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Famed
for her unforgettable performance as the terrifying Lady Bracknell in The
Importance of Being Earnest, Edith Evans spent much of her subsequent
long career trying to avoid being cast again and again in what she called
‘Bracknell-type’ roles. An actress of great versatility and no
little experience she was frustrated by the desire of some directors
particularly Hollywood film directors to have her re-hash the character
director Bryan Forbes had once described as her ‘great essay in
dragonhood’.
By the time Edith Evans unleashed Lady Bracknell on London’s theatre goers
in 1939 she had been already been acting professionally for twenty-seven
years. While working as a milliner in London the young Edith had
joined a drama class, graduating from this to the Streatham Shakespeare
Players where she was ‘spotted’ by Shakespeare producer
William Poel.
Poel’s ideas for staging Shakespeare were considered radical at the
time, although we would recognise them as almost standard practice now.
He believed that actors should not be overwhelmed by cumbersome
costumes and complex sets, but should instead allow Shakespeare’s
powerful words to speak for themselves. He also encouraged his
actors to keep the story moving, rather than allow any self-indulgent
wallowing in the words, thereby ensuring that something was always
happening on stage.
Such ideas of course required the right performers, and in the young Edith
Evans Poel had found the qualities he was looking for. Consequently
her professional debut was as Beatrice in Poel’s production of Much
Ado About Nothing at the King’s Hall, London, December 10th 1912,
after which, as she later famously said, ‘I could hardly go back to
my hats!’.
Edith Evans’ professional debut was closely followed by her first film, The
Welsh Singer, in 1915. Edith was always the first to admit that
her biggest asset was her voice, and as films at this time were still
silent it was not, for the time being, a genre she felt particularly
comfortable in. In fact after three early attempts between 1915 and
1916 she abandoned the silver screen and went back to her beloved stage,
not returning to film until The Queen of Spades in 1948.
Once she had found her confidence on screen and was finally able to use
that fantastically versatile voice, then Edith’s film career was
guaranteed. In 1952 the film version of The Importance of Being
Earnest ensured her extraordinary performance as Lady Bracknell could
be enjoyed by generations to come. Further film projects included The
Nun’s Story with Audrey Hepburn and John Osborne’s Look Back in
Anger. During the 1960s she was Oscar nominated twice, and later
expressed great surprise at the nominations, at a time when Hollywood was
particularly focusing on its younger starlets.
Aside from her Lady Bracknell, there is one other part from the impressive
range Edith Evans created that has made a particular impression on the
theatre history books. In 1935 she played the Nurse in the famous
John Gielgud production of Romeo & Juliet, in which he and
Laurence Olivier alternated in the parts of Romeo and Mercutio. The
production as a whole was well received, and Edith’s performance
particularly was singled out, with the critic W A Darlington declaring her
‘Nurse’ to be ‘as earthy as a potato, as slow as a cart-horse and
as cunning as a badger’ thereby creating the blueprint for every
actress who has played the role since.
Edith Evans was an actress of extraordinary talent, dedicated to her
craft, who never stopped working to improve her skills. The rewards
for such dedication were comments such as that from producer Herbert
Farjeon who once declared ‘If only I were Miss Evans, I would read
Shakespeare out loud to myself all day long’. That, and the label,
along with her contemporary Sybil Thorndike, as one of the last great
classical actors of the English stage.
Edith Evans'
Life
- Born
in Pimlico, London, on 8th February 1888, to civil servant Ned Evans
and nurse Caroline Ellen Foster
- Her
one brother died at the age of four, when Edith was only two years old
- Her
mother had ambitions for her daughter and encouraged the young Edith
into her early career as a milliner for a quality ladies hat maker on
Buckingham Palace Road, London
- Married
George Booth in 1925 and spent ten happy years with him before his
death in 1935
- In
1946 Edith was honoured with the title of Dame
- Edith
Evans died in 1976 aged eighty-eight. Writing in The Times Sir
John Gielgud declared ‘the name of Edith Evans must surely rank
with the greatest of her sisters in the history of our theatre’
Did you know?
- Despite
her image as a Grand Dame of theatre, Edith was a Cockney by birth.
Her father prided himself in his Cockney roots, and Edith was
known for all of her childhood and much of her adulthood as ‘Ned’s
Girl
- Edith
never had children and was known to offer the opinion - if queried -
that actresses do not perhaps make the most ideal parents
- Inevitably
for an actress who worked so prolifically, Edith did not get it right
every time. When reviewing her 1925 performance as Cleopatra at
The Old Vic critic James Agate rather damningly wrote ‘She has
not enough passion and vulgarity for Cleopatra, or you may say that
she has too much fastidiousness’ (interestingly actress Sinead
Cusack has recently received very similar reviews for the same role,
indicating this is a perhaps a common pitfall!)
- Edith
Evans was granted a total of three honorary degrees in her lifetime,
from London, Oxford and Cambridge, all in the early 1950s.
To read previous months Arts
features.
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Acknowledgements:
Photograph:
Edith Evans, copyright
© of and supplied by:
The Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson Theatre Collection. Tel: 020
8305 3893 Fax: 020 8305 3993
email: rmangan@tcm.co.uk
Jerwood Library of the Performing Arts, King Charles Court, Old
Royal Naval College, London SE10 9JF |
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