Theatre Dramatic Exchanges
Selected and edited by Daniel Rosenthal (Profile Books, £25)
PRIVATE LETTERS, like diaries, usually make compulsive reading. This becomes doubly true when the correspondence consists, as here, of intimate exchanges between directors of the National Theatre and their colleagues.
The fascinating result is like eavesdropping on theatrical history: you can’t help wondering how much the tricky relationship between Sir Laurence Olivier and his ultimate successor dates from 1961, when Peter Hall suggested the great man would be perfect as Pizarro in The Royal Hunt Of The Sun by Peter Shaffer as the character combines ‘the most extraordinary megalomania and strength of spirit’.
The book is full of revelations. Who knew that Sean Connery wanted to play John Proctor in The Crucible, that Richard Eyre envisaged David Hare as a future successor or that Trevor Nunn made anonymous donations of more than £2.5 million to the company he was running?
However, the book transcends gossip to expose the highs and lows of being at the helm of a national institution. First-night triumphs are duly recorded. Maggie Smith tells Olivier that she is heartbroken at not being offered the role of Millamant in The Way Of The World and a succession of dramatists, including John Osborne, Simon Gray and even the saintly Alan Bennett, complain about their plays either being dropped or insufficiently performed.
The book provides the best insight since the publication of Peter Hall’s Diaries into how the National works. Some of the liveliest exchanges are between members of the public and theatre professionals. A fan letter about a forgotten Peter Nichols play, The Freeway, made me want to see it again and a complaint to Michael Redgrave that he made the character of Uncle Vanya too much of a buffoon produces one of the best analyses of Chekhov I have read.
I confess that a letter of mine appears in the book. That does not stop me recommending Dramatic Exchanges for its exposure of the private faces of people in public places. Michael Billington