About six years ago Bill Hayes, the producing artistic director started talking about doing a 20th year anniversary production of The Dresser by Ronald Harwood.
Remember The Dresser? – 1983 film with Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney following huge success in London and New York.
TV film 2015 with Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins.
A love letter to the British backstage in the early years of the Second World War when all the able-bodied had left to fight. – Not for the first time …
“And leave your England, as dead midnight still, Guarded with grandsires, babies and old women …”
Henry V, Act III prologue – Shakespeare.
What with the pandemic interfering, there will now be a 25th year anniversary production, and in a few weeks rehearsals will begin.
That’s Bill Hayes as Norman (The Dresser) placing the crown on the hairy guy (Me) who is getting ready to play King Lear.
The Dresser by Ronald Harwood, opens December 18th 2024 at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Florida
There are parallels between the practice of theatre and the practice of astrology.
“Oh yeah?” I hear you cry. “How does a planet or the stars in the sky correspond to the life of some out of work actor?”
Image courtesy of Unsplash
This is a valid question.
Consider: an actor gets a role. The parameters of the role are defined by the script. The expression of the role is guided, sometimes obstructed, but certainly shaped by a director. Within those limits the actor is free to make choices, to interpret.
My Lear will be different from your Lear. (well, one hopes).
AI generated image courtesy of Pixabay
Consider: We come into incarnation – a fancy way of saying we get born. And the mystery begins. Because: where have we come from?
Plato has it that the natural habitat of each human soul is one of the stars above and that we pass through each of the planetary spheres acquiring the qualities of that particular planet and its placement in the zodiac at that moment. We take on the costume for this incarnation and the script as written in the interplanetary potentials.
And in the play of life, with its exits and entrances, we can choose how we play the part. We don’t have ham it up.
And according to Robert Frost, Wordsworth, and particularly Shakespeare, we have all signed up for a round trip. The mighty seven ages speech from As You Like It exactly describes the progress of a life and the return. But return to what?
J B Priestly’s character Henry Ormonroyd put all of the above a lot more succinctly when he said (in When We Are Married)
“We all come here and we don’t know why. We all go in our turn and we don’t know where…”
Your blogger as Henry Ormonroyd, Guthrie Theatre 2008
My friend and sometime fellow student Maggie once said to me, “When I heard you’d become an astrologer I thought – Oh he’s lost it. … But then later I thought, oh no, he’s fond an angle.”
I have indeed lost it in the pre-Enlightenment mystery of the endless study that is astrology.
As for the angle, yes that too, Maggie was right. Though not in the sense she meant. The angle or rather the angles plural, are the horizons over which the stars rise and fall on a daily basis and which contain the clues to the weird and whacky interplay of pre-destiny and free will.
Still with me?
As part of my research into how to establish an astrological practice, I joined a networking group of holistic practitioners I’m here to tell you there is more woo-woo per square inch in Westchester, N.Y. than is commonly. suspected.
I have met some lovely people. Unsurprisingly perhaps in such a group every member is an empath – it’s almost like being with a bunch of actors.
But the point is I have been exchanging services with these people. I give them an astro reading and they give me – whatever it is they do. For brief accounts and testimonials go here.
And talking of Lear …
I have an up coming gig in West Palm Beach, Florida. I will go there in November to rehearse and then play ‘Sir’ in The Dresser. For those who don’t know the play, ‘Sir’ is a bombastic, self-obsessed old ham of an actor … and for some extraordinary reason they’ve come to me …???
In the manner of the late great Barry Humphries who proclaimed his “first farewell tour”, I’m intending this to be my last one for various reasons.
So if the stars should align, come to West Palm Beach. We open December 18th. Palmbeachdramaworks.org for details.
Have you ever read a book that made you wonder how ever did you miss something important because there it was in plain sight all the time?
A few years ago I came across this amazing volume:
I am delighted to announce that Priscilla and I will be jointly presenting on this subject. It will be online, hosted by The Centre for Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred on Tuesday July 16th 2024 at 6:30pm UK time. Here’s the link.
I’ve been in a dozen or so Shakespearean productions and have been a fan since youth. Of course I was aware of the canon being peppered with cosmic and celestial references, what I had not noticed was how certain of the plays are fraught with precise overarching astrological meanings – in the language, in the plot and in the story.
This will be a somewhat more scholarly take than my planned show AstroBard which had to be postponed earlier in the year.
If you have an interest in either Shakespeare or Astrology or ways they combine, please do come along!
NB: if you do decide to splurge on the required 10 quid (ten pounds sterling) when you click the link you’ll get to the listing page – you need the first BUY NOW button the one that is higher on the page not the lower! Thanks!
NB: If you live in the greater NYC area, read to the end for news of a Westchester show!
It is staggeringly impressive how you can turn a common or garden boozer into a posh venue when you spend a million pounds sterling. To experience this phenomenon I recommend The White Bear in Kennington, London, UK. What was a black box theatre downstairs is now a superior black box theatre upstairs. Downstairs you can get very good fish & chips and the back of the place has been knocked through and made into a bit of upmarket gentrification complete with micro-brewery ales.
We had just got off the plane from New York and went that evening to see the last night of Harry and Meghan – the fact that my old friend and sometime fellow-student, Michael Kingsbury, has run the place for the past 40 years, and done much to elevate the cause of interesting theatre on the London fringe was a motivating factor. A talented quartet delivering sketch comedy style satire. – Packed!
That was Saturday
On Monday we saw The Hills of California, the latest play from Jez Butterworth. It bears all the hallmarks of his work – snappy dialogue with mythological implications and references, tense drama, and high production values.
A powerhouse performance from Laura Donelly – I mean POWERHOUSE – I knew her in The Ferryman – and here she gives whole other dimensions in her work – quite amazingly impressive – not sure if it’s coming to Broadway.
That was Monday
On Wednesday we saw Uncle Vanya at The Orange Tree in Richmond. Very interesting from all sorts of point of view. Directed by the 80 year old Trevor Nunn, late of the RSC, the National and of course Cats which made him rich.
James Lance ( a very fine actor) in the title role was off, and we were told there would be a substitute who had almost no rehearsal and would be carrying the script.
Sadly I cannot tell you the name of this heroic actor. Not only did he not carry the script, his performance was superb. As was the whole production. All the Chekhov elements were there: pathos, bathos – texture, passion, terminal boredom, frustrated desire, and above all humor.
A young man who could have been playing Trofimov (the eternal student) in The Cherry Orchard was seated next to Trish. He admonished us for laughing. Not a surprise to be informed that he had a PHD in Theatre.
Where do you start with such people?
So we fled to Paris
There was an interlude with zero theatre – Rodin, Monet, The Tuileries –
Well we did go to the ballet one night, Don Quixote was the show – I must honestly confess that I had no idea of the story (and I have been in Man of La Mancha in Beijing), but it was of course ravishing on the eye, and breathtaking when you consider what some people can do with their bodies.
Another interlude on the south coast…
The lovely Polly Adams and family and a rogue hot water bottle.
Meanwhile in London …
Colin McPhillamy, Michael Shaw, Matilda Thorpe, Richard Fallon, Roy Drinkwater
Actors – lunch, drinks, coffee … chat
With David Verrey
… As above with Mark Carey
And then … The Picture of Dorian Grey at the Haymarket.
Again, another show with multiple points of interest. First off: it is a solo performance by Sarah Snook (you’ve seen her in Succession), produced initially in Sydney Australia. A staggering tour de force with some very inventive tech. If you are an actor reading this, I highly recommend it from a professional research and development point of view. The show is slated to come to Broadway.
Which brings me to episode 2 in My Guest Today.
Amelia Campbell and Anthony Akin talk to me about the new play What Keeps Us Going by Barbara Dana, to be directed by Austin Pendleton. The cast includes Amelia and Tony, Tim Jerome, and Karen Ziemba – Tony nominations abound!
The play opens May 24th and plays until June 9th at the Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls in Upper Westchester. Run do not walk to get tickets!
