Secret Dreams
A Biography of Michael Redgrave
Published on 13. April 2004
Book
Hardback
448 pages
978-0-297-60764-9 (ISBN)
Description
Michael Redgrave ranks with Olivier, Gielgud and Richardson as one of the great British actors of the 20th century. Married to the actress Rachel Kempton, he also fathered a dynasty of actors, Vanessa, Corin and Lynn Redgrave and their children including actors Joely and Natasha Richardson. He played all the great Shakespearean roles (his Prospero reckoned better even than Gielgud's), he was considered the greatest English actor in Chekhov, had an impressive film career (that included his debut in Hitchcock's celebrated "The Lady Vanishes", the schizophrenic ventriloquist in "Dead of Night" (the book's jacket illustration), Crocker Harris in "The Browning Version" and Barnes Wallis in "The Dam Busters", and then in his prime contracted Parkinson's disease and was no longer able to learn new roles. He wrote his memoirs, but these were noted as much for what he left out, including his complex private life. In his thirties he had an affair with Edith Evans, then England's leading actress and 20 years his senior. But he had realised his bisexuality while at university and soon began a series of homosexual affairs, which are revealed here - names are named - for the first time.
This biography has exclusive access to the papers recently sold to the Theatre Museum and allow Strachan to tell stories that involve not only fellow actors, but Anthony Blunt, Alistair Cooke and the political left of the 30s, 40s and 50s. Strachan shows how the children - and now their children - have been influenced by Michael Redgrave. Strachan directed Redgrave in his last years and knows the family well.
This biography has exclusive access to the papers recently sold to the Theatre Museum and allow Strachan to tell stories that involve not only fellow actors, but Anthony Blunt, Alistair Cooke and the political left of the 30s, 40s and 50s. Strachan shows how the children - and now their children - have been influenced by Michael Redgrave. Strachan directed Redgrave in his last years and knows the family well.
Reviews / Votes
'As theatrical subjects go this is quite a scoop, and the author has had access to plenty of private papers that furnish the story with the crucial element of uncomfortable sexual candour. Names are named, in other words... This is very much a contemporary acting family given a fascinating historical dimension by this thorough, thoughtful biography.' PUBLISHING NEWS '... Strachan writes well. His description of Redgrave's fairly miserable childhood is intelligent and readable...' THE SUNDAY TIMES 'Redgrave's bisexuality was kept secret during his lifetime, but has since been widely exposed. What startled me, reading this book, was the range of his partners - everyone from Noel Coward and Edith Evans to passing guardsmen.' -- Lynn Barber DAILY TELEGRAPH 'The book puts some juicy source material to good use. Letters between Redgrave's parents... yeild a story of bigamous marriage which might have been staged in repertoire with Black Ey'd Susan. Private diaries describe Redgrave's dormitory crushes and Aesthetic student years. Letters from Edith Evans commemorate an unexpectedly vigorous affair between Jack Worthing and Lady Bracknell: "Darling, please don't alter. I love you shamelessly."' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Strachan... convinced me that, at his best, Redgrave was indeed truly great... Strachan proves himself a natural and highly sympathetic biographer. His account of Redgrave's actor father Roy... brilliantly captures the rackety lives of Edwardian theatricals and the rigours of provincial touring. Strachan is equally good at evoking the Cambridge of the 1920s.' THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'In this excellent biography... the author convinced me that Redgrave's interpretations of such classic parts as Hamlet, Richard II, Shylock, Antony, Lear and, above all, Uncle Vanya were as great if not greater than any of his rivals. There are also illuminating insights into the many films... in which Redgrave conveyed repressed emotion with extraordinary economy... Strachan, who is a dab hand at the acerbic aside, has infectious fun rubbishing some of Regrave's lesser films...' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Strachan, a Scots-born theatre director and writer, has produced an informed and readable life of a man remembered more for the dynasty he founded... than for his performances. Strachan redresses that imbalance; he also illuminates Redgrave's complex, unorthodox personal life, which is really the key to the book... Judged by Redgrave standards, the rest of the world appears very, very staid by comparison.' THE HERALD (GLASGOW) 'The fine and judicious biography [Strachan] has written does an important service in restoring a major figure to its rightful place in the theatrical landscape.' -- Simon Callow THE GUARDIAN 'first-rate biography' -- Roger Lewis SUNDAY EXPRESS 'Strachan's main aim... is 'the reclamation of a great actor': this study certainly represents a solid start.' SCOTSMAN 'Alan Strachan's biograpy of Redgrave is a fine work of scholarship and an excellent read. He is as expert at painting the Edwardian theatrical milieu in which Redgrave's parents made their careers as he is at unpicking the actor's tortuous private life... he deserves this exhaustive and entertaining study.' THE TIMES 'Strachan eloquently demolishes the view that Redgrave was an over-intellectual actor... Secret Dreams is fluently written and meticulously edited, and avoids theatrical gush, speculative psychobabble, and unreliable anecdotes. Strachan discusses Redgrave's weakneses as an actor intelligently and persuasively...' NEW STATESMAN '... splendid, thorough and insightful... Strachan is a good, close reader of Redgrave's performances, and his comments upon them are accurate and refreshingly unhagiographic... excellent biography... full of arresting quotes and good anecdotes. Consistently absorbing and enjoyable, it is as good as Piers Paul Read's recent biography of Alec Guiness, and that is high praise indeed.' LITERARY REVIEW '... absorbing and informative biography ... Strachan opens a door onto many great performances... His analysis of every film role is superb, the research torrential ... Here is a wealth of stage-lore, cultural history, well-organized biography and critical insight unmatched in recent years ... if Michael Redgrave is now a forgotton actor, SECRET DREAMS will pacify all those who feel this to be one of posterity's unjust verdicts.' TLSMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Orion Publishing Co
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Illustrations
40 B/W Photo\Illu(s),2 Line Drawing(s)
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 42 mm
Weight
897 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-297-60764-9 (9780297607649)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Alan Strachan is a noted theatre director (Noel Coward, Simon Gray as well as work at the National Theatre). One of his greatest successes was directing Maureen Lipman's re-creation of Joyce Grenfell, in RE: JOYCE. He is also a writer on acting and contributes most of the theatrical obits to THE INDEPENDENT. He is married to the actress Jennifer Piercey.