Theatrical Anecdotes

Theatrical anecdotes are almost as old as the theatre itself. Since the earliest days the stage has teemed with real characters and real stories as fascinating as any created by the dramatist. In his excellent, lively, and amusing collection Peter Hay takes us behind the scenes and allows us to be a party to backstage rivalries, thespian eccentricity, tight-fisted producers and all the horrors and indignities suffered by actors on tour. All the great names are here – David Garrick, Sarah Bernhardt, Noel Coward, Donald Wolfit, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Helen Hayes – but it is not only the glittering and glamorous on whom Peter Hay turns his anecdotal spotlight. Directors, producers, critics, prompters, prop men, designers and even ghosts are also represented together with those legions of near-anonymous players and professionals without whom the stars would not be stars and the theatre could not exist. For example, who would ever remember Creston Clarke if it had not been for Eugene Field, drama critic of the Denver Post, who, reviewing a performance of King Lear, wrote, “Last night Mr. Creston Clarke played King Lear at the Tabor Grand. All through the five acts of the Shakespeare tragedy he played the King as though under the premonition that someone was about to play the Ace.” A dubious immortality, Creston.