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CONTENTS Synopsis Character Notes Cast & Crew Interviews Ronald Harwood Richard Eyre Anthony Hopkins Ian McKellen Emily Watson Sarah Lancashire Edward Fox Vanessa Kirby Colin Callender Sonia Friedman Donal Woods Jenny Shircore Fotini Dimou Adapting the play Recreating the theatre Casting SYNOPSIS One of the greatest portraits of life in the theatre, Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser has been adapted for television. The production brings Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins together on screen for the first time. Reverting to Harwood’s original text, adapted for television and directed by Richard Eyre, the play tells the story of one fateful night in a small regional theatre during World War Two as a troupe of touring actors stage a production of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Bombs are falling, the sirens are wailing, the curtain is up in an hour but the actor/manager Sir (Hopkins) who is playing Lear is nowhere to be seen. His dresser Norman (McKellen) must scramble to keep the production alive, but will Sir turn up in time and if he does, will he be able to perform that night? The Dresser is a wickedly funny and deeply moving story of friendship and loyalty as Sir reflects on his lifelong accomplishments and seeks to reconcile his turbulent friendships with those in his employ before the final curtain. The Dresser is a Playground Entertainment and Sonia Friedman production in association with Altus Productions and Prescience. The executive producers are Colin Callender and Sonia Friedman, Polly Hill for the BBC and Tim Smith and Paul Brett for Prescience. The producer is Suzan Harrison. The idea of the on screen revival came from Colin Callender and Sonia Friedman. Callender explains, “Sonia and I went to see Ronnie (Harwood) to say that we weren’t trying to remake the wonderful Peter Yates film but that we wanted to revisit the days of ‘Play for Today’. Single drama was the staple of the genre in those early golden days of television, with many writers and directors coming from the theatre. The genealogy of British television drama is the stage and so it’s a joy to revisit that and let writers, actors and directors embrace that and enjoy the work of great writing.” CHARACTER NOTES ‘SIR’ PLAYED BY ANTHONY HOPKINS Sir is the lead actor and manager of a regional touring theatre company who has spent his life performing Shakespeare. One fateful night in a small regional theatre during World War II as the troupe prepares for his 227th performance of King Lear, Sir is taken ill. As bombs fall and sirens wail Sir cannot remember his lines or even the play they are about to perform. His manic struggle to get ready for the stage gives him cause to reflect as he seeks to reconcile his relationships with those closest to him before the final curtain falls. ‘NORMAN’ PLAYED BY IAN MCKELLEN Norman is Sir’s dresser, protector and confidant. A former play-as-cast actor, he was plucked from the wings by Sir, and has since spent his career solely in his service. He exults in his status as the man closest to Sir, which strains his relationship with the others in the company. When Sir is taken ill, it is Norman who steps into the breach to lead the company, and strives to get him on stage. He has given his life to Sir, a debt that can possibly never be repaid. ‘HER LADYSHIP’ PLAYED BY EMILY WATSON Her Ladyship is Sir’s partner and a fellow member of the troupe, playing Cordelia in their production of King Lear. When Sir is taken ill, Her Ladyship’s appeals for him to retire cause a fissure between them that exposes years of regret, resentment and hurt that have been glossed over. ‘MADGE’ PLAYED BY SARAH LANCASHIRE Madge is the Stage Manager for the company. Her cold, business-like demeanour belies a longstanding, unrequited love and devotion to Sir. More alike than they probably understand, Madge and Norman find themselves at odds, both suffering the truth of their feelings for Sir in silence. ‘IRENE’ PLAYED BY VANESSA KIRBY Irene is an ambitious young actress in the company with a burning passion for the stage. Her determination to become the leading lady, and her infatuation with Sir, threatens to undermine Norman’s efforts to keep the company in order. He tries to hide Sir’s growing reciprocation of her attentions from Her Ladyship and Madge. ‘THORNTON’ PLAYED BY EDWARD FOX Geoffrey Thornton is an older actor within the troupe who’s called upon to stand in as the part of the Fool, keen to use the opportunity to impress Sir. He is in many ways Sir without the title – also a stand in for those who make acting their life’s work, but never reach the heights of fame or notoriety. RONALD HARWOOD (WRITER) INTERVIEW Where did the idea for The Dresser come from? Well, I was at RADA, and after the first year my mother wrote to me from South Africa, where I was born, saying she could no long afford the fees. I had no money, I had nothing to do. I heard that Donald Wolfit was starting a Shakespeare season at the King’s Theatre, Hammersmith. I wrote to him and he sent back a printed form saying his company was full. That evening I was having dinner with the only friend I had in London, a South African pianist called Lionel Bowman, who lived with a man who was the drama critic of The Stage newspaper. I told him I had my first rejection, he said, “Oh you fool, Wolfit’s a close friend of mine, I’ll write him a letter.” Wolfit saw me at the Waldorf Hotel, Aldwych, on a Sunday. I went to the appropriate rehearsal, and my first job was leading on Sir Lewis Casson. After a few weeks his dresser left and he’d taken a shine to me because I was very good on the storm. I was standing by the entrance to the stage from the dressing rooms, and Wolfit came down in his Lear makeup and all that, and he said, “Were you on the storm tonight?” I said, “Yes, I was, sir.” He said, “You’re an artist.” He then made me his dresser. The role of the dresser, as we see very clearly in the story, is more than just an assistant. Oh you’re the guardian of the flame. I mean nobody can get to see him without coming through you, the dresser, because you know in what stage he’s dressing and all that. Even his business manager and his secretary had no access unless they asked me first. I had absolute control of his diary, as it were, during the show. We became very close. I loved being a dresser and I was a very good dresser, I didn’t feel belittled by being a servant, it was terrific. So, at what point in your career did you think there’s something for me as a writer in this? Well [Harold] Pinter was a great influence on me because he had his first play done and it got dreadful reviews, called The Birthday Party. I met him one day in the street and we talked about it, and I thought you know, if Harold can do it, I can do it. I was out of work, my wife was pregnant and I sat down and wrote a novel about South Africa, an anti-apartheid novel, and I wrote it in three weeks. A friend came to dinner and said “what have you been doing?” I said “I’ve written a novel”, and he said “oh I know a publisher, let me show it to him.” He took the novel and he showed it to Jonathan Cape, he had a friend [who worked there], and they were a very distinguished publisher then, and the last book they’d published on South Africa was Cry, the Beloved Country. They took my book and it had wonderful reviews and I thought I was going to win the Nobel Prize the following week; I didn’t, but it was good fun. It was after this when you wrote The Dresser? Yes. Wolfit left it in his will that he’d like me to do a biography of him, which I did. That was in ’68, so 12 years later I decided I might write the play. I was very reluctant because I couldn’t get Wolfit out of my mind and I thought, “Oh well to hell with it, I’ll just make it as I remembered it.” Is Sir based on Wolfit? Wolfit never, ever didn’t want to go on stage, he loved acting. I remember once, in a play called The Wandering Jew he had a late entrance. The play began with his wife dying and the character that Wolfit was playing had gone out to find Jesus to see if he could get a quick cure. And Donald used to pace up and down in the wings while she was doing her acting. “I can’t live any longer. She won’t die tonight,” Donald used to say, “She won’t die tonight, get on with it.” He never was reluctant to go on stage. And so Sir in The Dresser is not as great an actor, but he has one great part and that’s King Lear, which is the production I deal with in the play. Tell us about the parallels between King Lear and Sir/The Dresser? The bombing is the storm, and the women have corresponding roles in the Shakespeare play.