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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Plain Talk
By Mursi Saad El-Din
I remember a BBC Radio Programme from the late 1940s and early 1950s with the title "I was there." Using modern reporting techniques, the programme reenacted historical events as if they were happening then and there. The title appeals to me because now that so many years have passed, I feel I too was there on many and various occasions.
I was there, to be specific, in London, during what I regard as the golden age of the British theatre. It was the age of the knighted trinity: Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John Gielgud; the age of Dame Sybil Thorndike, Dame Edith Evans, Flora Robson and all those geniuses. I watched them play works by Shakespeare, Chekov, Pinter, Maugham, Christopher Fry and others, far too many to remember.
I was reminded of this when I read an obituary of Sir John Gielgud who died on 21 May. His death marked "the end of an era in the life of the British theatre," the obituary said. Sir John Gielgud had a rather checkered career, with apexes of fame and anti-climaxes. He was attacked by theatre critics like Kenneth Tynan. But he never gave in.
John Gielgud started early and before too long was a West End star. He played with the Old Vic Company in Waterloo Road during its seminal seasons 1929-1931. Before he was 20 he appeared in Congreve's Love for Love and Chekov's The Cherry Orchard. At 26 he was the youngest actor of his time to play the Dane. And during the World War II he travelled with ENSA, the company that was responsible for the entertainment of the troops. He was famous for his role in The Importance of Being Earnest against Dame Edith Evans.
He returned to London from the ENSA travels and re-opened the Old Vic in 1940. During the war all theatres were closed, apart from the Windmill, which was more show box than theatre. The old, established theatre began its new opening with King Lear. He continued to play Shakespeare with the Shakespeare Company in Startford, where he became famous for his Lear and Macbeth. He took part in a Haymarket season from 1944-1946 when he appeared again in Hamlet. Personally, I had the pleasure of seeing him in those two plays as well as in a production of Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not for Burning.
Gielgud appeared in a number of productions by Peter Brook, including Measure for Measure and Winter's Tale. He was invariably an innovator. In 1957 his role in The Tempest led to a virulent attack by Tynan. But he found a leading critic, James Agate, to stand by him. Agate wrote that Gielgud had reached an unrivaled stellar status.
Gielgud's work with the Old Vic at different times helped establish him as a leading Shakespearean actor. He played Romeo, Antony, Prospero, Antonio, Julius Caesar, Macbeth. It is amazing how actors, however famous they might have become, always long for a season at the Old Vic, no matter what.
In the 1960s he embraced a diversity of forms, one example being his solo Shakespearean recitals -- a one man show with the title The Ages of Man. With it he demonstrated his powers of recovery and self-renewal and was able to reclaim his place in the British theatre of the 1960's. In 1967 he joined the National Theatre and appeared in Peter Brook's production of Oedipus. This marked "a late flowering period," described as "a living bridge" between Gielgud and some of the best young contemporary actors of that time.
During my stay in London from 1945 to 1956 I had the pleasure of seeing him in such plays as Julius Caesar, Richard II and many others. Gielgud had his final appearance in the theatre in Lear for a BBC radio production.
Sir John Gielgud had many films to his name, including J.B. Priestely's The Good Company, Somerset Maugham's Secret Agent and The Prime Minister (in which he played Disraeli), Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet and Richard II.
