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Post by oxfordsimon on Nov 27, 2019 12:15:32 GMT
He created some memorable theatre
We won't see his like again, I suspect
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Post by learfan on Nov 27, 2019 13:27:41 GMT
No def not. His too brief tenure at the Old Vic promised much. Who knows what he would have done at the NT had he succeeded Olivier?
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721 posts
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Post by hulmeman on Nov 27, 2019 15:15:03 GMT
A true giant of so many of "the arts". I used to love watching him on the Michael Parkinson chat shows and enjoying his stories about theatre world. Sadly it would appear he was robbed of that in his later years. www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50574472 |
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901 posts
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 27, 2019 18:27:08 GMT
He was still doing a lot when I started going to the theatre in the late 80s. I remember a very good Taming of the Shrew with Brian Cox and Fiona Shaw - the only time I've really enjoyed the play - and an excellent Three Sisters with Harriet Walter, Deborah Findlay, Stella Gonet and Brian Cox. Then of course the opera productions. I particularly enjoyed Cosi at Covent Garden with costume design by Giorgio Armani, though I think by the time I got to see it on its second run they'd probably had to go M and S due to budgetary restraints.
Very talented man and a brilliant talker about theatre, opera and directing.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Nov 27, 2019 18:35:24 GMT
His ENO hit productions are hard to beat - Rigoletto and The Mikado are both brilliant examples of how to reimagine a classic score with an updated setting without resorting to gimmicks.
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Post by ATK on Nov 27, 2019 23:57:10 GMT
In 2014 he directed She Stoops to Conquer at RADA. As the curtain slowly rose on Hardcastle and his wife chatting on a sofa, Hardcastle was suddenly transfixed by his disappearing fourth wall, muttering in wonder, “I didn’t know it could do that.” That description may not capture the moment perfectly, but it was one of the most profoundly funny moments I’ve ever seen in a theatre.
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274 posts
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Post by emsworthian on Nov 30, 2019 10:09:00 GMT
Several obits have said how with his fearsome intellect,he could be sardonic and cutting but the one time I saw him, he demonstrated another side. He was directing Otello at the Coliseum in St Martin's Lane, and I went to a "Meet the Director" event there when he talked about his forthcoming production and took questions from the audience. One lady asked a question that was rather naive and a couple of members of the audience sniggered. It would have been easy for him to have been dismissive of her question but he answered it politely and respectfully and at reasonable length so it was the sniggers in the audience who were made to look foolish.
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1,863 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Nov 30, 2019 10:18:19 GMT
Great career retrospective available on iPlayer, a sad loss but a life well lived.
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5,017 posts
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Post by Jan on Jan 15, 2020 10:20:28 GMT
I saw quite a lot of his productions, including his Old Vic seasons. He was a trained psychologist I think and for that reason brought great insight into very small moments on stage - there is a famous story of his production of Measure for Measure in the final scene where the disgraced Angelo is abasing himself in front of the Duke and Miller had Angelo, as he was speaking to him, pick a small invisible bit of dust of off the Duke’s clothes.
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