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Theatre Journal 54.4 (2002) 646-648



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The Royal Family. By George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. Theatre Royal Haymarket, London. 10 February 2002.
Lady Windemere's Fan. By Oscar Wilde. Theatre Royal Haymarket, London. 22 March 2002.
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The Royal Family was replaced by the real thing at the Haymarket this past spring. Peter Hall's staging of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's slight examination of a theatrical dynasty (based on the Barrymores) gave way to his production of Oscar Wilde's more complex and witty Lady Windemere's Fan starring members of England's royal theatre family, Vanessa Redgrave and her daughter Joely Richardson.

Both productions featured large supporting casts of prominent English actors and traditional, non-innovative interpretations. Both were significant commercial successes for the newly formed Stanhope Productions. Each offered fluid attractive [End Page 646] settings, beautiful period costumes, and an undemanding, occasionally thought-provoking theatre experience. In each instance the true reason for the entire project was the presence of a legendary leading lady. Neither disappointed. In fact each production was held together by the opportunity to watch great acting at its center.

In the only London season appearances of actors of genuine renown, Judi Dench played flamboyant theatre matriarch Fanny Cavendish and Vanessa Redgrave, mysterious manipulator Mrs. Erlynne. Both actors have a capacity to command and compel, as well as formidable technical mastery and elusive power. They both know how to take their time and then suddenly electrify with rapid, unexpected delivery. While they carry similar mythic expectations, they make very different impacts in performance.

Dench's work is more subtle and sneaks up on an audience since she makes such a diminutive, but human, initial impression. In contrast to her largely stoic, subtle film work, it was a pleasure to see her play an extravagant prima donna. She alternated between filling the enormous theatre with huge power and energy and then pulling the audience into her smallest, quiet moments. Her famous cracking voice does so less frequently in a large theatre space and is surprisingly deep and effortlessly resonant.

Redgrave is, in contrast, a majestic presence, particularly in full Edwardian splendor; she drew gasps on her initial entrance. Her command is expected and she often violated the initial impression of towering perfection with surprising, idiosyncratic moment-to-moment decisions. She kept observers alert to falling into the trap of predicting where her performance would go next.

Dench has the gift of making the most outrageous character choices seem perfectly reasonable, while Redgrave can make the most mundane moments ambiguous and intriguing. Both have moments of great, electrifying stillness. Each is now past the age when civilians retire, and it was inspiring to see them at the top of their game.

Alas, the productions behind them were not fully worthy, particularly The Royal Family. One of the most glaring errors (in a season with at least nine other productions filled with English actors impersonating Americans) was the absence of a much needed dialect coach. Some actors had indecipherable accents while several principal players [End Page 647] made the error of sounding too American, using a flat vowel, hard consonant sound rarely heard among trained American performers. Almost any theatre actor very quickly modifies this tendency to a more neutral, slightly elevated pattern, even today. In 1927, elevated standard or Mid-Atlantic speech was even more pronounced and preferred.

Of all the supporting cast, only Toby Stephens (himself of impressive theatrical pedigree, the son of Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens) ever matched Dench. He played her son Anthony, a character of no dimension, yet he managed to unearth every swaggering display of the ultimate self-absorbed swashbuckler with great hilarity.

Joely Richardson has some distance to travel before entering Redgrave's league. She lacks vocal support (perhaps due to the fact that most of her career has been devoted to film work) and the capacity to seem fascinating in what is admittedly a monochromatic role. Fortunately the script supports this weakness to some degree. Lady Windemere is naïve, prudish, and judgmental while Mrs...

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