Notes from the Gods: Playgoing in the Twenties

by John Gielgud, Richard Mangan (Editor)

Published in celebration of Sir John Gielgud's 90th birthday, this fascinating fragment of autobiography offers nostalgic glimpses into the vanished world of the theatrical twenties - newly overlaid with Gielgud's present-day comments on his younger years.

As a drama student in his teens at RADA and as a tyro actor in his twenties, Gielgud was a passionate playgoer, seeing everything of note in the London theatre - ballet, revue and melodrama as well as straight plays. He attended the first ever productions of Shaw, Galsworthy, Coward and saw all the leading players of his day, Sybil Thorndike, Edith Evans, Ivor Novello, Gladys Cooper and their like. Moreover, he kept every single programme, carefully annotating them with characteristic frankness.

The whole hoard was guarded for many years by his mother, who eventually donated it to the Mander and Mitchenson Theatre Collection. This volume, compiled by the present Curator, offers a juicy selection of these youthful critiques - illustrated by page after page of stunning photographs from the actual productions that Gielgud saw.

Furthermore, in the course of the book's preparation for publication, Sir John has added his own present-day comments on the opinions and experiences of his younger self. In so doing, he has transformed what was already a charming fragment of theatrical autobiography into a meeting ground for two versions of himself, the student and the master, the teenager and the octogenarian, the boy and the sage.

121 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor/director/producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937. He was known for his beautiful speaking of verse and particularly for his warm and expressive voice, which his colleague Sir Alec Guinness likened to "a silver trumpet muffled in silk". Gielgud is one of the few entertainers who have won an Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into John Gielgud's early playgoing, made even better by his comments, almost 70 years later, on some of those early ventures to the theatre.

He saw many of the great productions of the early to mid-1920s and, fortunately for us, he annotated the programmes with his comments and the companions he attended with. If it seems egotistical to publish them now, it was his mother who donated the programmes to the Mander and Mitchenson Theatre Collection and it is from there that these are now produced. Gielgud gave his approval for them to be seen, adding his memories and writing to the editor, 'I find it rather hard to believe that the present generation will be much interested in these juvenile reminiscences of my boyhood ...' How wrong could he be!

The good thing is that he does not hold back with any of his comments, regardless of who the actor was or who had written the play. In 1920 Barrie's 'Mary Rose' was 'Wonderful! Wept buckets.' while of Bernard Shaw's 'Heartbreak House' in 1921 he commented, 'I was never so bored at a theatre ... The play is dull and ill-constructed ...'

In 1922 he viewed Somerset Maugham's 'East of Suez' 'Badly written, the scenes loosely strung together ...'; he saw Noel Coward in 'London Calling!' and felt 'Coward will be better when he is less nervous' but some years later he saw Coward's 'Fallen Angels' which he thought 'Brilliantly clever - and brilliant performance by Miss [Tallulah] Bankhead'. He also liked Coward's 'The Vortex', stating, 'Very brilliant play. Witty, effective and original' although he did mention 'Coward himself lacked charm and personality (heaven forbid!!) and played the piano too loudly, though he acted sincerely and forcefully as far as he could.'

Edith Evans 'gave her usual brilliant technical performance' in Michael Orme's 'Tiger Cat' in 1924. But these are just a few of the galaxy of stars featured throughout this well illustrated book. Gladys Cooper, Sybil Thorndike, Ivor Novello, a serious looking (as always) John Barrymore, Elsa Lanchester, Brian Aherne, Paul Robeson, who it is pointed out made his first appearance in England at Blackpool's Opera House in 1922, and many more adorn these fascinating pages which reveal John Gielgud to be very much a 'homme de theatre', both in his youth and in his later life.


He didn't like the 1925 modern day production of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'
finding it 'UNspeakable.'

[Katharine Holden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming and interesting.