Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An American actress known for many excellent performances in London theatre.
On the island
Eight records
Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence
No reason given in transcript
No reason given in transcript
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:08We've seen you give so many excellent performances and so many plays on the London Theatre that we are inclined to forget that you are in fact an American, aren't you?
Yes, I have. I was born in Nebraska, but was taken very early to California. My father was a superintendent of schools, and so there I grew up.
Presenter asks
2:43What sort of impact did the London Theatre have on you? You weren't seeing it at its best. This was the end of the war, wasn't it?
Well, I was seeing it at its best. I saw the end of the fabulous old Vic company which was at the New, when Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson and Margaret Leighton and all of them were giving these marvellous performances.
Presenter asks
3:57Now the cocktail party took you right to the top, but you still hadn't appeared in any of the classical repertoire.
No, and I thought after the cocktail party, what can be better? I don't know what I shall do. Everything else will be an anticlimax. But fortunately I went to the Vic and I played these wonderful roles. There's [Des]demona and Portia and Lady Macbeth and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream and I don't know what all.
Presenter asks
5:43What do you feel is the function of the theatre now that television is churning out so much of what used to be called the well-made play?
Exactly. And the well made plays are total deadlocks. … But in contemporary literature and the theatre we have got to experiment more and also the acting has got to take into consideration the tremendous brainwashing, if I may say so, of films and television which have taught the audience so much … Therefore the audience really wants to be in the position of a voyeur. I think the theatre should be much more like a documentary. It should have the urgency and the unexpectedness that the original theatre had when Shakespeare's audience came to the theatre they didn't know what was going to happen in Hamlet.
Presenter asks
6:37Do you find it confusing now belonging to two countries, or are you really only happy in Mid Atlantic?
No, I don't consider myself belonging to two countries. I think this is my country. And it's been awfully kind to me and hospitable and taught me and given me so much.
“I think it's terribly important and I'm not sure that we don't underestimate the value of very, very early education. It's terribly important. I'm not sure that we spend enough money or have enough teachers for it.”
“I knew nothing about acting, and I wanted to learn the basis of acting, which as far as I'm concerned, in those days, was based upon the classical theatre, and therefore I had no chance to learn about Shakespeare in America, there were no theatres, and I wanted the classical tradition of acting, and so I came to England.”
“He's the most marvellous person to be with on the stage. He tries to improvise almost as though he had never done it before in his life, and so each evening is totally fresh. [About Noël Coward]”
“I would like to be in a modern play in which the women are acted by women, and I'd like to be one of those women. … I'm absolutely terrified that men are acting everything now. There was a desperate moment last year when all the plays were written for men, but now the few plays left for women, the men are acting them as well.”
“The audience really wants to be in the position of a voyeur. I think the theatre should be much more like a documentary. It should have the urgency and the unexpectedness that the original theatre had when Shakespeare's audience came to the theatre they didn't know what was going to happen in Hamlet.”