Casual notes on show-biz books, memoirs and studies, dust gatherers, and hot off the presses.
Book Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . . .
Judi Dench (with John Miller). And Furthermore (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2010). 274pp.
22nd Edition.
Dame Judi Dench, nearing 90, has been a leading British actress for over six decades, although, as is so often the case, her international reputation did not blast off until—despite a distinguished stage career—she became a movie star. Despite having appeared in 13 films by 1995, silver screen stardom arrived only when she was cast as the first female “M,” head of MI5, in the James Bond film, GoldenEye, opposite Pierce Brosnan. A year later she was nominated for an Academy Award as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown, and two years afterward she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love.
But, for all her film and TV work, which has elevated her to celestial status along with elder thespian stateswomen like Helen Mirren, Imelda Staunton, Maggie Smith, Juliet Stevenson, Vanessa Redgrave, and so on, Dench never stopped contributing to the British stage. She played numerous classical and modern roles, musicals included, and was closely associated with the foremost English acting companies, the Old Vic, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the National Theatre.
Dame Judi has written several books feeding off her prolific career, most recently this year’s Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, which I hope one day to give a look. There are also a few biographies, chief among them John Miller’s With a Crack in Her Voice (2010), updated in 2013.
The volume covered in today’s dispatch is Dench’s 2010 memoir titled And Furthermore, in which she focuses, play by play, TV show by TV show, and film by film, on her acting experiences. As can be seen by her helpful “Chronology of Parts,” she’s obviously been selective; but, the highly readable book manages to discuss either her most important roles or those that inspired the most memorable or amusing anecdotes. And there are plenty!
The book, in fact, is even more anecdotal than it is analytical regarding the characters she’s played. While she often hits upon wonderful insights, she rarely gets into the interpretive weeds. Her commentary is generally more practical than intellectual.
She prefers to recall what happened during the staging or filming of a performance, including many examples of practical jokes. The world of British theater—regardless of whether we’re talking about classical or modern plays—comes off as having a rather insular quality, with the same actors and directors forming an elite that works together time and time again, regardless of the medium.
This inside group mentality obviously fosters a collegiate (sophomoric?) love for playing jokes on one another, even to the point of trying to break up other actors (“corpse,” in British theater parlance) on stage. The jokes can extend over the years, from one show to another, as with one concerning a black glove which Dench often engaged in with the late actor Tim Pigott-Smith; eventually it even involved American star Kevin Spacey. (Her book having been published before Spacey was involved in sexual scandals, Dench writes fondly of him as an actor and as artistic director of the Old Vic.)
It’s not in any of Dame Judi’s books but I have my own ridiculous anecdote concerning her. In 1961 she—then 27—starred opposite John Stride in Franco Zeffireli’s brilliant Romeo and Juliet, produced by the Old Vic. It was so popular it inspired Zeffirelli’s iconic 1968 film version. When the Old Vic came to New York’s City Center with the play in early 1962, I, a sapling of 21, was there, seated in the nosebleed section. I was so thrilled I even bought the souvenir program, which I still have.
Somehow, over the decades, as I heard more about Judi Dench, and learned of how fine she’d been as Zeffirelli’s Juliet, I came to believe I’d seen her performance, even boasting about it as one of the highlights of my youthful theater-going life. Then, in 2006, an e-mail from the notable actor-writer Simon Callow—with whom I then maintained a correspondence—mentioned that he was playing Falstaff opposite Dame Judi’s Mistress Quickly in the RSC’s Stratford production of The Merry Wives of Windsor.
I was very excited to have this opportunity to connect with Dame Judi and asked Simon to please report that I still glowed with the memory of seeing her in the City Center production of Romeo and Juliet. Having passed along this bit of trivia to the grande dame, he was sorry to report back that it wasn’t her I’d seen, but Joanna Dunham, Dame Judi having been unable to accompany the troupe when it came to America. Shocked at my faux pas, I dug up the old souvenir program to check, and sure enough, confirmed that I’d been living a lie for over 40 years! Thank God I wasn’t there to be embarrassed in person.
Judi Dench comes off as feisty, determined, funny, and honest, always willing to admit when she doesn’t understand (or like) a play or character. If a director displeases her, she confesses it, just as she takes pleasure in praising those she admires.
By and large, her private life is discussed only insofar as it impacts her professional one, but we do get enough background about her growing up in Yorkshire (her father was a physician), her loving marriage to the late actor Michael Williams (1935-2001: “my Michael” she often calls him), and her daughter Finty Williams, who also became an actress and is the mother of Dame Judi’s grandson (shown in photos but not mentioned in the text).
Not very comfortable in glamorous surroundings, Dame Judi often gave precedence to her life as a wife and mother rather than to her career. And hers has been a career in which, once she was accepted at 23 into the Old Vic in 1957 to play Ophelia opposite John Neville in Hamlet, never saw her out of work, apart from when one or the other accident laid her up. As she describes it, the roles she took were always offered to her by directors, rather than her having to go out and compete for them.
Her range is impressive, including almost all the major Shakespearean women, among them Imogen, Lady Macbeth, Volumnia, Cleopatra, Gertrude, Isabella, and Titania; plus numerous other classic roles (apart from the Greeks, which are not to her taste); and the moderns, from Brecht to Hare to Coward to Pinter, and on and on. She’s also starred in musicals such as Cabaret (the London transfer of the Broadway original), Cats, and A Little Night Music. Broadway has seen her (she won a Tony for Amy’s View, 1999), although not often enough, and she’s toured internationally.
Anyone interested in British theater, TV, and films from the late 1950s to today will relish Judi Dench’s stories, which add to the lore of such theatrical idols as Sir John Gielgud, John Neville, Geoffrey Palmer (her co-star on the popular TV series “As Time Goes By”), Sir Peter Hall, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Dame Maggie Smith, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Sir Ian McKellen, Coral Browne, Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, Sir Richard Eyre, Sir Sam Mendes, Sir David Hare, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir John Mills, and too many others (non-Brits as well) to list.
And Furthermore is now 14 years old; in the intervening years, Judi Dench’s renown has grown exponentially. Her nicely illustrated book—color photos as well as black and whites—includes a well-organized resume of all her credits and an index. The paperback edition also has an afterword called “What Every Young Actor Should Know,” in the form of answers to some of the most frequent questions she’s been asked. And Furthermore remains as humorous, charming, informative, and relevant as when it was new.
Coming up: Barbra Streisand. My Name is Barbra.
Leiter Looks at Books welcomes inquiries from publishers and authors interested in having their theater/show business-related books reviewed.
