Actor’s memoir a colourful view of life, career
Ex-U of S drama professor Henry Woolf attending Sunday’s Word on the Street
Describing an unconventional childhood in London and a remarkable life in theatre, Henry Woolf’s memoir, Barcelona is in Trouble, is as rewarding as a good play.
Woolf is well-known in Saskatoon as a drama professor at the University of Saskatchewan, where he served from 1983 to 1997, after which he ran the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan festival.
In the U.K., he’s known for his acting exploits in theatre, film and television with the likes of Laurence Olivier, Peter O’Toole and Glenda Jackson. He grew up in London, a high school classmate of Nobel-prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, who became a lifelong friend. When Woolf was in university, he directed Pinter’s first play, The Room.
“I remember the audience waking up from its polite cultural stupor and beginning to enjoy itself,” he writes.
In an interview, Woolf described his memoir as a 21/2 year project that was a lifetime in the making.
“I started writing within three weeks of becoming an actor, as if some unconscious thing said ‘Your life isn’t going to belong to you anymore. It’s going to belong to whoever hires you, and they’ll ask you to dress up in funny clothes and be anyone but yourself.’ ”
Woolf’s unusual childhood was framed by poverty. His parents, Jewish immigrants from Romania, lived through tumultuous times. His father was an accountant who knew five languages but seemed allergic to work.
In just one instance of pure black humour, Woolf quotes his father talking about drinking amicably with the Cossacks in Romania.
“They weren’t always killing Jews, you know. It was only around Easter you had to be careful.”
Woolf read extensively from a very young age. He had to take an audition of sorts to get a library card as a five-year-old. Heartbreakingly, he was walking to the library as a teen when it was demolished by a V2 rocket, killing everyone in it, including the kind librarian.
“I remember writing ‘Another victory for the Third Reich,’ ” he said.
The book’s title relates to the Spanish Civil War, with which the author was obsessed as a child. One day, the very worried six-year-old said to a classmate, “Barcelona is in trouble.” Clearly, his buddy had no idea what he was talking about.
There’s not an ounce of sentimentality or melancholy in the book. Even writing about his wife Susan Williamson, Woolf chooses a funny story of her locking him in the basement when he drank too much at a party.
“She kept me there shivering until 3:30 in the morning. That’s the sort of wife to have.”
The two met in a play in New York, which leads to a funny story about Saskatoon.
“When I first came to Saskatoon, an old lady said to me, ‘Where did you and your wife meet?’ I said, with a flash of conceit, ‘On Broadway, we met on Broadway.’ She said, ‘You mean at Five Corners, down by the bridge?’ I thought, this was the place I want to live. They won’t allow me to be conceited. People here are unpretentious.”
Woolf is always one to downplay his accomplishments, so you have to read between the lines in this memoir. No self-congratulation here.
“The theatre has been very good to me: wonderful plays, talent o’er flowing wherever one looked. Have I been good to the theatre? I couldn’t tell you. I’ve left an invisible footprint,” he writes.
Nonsense. The footprints may be small, but they are indelible.
Word on the Street is Sunday on Broadway Avenue. More than 30 authors are featured. Woolf converses with Jeff Rogstad at 1:15 p.m. Other writers include Gail Bowen, Jan Wong, Renee Kohlman, Jennifer Robinson, Alice Kuipers and Katherine Lawrence.
Online: thewordonthestreet.ca/ saskatoon
This was the place I want to live. They won’t allow me to be conceited. People here are unpretentious.