusiastic than that of other editors. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University
    [Show full text]
  • The World of Noël Coward MORE from the ARCHIVES NOËL
    HOME CHAT The World Of Noël Coward NOËL COWARD AT CARNFORTH AND THE UK BIRTHDAY EVENTS ALAN FARLEY DOMINIC VLASTO introduces the broadcasts of the renowned West Coast Radio Arts Host. PRIVATE LIVES and RELATIVE VALUES Reviews of the recent Coward revivals that still ‘raise the bar’ for audiences everywhere. MORE FROM THE ARCHIVES The best of the sepia-tinted media world of Noël Coward in the 1930s PHOTO: Ann Harding and Noël Coward making their way through the crowd at the Annual Theatrical Garden Party 1936 A MAGAZINE ABOUT THE LIFE AND WORK OF SIR NOËL COWARD •AUGUST 2013 Editorial CONTENTS Welcome and a huge thank you to everyone that has sent us material for our archive pages. We have not been Editorial 2 able to include even a fraction of all the material we have received so please forgive us if you chosen item Forthcoming Events 3 has not made the cut this time, as golfers I think say! There is always next time and the next... Smalhythe 4 At the moment I am working through all that is required for the exhibition at Carnforth Station that starts in October with a Private Lives 5 planned day of talks and films about Noël Coward, Brief Encounter and its theatre forbear Still Life. Relative Values 6 This year’s UK Coward events include our AGM at The Noël Coward Theatre and the Annual Luncheon at the Grand Saloon at the Theatre Michael Law - Easy to Love 7 Royal, Drury Lane. The cabaret for the lunch will be perfvormed by Helen McDermot and Adrian Wright accompanied by Annette Jude.
    [Show full text]
  • Macbeth Tesi Di Arianna Bongiolo
    Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Lingue e Letterature Europee, Americane e Postcoloniali Tesi di Laurea Macbeth Problems and Challenges in Staging the Scottish Play Relatore Ch. Prof. Shaul Bassi Correlatore Prof. Loretta Innocenti Laureanda Arianna Bongiolo Matricola Numero 833847 Anno Accademico 2016 / 2017 1 MACBETH Problems and Challenges in Staging the Scottish Play CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS …………………………………………………....4 INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................5 CHAPTER 1 STAGING MACBETH 1. Problems and Challenges Producers have to face when staging Macbeth.10 CHAPTER 2 EARLY PLAYS 1. Attending the Playhouse……………………………………………………….. 29 2. Representation of Macbeth from Simon Forman eyewitness account to Trevor Nunn’s 1974 production. ………………………………………………......34 CHAPTER 3 CARMELO BENE’S MACBETH 1. Analysis of Carmelo Bene’s production………………………………….…….48 CHAPTER 4 TREVOR NUNN’S MACBETH 1. Analysis of Trevor Nunn’s 1978 production…………………………...………63 CHAPTER 5 EIMUNTAS NEKROSIUS’S MAKBETAS 1. Analysis of Eimuntas Nekrosius’ 1999 production……………………………75 CHAPTER 6 FRANCO BRANCIAROLI’S MACBETH 1. Analysis of Franco Branciaroli’s 2016 production…………….………………87 2 CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………….…........……....97 APPENDIX ..........................................................................................................103 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ………………………………………………………...……115 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................116
    [Show full text]
  • Female Visitors to Sir Richard Wallace's Art Collection
    More Than Mere Ornaments: Female Visitors to Sir Richard Wallace’s Art Collection Helen C. Jones Ten months after Lady Wallace’s death in February 1897, the Hertford House Visitors’ Book was closed for the final time. For the previous twenty- three years, this large, black, leather-bound volume had been displayed on one of the desks in the Great Gallery, for visitors to sign as part of their tour of the collection. The book begins in 1876, shortly after Sir Richard Wallace had inherited Hertford House and refurbished it as a fitting home for his magnificent art collection, and continues until December 1897, after Lady Wallace’s bequest of the collection to the nation. During this period, Hertford House was a private collection that could be visited by prior appointment or on occasional open days. After 1897 the Visitors’ Book became part of Lady Wallace’s legacy to Sir John Murray Scott, who had been private secretary to both Lady Wallace and Sir Richard. It remained in his family’s possession until the death of his sister Mary in 1943, at which point it returned to its original home at Hertford House.1 Now one of the most important documents in the Wallace Collection Archive, it has recently been digitized and is available to view on the Internet Archive (Fig. 1). From 2017 to 2018, I transcribed the 245 pages of the Visitors’ Book, deciphering the identities of the signatories. Only a handful of visitors had left comments alongside their signatures and so a mere list of names was the starting point for all the research that followed.
    [Show full text]
  • Shakespeare on Film and Television in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress
    SHAKESPEARE ON FILM AND TELEVISION IN THE MOTION PICTURE, BROADCASTING AND RECORDED SOUND DIVISION OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Compiled by Zoran Sinobad January 2012 Introduction This is an annotated guide to moving image materials related to the life and works of William Shakespeare in the collections of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress. While the guide encompasses a wide variety of items spanning the history of film, TV and video, it does not attempt to list every reference to Shakespeare or every quote from his plays and sonnets which have over the years appeared in hundreds (if not thousands) of motion pictures and TV shows. For titles with only a marginal connection to the Bard or one of his works, the decision what to include and what to leave out was often difficult, even when based on their inclusion or omission from other reference works on the subject (see below). For example, listing every film about ill-fated lovers separated by feuding families or other outside forces, a narrative which can arguably always be traced back to Romeo and Juliet, would be a massive undertaking on its own and as such is outside of the present guide's scope and purpose. Consequently, if looking for a cinematic spin-off, derivative, plot borrowing or a simple citation, and not finding it in the guide, users are advised to contact the Moving Image Reference staff for additional information. How to Use this Guide Entries are grouped by titles of plays and listed chronologically within the group by release/broadcast date.
    [Show full text]
  • Sir Ian Mclellan in Shakespeare
    'ACTING GOOD PARTS WELL': SIR IAN McKELLEN IN SHAKESPEARE by HILARY EDITH W. LONG A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The Shakespeare Institute School of English Faculty of Arts The University of Birmingham March 2000 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. SYNOPSIS This thesis examines the performances which have earned Sir lan McKellen a reputation as one of the foremost Shakespearean actors of the day. His reputation has been built on five major performances: Richard II, Macbeth, Coriolanus, lago and Richard III. His performances as Hamlet, Romeo, Leontes and Kent were only limited successes. This thesis places McKellen's performances in these roles in the specific context of the production as a whole. Where it is relevant it assesses the significance of the casting of other roles, the influence of the personality, style and interests of the director, the policy of the theatre company and the impact of the performance space. This thesis identifies patterns in McKellen's work determined by his own personality and sexuality, the Cambridge education he shares with Sir Peter Hall, John Barton and Trevor Nunn, and his relationships with other actors.
    [Show full text]
  • No Man's Wishes Are Stronger Than Witches
    NO MAN’S WISHES ARE STRONGER THAN WITCHES: ROMAN POLANSKI’S AND TREVOR NUNN’S MACBETH Andrea Cristina Natal Simões DINON Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina RESUMO: Macbeth (1606), a peça mais curta de William Shakespeare, é considerada sua mais devastadora e intensa tragédia. Em 1971, Roman Polanski dirigiu uma versão fílmica da produção da peça. Em 1978, Trevor Nunn produziu a peça para o teatro, que depois foi filmada. Em termos gerais, o Macbeth de Polanski é mais realista, enquanto o de Nunn é mais minimalista e estilizado. O objeto específico deste estudo é o retrato das três bruxas de ambas as produções levando em consideração que “nenhuma performance de qualquer peça de Shakespeare pode ser definitiva, devido à rica complexidade e ambigüidade que o texto contém” (JAY HALIO, 2000, p. 2, minha tradução). Esta análise comenta especialmente sobre a construção dos textos teatrais, cenários, vestimentas, e caracterização das bruxas. Para esta proposta, serão observados como as bruxas interagem entre elas e com Macbeth em ambas as produções nas três partes que correspondem ao texto teatral dos Atos I (cena i e iii) e IV (cena i). PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Macbeth; witches; portrayals ABSTRACT: Macbeth (1606), William Shakespeare’s shortest play, is considered his most devastating and intense tragedy. In 1971, Roman Polanski directed a filmic production of the play. In 1978, Trevor Nunn produced the play for the theater, later conceiving it as filmed theater. In general words, Polanski’s Macbeth is more realistic, while Nunn’s Macbeth is more minimalistic and stylized. The specific object of this study is the portrayal of the play’s three witches in both productions having in mind that “no performance of any Shakespeare play can be definitive, owing to the rich complexity and ambiguity the text contains” (JAY HALIO, 2000, p.
    [Show full text]
  • British Musicals and Comedies Open at the Museum of Modern Art December 20
    The Museum of Modern Art For Immediate Release December 1985 BRITISH MUSICALS AND COMEDIES OPEN AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART DECEMBER 20 Farce and dry wit, streetsong and operetta characterize the wide range of the more than fifty British films to be screened in the exhibition "The Musical and Comedy Tradition" at The Museum of Modern Art. The series opens Friday, December 20, with two Gracie Fields musical comedies, Sally in Our Alley (1931) and Sing as We Go (1934), at 2:30 p.m., and Alfred Hitchcock's silent film Champagne (1928), starring Betty Balfour, at 6:00 p.m., and continues through February 18, 1986. The films in "The Musical and Comedy Tradition," the third of the five sections of the ongoing series BRITISH FILM- TRADITIONS, will be shown chronologically (complete schedule attached). The works in the program reflect the strong influence of the British music hall. Among the music hall performers besides Gracie Fields who made the transition to film and are represented in the exhibition are George Formby (Keep Your Seats Please, No Limit), Max Miller (Hoots Mon!), Will Hay (Oh, Mr. Porter!), Jessie Matthews (It's Love Again, Evergreen), Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge (Elstree Calling), and Sid Field (London Town). A Victorian music hall is the subject of Alberto Cavalcanti's Champagne Charlie (1944). Thomas Bentley's Harmony Heaven (1930) and Walter Summers's Raise the Roof (1930), which will be featured on a double bill, are early backstage musicals, as is Victor Saville's Evergreen (1934). The music hall tradition has helped to define British comedy.
    [Show full text]
  • TPTV Schedule April 5Th to April 11Th
    th th TPTV Schedule April 5 to April 11 Date Time Programme Synopsis Mon 05 00:00 Enemy Mine 1985. Science Fiction. Director by Wolfgang Petersen. Stars Dennis Quaid & Louis Gossett Jr. Apr 21 During a war between humans and a reptilian race, a spaceship pilot ends up stranded with an enemy fighter. (SUBTITLES AVAILABLE) Mon 05 02:15 Play It Cool 1962. Drama. Stars Billy Fury, Dennis Price, Ray Brooks, Bobby Vee, Helen Shapiro. This Apr 21 charming, pre-Beatles-era musical feature was among Michael Winner's earliest films. (SUBTITLES AVAILABLE) Mon 05 03:50 Popeye The Ancient Fistory. 1953. Stars Jack Mercer, Mae Questel & Lou Fleischer. Popeye is working for Apr 21 Sailor Bluto. Princess Olive will choose her mate in a reverse telling of the Cinderella story. (SUBTITLES AVAILABLE) Mon 05 04:00 Lytton's Diary The Silly Season. 1985. Stars: Peter Bowles, Jean Kent, Robert Cartland. With material in short Apr 21 supply during the summer, Lytton reluctantly considers a book by a Swedish actress. (S1, E05) Mon 05 05:00 The Tom Ewell The Safety Lesson. The Safety Lesson. Tom, upset at always being the family chauffeur, tries to Apr 21 Show teach his wife how to drive a car. Junius Matthews guest-stars as an elderly man. Mon 05 05:30 The Tom Ewell Tom Take Over. Tom Ewell stars in this half-hour sitcom as Tom Porter, a real estate agent. Apr 21 Show This episode shows Tom trying to take over the housework. Mon 05 06:00 Johnny On The 1954.
    [Show full text]