New Talent Rewarded at the Old Vic
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No. 469 - December 2009 Emeritus Life President: President: Vice President: Price 50p when sold Dr Wendy Toye CBE Simon Russell Beale CBE Nickolas Grace New Talent rewarded at the Old Vic Lilian Baylis Theatrical Excellence Awards The talented Ewinnerslla Hickman of the This is Not Thereceived End. their certificates and cheques at a recent ceremony at the Old Vic. won an award for writing the play This Is Not The End Natalie Ibu James Baldwin also produced the winning director, and the winning male actor, . Natalie said that she was thrilled to receive the Lilian Baylis award and will be using the money to see plays on her upcoming visit to New York (to study James Baldwin Musical Theatre). is a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy and has been working in London for the last eight months. As well as acting, James is developing his writing and recently premiered a new piece at the A happy James Baldwin, National Theatre Studio. He best male actor Rebecca Whitehead, best female actor, intends to use his award sharing a joke with James Ranger money to pay for an actor or Rebecca Whitehead two to perform his writing. won for her acting in 'Mothers' Ruin'. Rebecca is at the start of her career in London, following stints at the Yorkshire Playhouse and the National Youth Theatre. Surprised and delighted to win, she will be spending her cheque on play Morwenna Johnson 24 tickets. Hour Plays. was a producer of the Previously an intern at the Old Vic, she has now started an internship at the Royal Court. This was a happy occasion with champagne, cake and nibbles provided by the Old Vic. It was a pleasure to meet such intelligent and passionate young people. They were all delighted and honoured to receive their awards and fascinated by the history of the Vic-Wells Association. They have promised to keep us informed of their progress in the Antony Page presenting the future. I am sure that all members of the award to Report by Kirsten Sheridan Morwenna Johnson, association will join me in wishing them well. best producer Natalie Ibu, best director All photographs by Nick Panagakis A history of Twelfth Night and the Vic-Wells Twelfth Night The first production of at the Old Vic that I located was 11 May 1914 when William Poel played Malvolio in a production staged by Shakespeare Stewart. Poel had staged the play many times himself and he favoured the so-called Elizabethan staging. Simon Russell Beale as Malvolio Poel’s Elizabethanism would have been entirely (Donmar Warehouse 2002) at home at the Vic as one feature of Twelfth Night Elizabethanism was the bare boards aesthetic; and because Lilian Baylis would never allow directed a which opened the Twelfthmuch moneyNight for set and costume the Vic stage newly renovated Sadler’s Wells on Twelfth was often ‘bare boards’. Night itself, 6 January. The cast included John was performed fairly frequently Gielgudas Malvolio and Dorothy Green as Viola; at the Vic during the First World War, directed however, this was also the first ‘Cavaliers and first by Andrew Leigh and then by Philip Ben Roundheads’ production I found of the play, a Greet: Violas included Sybil Thorndike and concept that placed Malvolio as a puritan who Viola Tree. George Foss did a production in would vote with the regicides in the English 1918, just before the warTwelfthended, butNight through Civil War. Williams revived his production the much of the 1920s it was Robert Atkins who following year with Edith Evans as Viola and dominated the history of at the Robert Speaight as Malvolio. The Sir Toby in Vic,Twelfthin a Nightwhole series of productions usually both of these productionsTwelfth Night was Ralph featuring himself as Toby. Atkins returned to Richardson. The Vic-Wells audiences were able over and over during his long to see quite a few s around this career and was still directing it, and playing time and in 1933 there was another production, Toby, in the 1950s. this time directed by Tyrone Guthrie. This, Guthrie’s very first production at the Vic-Wells, In 1931 Sadler’s Wells saw a really pioneering was controversial not least because it featured production of the play when Harcourt Williams the Olivia of Lydia Lopokova who was far too lively for most reviewers (they preferred Olivia to be a sober, respectable matron). Guthrie directed the play again, for the Vic-Wells in 1937, in a production that featured Laurence Olivier as Toby. HoweverTwelfth inNight 1937 our Emeritus Life President, Wendy Toye,Cross then Gartered aged 19, choreographed a Twelfthballet.Night Wendy Toye’s ballet was entitled and was based on the action of 3.4. WendyTwelfth ToyeNight herself danced Olivia, while Walter Gore danced the role of Malvolio. When a ballet of was televised that year one of the dancers was Leo Kersey. The 1950s and early 1960s saw Celia Johnson, Peggy Ashcroft, Claire Bloom and Barbara Jefford as Old Vic Violas with Ernest Milton, Michael Hordern and Alec McCowen among the Malvolios, and a soubrette Maria from Judi Dench. Vivien Leigh played Viola in Robert Helpmann’s production that toured Australia Malvolio costume design by Owen Smythe but did not appear in London. More recently for Harcourt Williams’ 1931 Twelfth Night our newTwelfthPresident,Night Simon Russell Beale was a (Bristol Theatre Collection) notable and moving Malvolio in Sam Mendes’ Elizabeth Schafer 2002 at the Donmar Warehouse. 2 NEWS from Sadler’s Wells Bharathanatyam Svapnagata performer in the South Indian dance form Festival of Indian Dance and Music Yuko .InoueAdditionalAk eventsash Odedra in the Lilian Baylis StudioKathakinclude performances by rising stars KumudiniandLakhia Gregory, 16Svapnagata – 28 November 2009 twoMaqoma young Shanell Winlockdancers performing choreographySouthern byComfort . Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui Shantala means ‘dreaming’ in Sanskrit. It is and reprise their Shivalingappa’s theSadler’sinspiration Wells and starting point for a two- duet in a double bill with week festival of Indian music and dance at and Riz MC this November. The festival is new piece. The Lilian Baylis Maya Jaggi curated by two exceptional artists Akramwith a Studio concludes with an evening by rap artist sharedKhan British-Asian Nbackgrounditin Sawhneyand creative , and an afternoon Panel Debate chaired vision: Dancer and choreographer by . and composer are long- The Svapnagata India Festival culminates in a time collaboratorsbahok whose previous productions new collaborative production by Akram Khan forzero degreesSadler’s Wells include the critically “A celebration of NitinacclaimedSawhney andAkram the universallyKhan celebrated Indian dance . in all its classical splendour and have invited artists whom they admire and who have and contemporary influenced them. All are classical artists at the highest level whose work shows a sensibility relevance.” for the tensions between classical training and the quest for a new, contemporary language. They all come from different places, yet have a common denominator in that they all work from a base within the Indian art forms,Tando bringare ablethese toartiststranscendunder oneboundaries umbrellaof givestradition, me a genrsensee,of or ‘intoxication’, culture. Akram and Khan it is this says:intoxication “ that sometimes leads to dreams. And to me, dreams are a place that always carries the memories of the past and the discoveries of the new Shantala Shivalingappa .” will present a classical KuchipudiSidieveningLarbi Cherkaouion the main stage, and a contemporary duet with the choreographer Trilokin the LiliGurtuan Baylis Studio. The renowned Indian composer and virtuoso percussionist will perform pieces by Bach and Bartok together withNaeelamgroupMansinghof WesteChowdhryrn classical musicians who in turn will Nagamandalaplay his own compositions. ’s beautiful production ofthe play combines physical theatre with music and the ancient art of storytelling. TwoU. Shrinivasmusicians who both take their classical training to new levels each present a soloAnoushkaevening: Shankar plays Priyadarsini Govind South Indian Carnatic music on an electric Mandolin, and fuses Confluence classical Sitar ragas with Western music. A pure Sawhney’s Khan’s dance evening will juxtapose the two great and Nitin Sawhney. fuses Indian classicaKathakl dance formsAditi of theMangaldas North and music with unique blend of the South,Priyadarshini featuring solo Govind performances by classical kathak and contemporarycontinued ontechnique. back page It acclaimed dancer takes the form of a conversation between two and by , a celebrated 3 “In the Spirit of Diaghilev” Many dance companies are mounting programmes this year to celebrate the centenary of Sergei Diaghilev’s creation of ‘Les Ballets Russes’ in 1909, but the majority of offerings are of revivals or new productions of works created for ‘Les Ballets Russes’. Conspicuously missing has been the creation of new works, for which Diaghilev’s company achieved a standard in its twenty year “The final work was not existence which has never been equalled. Diaghilev commissioned new choreography, ‘In the spirit of Diaghilev’; identified and developed new choreographers, persuaded major artists, designers and his artistic sensitivity would composers to contribute, and welded disparate and often fractious elements into a successful have vetoed it” creative enterprise. Eternal Damnation to Sancho and Sanchez Sadler’s Wells has sought to honour the La Valse creative element of Diaghilev by commissioning And so to four new works byestablished choreographers by Javier de Frutos, part of it to Ravel’s - very commendable - but the outcome was less . I wonder what was De Frutos’ satisfactory than the initiative deserved. objective in creating this work? Was it to Dyad 1909, indicate his violent dislike of the Roman First up was Wayne McGregor, of Random Catholic Church, or didSacrehe seekdu Printemps to replicate the Dance and the Royal Ballet, with scandal of Nijinsky’s Faun, or the riots based on Shackleton’s 1909 expedition to the generated by the first ? If so, South Pole.