Greetings!
Well, I went and played King Lear at Theatre for a New Audience in New York this
spring, and I have to boast that it was a big success. Apart from the press and public
reaction, I felt that I’d done it at the right moment in my life, I was completely
happy with the direction and design, I loved the American cast and I think they me.
Three terrific months. It feels odd not to have played the part in the UK - English
producers baulked at the cost of importing the show - so I’m now trying to set up
a separate English production before I become too old.
Like Hamlet, Lear makes you disinclined to work for a bit afterwards, but on the
other hand summer is festival season, and as Mary has reported, I ticked over with
them; and then I pulled together various random invitations to do SWEET WILLIAM -
from a theatre in Portland in Oregon, from a little theatre near Toulouse, and from
the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv. I also took on playing Sir Anthony Blunt in a revival
of Alan Bennett’s QUESTION OF ATTRIBUTION at the Rose Theatre Kingston. Not my first
Bennett – I did George III for him some years ago - but my first Bennett comedy (as
it partly is), and as I’d hardly got a laugh for a year or so – Strindberg, Richard
II, King Lear - I jumped at it. Then I did the SWEET WILLIAM mini tour which I’m
glad to say sold out everywhere, and which went particularly well in Tel Aviv at
this terribly difficult time in Israel, when the struggle for peace is obviously
preoccupying people of every persuasion. When I describe ROMEO AND JULIET as being
not only a love story but a question: could two families (ie two halves of the world)
who’ve been at war for ever, perhaps sit down and make peace because of the love
of two of their young people, there was a spontaneous ovation from each audience.
I’ll never forget it.
I’ve now done a very good David Rudkin play for Radio 3 called MACEDONIA that transits
in early February, and so I’m rolling down to Christmas feeling well pleased by a
varied and very stimulating year – and not least because I’ve just got the first
advance copies of my new book LET ME PLAY THE LION TOO : HOW TO BE AN ACTOR – which
Faber publish in mid January. Never mind the writing; it looks beautiful. Do have
a look when it’s out.
Thanks again for your interest
December 2014
12th December 2014
Michael will be discussing his new book Let Me Play the Lion Too at the Theatre Royal,
Winchester on the 15th February. Click on the link to see full details.
15th October 2014
I’ve just heard that Michael is heading off to the Northwest Classical Theatre Company
in Portland, OR.,for two performances of Sweet William. Dates are 21st and 22nd
of October and full information is found at the above address.
13th October 2014
Michael will be doing a Platform Performance on 9th February 2015 to introduce his
new book Let Me Play the Lion Too. Full details can be found at nationaltheatre.org.uk.
3rd October
Single :Spies has now opened to some very good reviews for Michael. I will add more
as I find them.
24th August 2014
Michael will be reading the Book of the Week commencing Monday 25th August on BBC
Radio 4 at 9.45 am. The book is Philip Larkin - Life, Art and Love by James Booth.
18th August 2014
You can listen to an audio of Michael’s appearance at the Ledbury Poetry Festival’s
Hundred Years War by clicking on the following link:
http://www.poetry-festival.co.uk/highlights/
He will also be appearing at the Cheltenham festival discussing King Lear with Jonathan
Bate and Catherine Belsey on the 7th October at 11.45 am. Click on the following
link for more details for full details: http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature/whats-on/grid.
2nd August 2014
Michael will be appearing in Alan Bennett’s Single Spies, a double-bill stage adaptation
of his television films An Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution. It will
be at the Rose Theatre, Kingston from the 25th September to the 11th October. You
can fine full details at www.rosetheatrekingston.org
18th July 2014
Michael will be taking part in the Shaffer Celebration at the Chichester Festival
Theatre this Saturday (26th July). He will be part of the Question Time panel which
also includes Derek Jacobi, Patrick Stewart, Albert Finney, Simon Callow and Jamie
Glover.
