by Robert Tanitch ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1988
A festschrift for Dame Peggy Ashcroft, recent Oscar-winner for her role as Mrs. Moore in A Passage to India, on her 80th birthday. The brilliant Dame Peggy will also be recalled by American viewers of the TV series The Jewel in the Crown, in which she played the role of Barbie Batchelor, the retired English missionary schoolteacher accused of lesbianism. Her celebrators herein are John Gielgud, Sir Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness, Judi Dench, Edward Albee, Harold Pinter, Peter Hall, and Trevor Nunn, among others. Included are photographs of her every role on stage and screen, with quotes from the reviews, and a full chronology of her career. In England, Dame Peggy is recognized as one of the 20th-century's greatest actresses. Over the past six decades she has played in a full range of the classics, including 20 Shakespearean roles, five by Ibsen, four by Chekhov, others from Greek tragedy, Jacobean drama, and works of Shaw, Wilde, and Brecht as well as Beckett, Albee, and Pinter. She has been murdered time and again, drowned, poisoned, has shot herself and jumped out of windows. For many who saw the Gielgud production of Romeo and Juliet, she was the definitive Juliet, playing on alternate nights to Gielgud's Romeo and Olivier's Mercutio and Olivier's Romeo and Gielgud's Mercutio (she thought Olivier the best Romeo and Gielgud the best Mercutio). She is known as the ultimate technician, a master of realism, though as a young actress she was hailed for her melting voice and the ""sacred rapture"" she brought to Shakespeare, her role-playing genuine rather than theatrical. A well-deserved laurel and a great delight.
Pub Date: June 1, 1988
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Century Hutchinson--dist. by David & Charles
Review Posted Online: N/A
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1988
Categories: NONFICTION
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.