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Beaux Stratagem
''The Beaux' Stratagem'' is a comedy by George Farquhar, first produced at the Theatre Royal, now the site of Her Majesty's Theatre, in the Haymarket, London, on 8 March 1707. In the play, Archer and Aimwell, two young gentlemen who have fallen on hard times, plan to travel through small towns, entrap young Beneficiary, heiresses, steal their money and move on. In the first town, Lichfield, they set their sights on Dorinda. Aimwell falls truly in love, and comedy ensues. Foigard, a priest and chaplain to the French officer, is actually an Irish priest called MacShane (a sombre version of the stage-Irish stereotype). Characters *Archer, a Rake (character), beau, posing as servant to Aimwell *Aimwell, another beau *Count Bellair, a French count *Boniface, a Landlord of an inn *Cherry, his daughter *Lady Bountiful, country woman, specialises in herbal medicine *Dorinda, her daughter *A countrywoman *Squire Sullen, a country block-head, Lady Bountiful's son *Scrub, his servant *Mrs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Farquhar
George Farquhar (1677The explanation for the dual birth year appears in Louis A. Strauss, ed., A Discourse Upon Comedy, The Recruiting Officer, and The Beaux' Stratagem by George Farquhar' (Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., 1914), p. v. Strauss notes that "Our sole source of information as to the time of his birth is the entry of his matriculation in the register of Trinity College" on 17 July 1694, where "His age is given as 17." Earlier biographers took this to mean Farquhar was in his 17th year—hence born in 1678—and Strauss favors this date. But later writers, such as William Myers, ed., George Farquhar: The Recruiting Officer and Other Plays'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. vii, give the dual year, and John Ross, ed., ''George Farquhar: The Recruiting Officer (New Mermaids),'' 2nd ed., (London: A&C Black, 1991), p. xiii, gives a birthdate of "''ca.'' 1677" for the playwright. – 29 April 1707) was an Irish dramatist. He is noted for his contributions to late Res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre is a theatre and Grade II* listed building situated in Oaklands Park in the city of Chichester, West Sussex, England. Designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, it was opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. The smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989. The inaugural Artistic Director was Sir Laurence Olivier, and it was at Chichester that the first National Theatre company was formed. Chichester's productions would transfer to the National Theatre's base at the Old Vic in London. The opening productionsFestival - The Stage is Set, 1962 in 1962 were: '' The Chances'' by John Fletcher (first production 1638) which opened on 3 July; '' The Broken Heart'' (1633), by John Ford, opened 9 July; '' Uncle Vanya'' (1896), by Anton Chekov, opened 16 July. Among the actors in the opening season were: Lewis Casson, Fay Compton, Joan Greenwood, Rosemary Harris, Kathleen Harrison, Keith Michell, André Morell, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheila Reid
Sheila Reid (born 21 December 1937) is a Scottish actress. An original member of the Royal National Theatre in 1963, she played Bianca in the National's 1965 film version of ''Othello'', with Laurence Olivier in the title role. Her other film appearances include ''Brazil'' (1985), ''The Winter Guest'' (1997) and ''Containment'' (2015). In her later career, she is known for playing Madge Harvey in the ITV sitcom ''Benidorm'' (2007–2016). Education Born in Glasgow, Reid grew up in Bridge of Weir before her father's army career took the family to India. She was then educated at Moreton Hall School, a boarding independent school for girls, near the market town of Oswestry in Shropshire. Reid returned to the school to read ‘The Four Quartets’ by T. S. Eliot, at the Old Moretonian Grand Centenary Reunion celebration in 2014. Career Reid has had a long and distinguished career in theatre, film and television. She worked with Laurence Olivier, at The Royal National Theatr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi (; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen as well as for his work at the Royal National Theatre, he has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award, a BAFTA Award, two Laurence Olivier Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He was given a knighthood for his services to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994. Jacobi started his professional acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the founding members of the National Theatre. He has appeared in numerous Shakespearean stage productions including ''Hamlet'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Macbeth'', '' Twelfth Night'', ''The Tempest'', ''King Lear'', and ''Romeo and Juliet''. Jacobi received the Laurence Olivier Award, for the title role in '' Cyrano de Bergerac'' in 1983 and Malvolio in '' Twelfth Night'' in 2009. He also won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Benedick in ''Much Ado About Nothing' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (28 December 1934 – 27 September 2024) was a British actress. Known for her wit in both comedic and dramatic roles, she had List of Maggie Smith performances, an extensive career on stage and screen for over seven decades and was one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She received List of awards and nominations received by Maggie Smith, numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for six Olivier Awards. Smith is one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting. Smith began her stage career as a student, performing at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952, and made her professional debut on Broadway theatre, Broadway in ''New Faces of '56''. Over the following decades Smith established herself alongside Judi Dench as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the Royal National Theatre, Nation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Stephens
Sir Robert Graham Stephens (14 July 193112 November 1995) was an English actor in the early years of Britain's Royal National Theatre. Early life Stephens was born in Shirehampton, Bristol, in 1931, the eldest of three children of shipyard labourer and costing surveyor Reuben Stephens (19051985) and chocolate-factory worker Gladys Millicent (née Deverill; 19061975). When aged 18, he won a scholarship to Esme Church's Bradford Civic Theatre School in Yorkshire, where he met his first wife Nora, a fellow student. Career Stephens's first professional engagement was with the Caryl Jenner Mobile Theatre, which he followed in 1951 by a year of more challenging parts in repertory at the Royalty Theatre, Morecambe, followed by seasons of touring and at the Hippodrome, Preston. London director Tony Richardson saw a performance at the Royalty; this led to an offer of a place in the "momentous" first season of English Stage Company at the Royal Court in 1956. Stephens appeared ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal National Theatre
The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, adjacent to (but not part of) the Southbank Centre. The theatre was founded by Laurence Olivier in 1963 and List of Royal National Theatre Company actors, many well-known actors have since performed with it. The company was based at The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo Road, London, Waterloo until 1976. The current building is located next to the Thames in the The South Bank, South Bank area of central London. In addition to performances at the National Theatre building, it tours productions at theatres across the United Kingdom. The theatre has transferred numerous productions to Broadway and toured some as far as China, Australia and New Zealand. However, touring productions to European cities were suspended in February 2021 over concerns ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Chappell (dancer)
William Chappell (27 September 19071 January 1994) was a British dancer, ballet designer and director. He is most noted for his designs for more than 40 ballets or revues, including many of the early works of Sir Frederick Ashton and Dame Ninette de Valois. Early life Chappell was born in Wolverhampton, the son of theatrical manager Archibald Chappell and his wife Edith Eva Clara Black (''née'' Edith Blair-Staples). Edith, the daughter of an army officer, was raised in Ceylon and India; in pursuing a career in repertory acting, she moved away from her upper-middle-class roots and married twice to fellow actors, by the first of whom she had a daughter, Hermina, the second time being to Archibald Chappell, by whom she had two daughters, Dorothea and Honor, followed by Billy. Chappell was acutely aware of his apparently 'déclassé’ origins; whereas his mother's brother had maintained a conventional upper-middle-class life, being a tea-planter in Ceylon and able to provide his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Courtenay (actress)
Margaret Courtenay (14 November 1923 – 15 February 1996) was a British actress best known for her British theatre roles during the 1970s and 1980s. She was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1976, Courtenay won the Laurence Olivier Award for Supporting Artist of the Year for her stage role in the play '' Separate Tables'', by author Terence Rattigan, directed by Michael Blakemore, at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End. In 1991, Courtenay starred in the radio show ' The Secret Life of Rosewood Avenue '. Courtenay retired at Denville Hall, a retirement home for professional actors set in Northwood in the London Borough of Hillingdon The London Borough of Hillingdon () is a London borough in Greater London, England. It forms part of outer London and West London, being the westernmost London borough. It was formed in 1965 from the districts of Hayes and Harlington Urban Distr .... She died of cancer on 15 February 1996 at age 72. Stage work Filmogra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Standing
Sir John Ronald Leon, 4th Baronet (born 16 August 1934), known professionally as John Standing, is an English actor. Early life Standing was born in London, the son of Kay Hammond (née Dorothy Katherine Standing), an actress, and Sir Ronald George Leon, 3rd Baronet, a stockbroker descended from Sir Herbert Leon, the builder of Bletchley Park. He succeeded his father as the 4th baronet in 1964, but does not use the title. The Leon family were, until 1937, owners of Bletchley Park, the country house in Buckinghamshire used in the Second World War as a code-breaking centre. He was educated at Eton College and Millfield School, Somerset. He served in the King's Royal Rifle Corps as a second lieutenant, before going on to study at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London. Career Standing began his career in Peter Brook's 1955 production of ''Titus Andronicus'' starring Laurence Olivier and wife Vivien Leigh and later played leading parts in Oscar Wilde's ''The Importance of Bei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prunella Scales
Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales (''née'' Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English retired actress. She portrayed Sybil Fawlty, the bossy wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy ''Fawlty Towers'' and Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett's '' A Question of Attribution'' ('' Screen One'', BBC 1991), for which she was nominated for a British Academy Television Award. She was also twice nominated at the Laurence Olivier Awards, in 1980 for ''Make and Break'' and in 1990 for ''Single Spies''. Additionally, she appeared in the documentary series '' Great Canal Journeys'' (2014–2021), travelling on narrowboats with her husband and fellow actor Timothy West. Early life Scales was born in Sutton Abinger, Surrey, the daughter of John Richardson Illingworth, a cotton salesman who served as a lieutenant with the Wiltshire Regiment in the First World War, and with the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps in the Second World War, and Catherine, née Scales, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anton Rodgers
Anthony Rodgers (10 January 1933 – 1 December 2007) was an English actor and occasional director. He performed on stage, in film, in television dramas and sitcoms. He starred in several sitcoms, including '' Fresh Fields'' (ITV, 1984–86), its sequel '' French Fields'' (ITV, 1989–91), and '' May to December'' (BBC, 1989–94). He also appeared in films, including '' Scrooge'' (1970) '' The Day of the Jackal'' (1973), and '' Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'' (1988). Early life and career Rodgers was born on 10 January 1933 in London, the son of William Robert Rodgers and Leonore Victoria (née Wood).Who's Who in the Theatre: A Biographical Record of the contemporary stage, seventeenth edition, ed. Ian Herbert, Gale Research Co., 1981, p. 582 His early education was at Westminster City School. The family were evacuated to Wisbech, Isle of Ely during the war, where his father worked for Balding and Mansell, printers of ration books, permits and passes; Rodgers is sometimes erro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
