Olivier by Philip Ziegler

Author:Philip Ziegler [Ziegler, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-09-11T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Chichester

“I know nothing about Festivals or how they are run,” Olivier told an enquirer in 1952. “I have no signposts to show you, and know of no pitfalls of which to warn you.” A decade later his reply would have been very different. Between those dates a prosperous, energetic and stage-struck citizen of Chichester, Leslie Evershed-Martin, had conceived and brought almost to reality his dream of building a theatre in his home town and holding an annual Festival. Well did he call his book on the subject The Impossible Theatre; to persuade his fellow councillors that the project was worth pursuing was hard enough; to find a suitable site and raise the funds to buy and build upon it was an almost absurdly ambitious enterprise. Even then his troubles were only just beginning. He had to find someone to run it, who would be prepared to work enormously hard for little money and who would be able to attract to Chichester actors and actresses of the calibre necessary if the fledgling theatre was to be established.1

His first idea was Tyrone Guthrie, who had recently supervised a similar undertaking in Stratford, Ontario, a Canadian town very similar in size to Chichester. Guthrie was no more ready to take on a second festival than he had been to engage with the National Theatre. He was in favour of the project, however. He read with interest the list of possible candidates which Evershed-Martin had drawn up, then commented: “Leslie, you keep on about having only the best of everything at Chichester, so why don’t you go for the best? Ask Laurence Olivier.” Guthrie offered to approach Olivier himself and duly did so, stressing that nothing very extravagant was being contemplated: “Just an opener, so to speak – a Shakespeare and a Shaw for three or four weeks.” Olivier, who was in America, did not immediately respond and Evershed-Martin followed up Guthrie’s letter. Olivier was cautious: he had just seen two London theatres – the St James’s and the Stoll – pulled down in spite of his efforts to save them and, as he wryly noted, he was beginning to think “that my presence in a London theatre would only be enviable to a member of the I.R.A.”. He suggested that Evershed-Martin get in touch with his agent, Cecil Tennant. Would he have full artistic control? he asked. And how much would he be paid? Yes, and £5,000 a year, were the answers. Too much, said Olivier. He would accept only £3,000 – “he wanted to be all in all with us in the adventure”. By the time Olivier first met Evershed-Martin on 23 June, 1961 a deal had almost been done.2

Binkie Beaumont and the producer, Cecil Clarke, were amazed to hear Olivier was interested in so precarious a venture. “I’ve got it,” said Clarke. “He wants to prepare himself for the National Theatre.” He was not wholly wrong. Olivier did have in mind that to launch a new theatre in Chichester would

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