Acting
Messy genius
Orson Welles would have been 100 this month. When he died in 1985, aged 70, the wonder was that he…
Sher force of character
Understandably given its bulk, Antony Sher’s Falstaff in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s recent production of Shakespeare’s two Henry IV plays…
Unhappy in their own way
Misery loves company. Anyone who doubts this old adage should pop into their local bookshop, because besides celebrity chefs and…
A memoir of love and loss
In a varied career, the actress Kika Markham has regularly played real-life charcters, including, on television, Mrs Thatcher — piquant…
Bad bad acting
It’s taken a while but here it is. The Play That Goes Wrong is like Noises Off, but simpler. Michael…
Born to be famous
The old paths to the top for working-class children – sport, music, acting, writing – are now closed by nepotism
The summer of love
I spent it skipping about in tights, imagining women wanted me
Cracking up
The troubles of Richard Pryor’s life are well known — from his childhood in a brothel to his self-immolation via…
An actor’s notebook
It was one of those weeks. On Monday, I was in four countries: I woke up at crack of dawn…
New York notebook
Bard College in upstate New York, where I teach in the spring semester, is an interesting institution, once better known…
Blazing saddles
Unlike many celebrity memoirs, Anjelica Huston’s is worth reading. In her Prologue she writes that as a child she modeled…
