Stage Blood: Five Tempestuous Years in the Early Life of the National Theatre

by Michael Blakemore

In 1971, Michael Blakemore joined the National Theatre as Associate Director under Laurence Olivier. The National, still based at the Old Vic, was at a moment of transition awaiting the move to its vast new home on the South Bank. Relying on generous subsidy, it would need an extensive network of supporters in high places. Olivier, a scrupulous and brilliant autocrat from a previous generation, was not the man to deal with these political ramifications. His tenure began to unravel and, behind his back, Peter Hall was appointed to replace him in 1973. As in other aspects of British life, the ethos of public service, which Olivier espoused, was in retreat.

Having staged eight productions for the National, Blakemore found himself increasingly uncomfortable under Hall's regime. Stage Blood is the candid and at times painfully funny story of the events that led to his dramatic exit in 1976. He recalls the theatrical triumphs and flops, his volatile relationship with Olivier including directing him in Long Day's Journey into Night, the extravagant dinners in Hall's Barbican flat with Harold Pinter, Jonathan Miller and the other associates, the opening of the new building, and Blakemore's brave and misrepresented decision to speak out. He would not return to the National for fifteen years.

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction

400 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 2013

Reviews

[Dafydd Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Top-drawer gossip and tantrums.

[Patrick Neylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Blakemore's account of his five years at the National Theatre is funny, gripping, brilliantly written, superbly structured and just possibly true. Of course, everybody's truth is different and Peter Hall gives a quite different account, but Blakemore is highly skilled in making his own version seem plausible. His account is also valuable for its insights into the skill of directing, into theatre management and the tumultuous reign of Hall's predecessor, Laurence Olivier.

For all his caprice and unpredictability, Olivier is clearly the hero, with Hall as the nemesis who squandered Olivier's heritage and turned the National into a vehicle for his own lust for power and money. Blakemore is keen to stress Hall's strengths and talents, which only helps disarm the reader and makes the barbs more biting. He attacks Hall's reputation as the 'founder' of the Royal Shakespeare Company, claiming he renamed and developed an existing institution (while giving credit to Hall for what he did) and that the achievements of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and its luminaries such as Anthony Quayle "disappeared down Hall's gullet".

Of course it should all be taken with a pinch of salt, but so much of Britain's theatrical history has been cast in the version told by Hall (Wikipedia says he founded the RSC; the RSC itself does not) that some balance doesn't go amiss, even if Blakemore is hardly more objective than Hall.

One criticism is the pictures: all the photos are from play rehearsals, which doesn't reflect the book at all. Photos of the main characters in the book would have been useful, but none of them are there except Blakemore and Olivier (in rehearsals, naturally). What about Dexter and Tynan? Surely Peter Hall was worth depicting? And even the rehearsal photos aren't varied enough. Blakemore goes into great depth describing the complicated set of The Front Page, but the photos are too close-up to give any impression of what is being described, which is hard to picture just from the description.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and sometimes moving memoir of the author's time at the National Theatre.

[Mark Ludmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb memoir that will grip anyone interested in theatre history and theatre practice. Theatre director Michael Blakemore candidly recounts his five years as an associate director at the National Theatre in its last days based at the Old Vic through to its move to its current home on the South Bank in 1976. It illuminates leading figures of British Theatre such as Laurence Olivier, Kenneth Tynan, Harold Pinter and Jonathan Miller and offers insights into theatre directing and plays that Blakemore worked on including Peter Nichols’ The National Health, O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Macbeth. It builds up to Peter Hall taking over as artistic director of the National Theatre, leading to disagreements between him and Blakemore about how a subsidised national theatre should be run - a topic that remains relevant nearly 50 years later.

[Jubilado · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, well written account of theatre life and what is involved in getting a play to the stage. The interpersonal power struggles determine the fate of our national theatre.

[Harry McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally delicious; entirely plausible, vividly rendered, and bitchy bitchy bitchy.

[Neale · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Stage Blood', by expatriate Australian theatre director Michael Blakemore, has generated some controversy for its attack on Peter Hall's tenure at the National Theatre, where he replaced (some might say deposed) its founder Laurence Olivier. There is definitely a settling of old scores going on - and by old I mean more than 30 years old, so one can't accuse Blakemore of rushing to his own defence. Having decided to put his own case, though, he does so with forensic elegance.

Blakemore's description of the Hall ascendancy, and of his own forced resignation, is really just a rather sorry coda to the best part of the book, which is a detailed description of working with Olivier, and a fascinating insight into the process of "putting on a play" at the very highest level. The account of the rehearsal process for 'Long Day's Journey Into Night', Olivier's last great stage role, is utterly fascinating, and the depiction of the politics of theatre management equally so. I hope we will see more of Blakemore's memoirs...

[Jeff Howells · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say that although I enjoyed reading it, this book is one of the most one eyed and blatant self serving memoirs I've ever read. It covers 5 years in the history of the National Theatre, the end of Laurence Olivier's reign and the start of Peter Hall's in charge. Blakemore goes so far in his attempt to show that he was right and others wrong that what actually happens is that you start to disbelieve his account of events totally. He dislikes Peter Hall intensely and this book is an attempt to smear him. It's clear Blakemore has left things out that might offer any sort of balance, and you can't help feeling that the events that led to his 'resignation' were self inflicted and the result of hubris rather than any noble cause. The one thing reading this book has made me want to do is to search out Peter Hall's diaries and see what his take on events were.

[Marie Fouhey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a detailed history of the authors five years with the National Theatre in London in the early 70s. He's a wonderful writer and gives a warts and all profile of Laurence Olivier, but is also generous in his praise. Its painful to read of the authors struggles with Peter Hall who followed Olivier and who the author depicts as someone interested in power, money and empire building. The author was outmatched in political maneuvering and is well aware of it and of the mistakes he made in handling the situation. He wrote the book in response to the publication of the Peter Hall Diaries which gave Halls version of events. Some of the most interesting parts of the book are the authors discussions of the plays that he directed at the National Theatre - why they were chosen, how things went during rehersals, and some of his contributions to the plays of which he remains proud.

[Colin McPhillamy · Rating 5 out of 5]

... Just in case you were wondering what it looks like when a plutocrat with possible kleptocratic tendencies has sole charge of a great institution which he might, in fact, regard as his personal ATM, there could be no finer prototypic manual than the theatrical memoir, Stage Blood.

This outstanding volume by that distinguished man of international theatre, Michael Blakemore, compares and contrasts the regimes of Sir (later, Lord) Laurence Olivier with its basis in public service, and Peter (later, Sir Peter) Hall with its accent on a percentage.

[Connor O'Donoghue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this. The anatomical breakdown of what goes into directing a play is fascinating. Blakemore writes really well and as the second half of the book gets more political and more pointed in his criticisms of Peter Hall’s leadership of the National Theatre, the whole book takes on a wonderful sense of drama, which is wholly fitting.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as his first book of memoirs but still a must-read for theatre practitioners.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was crazy - highly recommend for all those theatre geeks. It had everything - showbiz, betrayal, bravery.

[Mick Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

The machinations of Shakespeare's plays have nothing on this.backstabbing treacherous behaviour am enclosed in a blanket of art and entertainment.