Year of the King: An Actor's Diary and Sketchbook - Twentieth Anniversary Edition by Antony Sher Page B

again.
    ACTON HILTON BBC TV rehearsal-rooms in Acton, where we'll adapt
our stage production of Tartuffe for the telly. The building is so high it's
like being airborne again. Way below are the factories, suburbs, railway
lines and cemeteries of Acton and Willesden.
    Steph Fayerman says, `Isn't it nice to get into a lift and go up for a
change',' After months and months underground at the Barbican, at last
a rehearsal room with windows.
    Tartuffe read-through for the TV crew, R K O money-men, and our
producer Cedric Messina, a one-man Roman epic in name and size. Not
a single laugh from this assembled group. Reminiscent of those depressing
early rehearsals at the Barbican. But we know better now. Chris Hampton
sits at the end of the table grinning and corpsing.

    Lunch with Bill in the canteen. I find myself saying, `Look, Bill, this is
unofficial but I am going to do Richard, it's definitely on.' This comes as
no surprise to either of us, but the relief of having said it is enormous.
We're free to talk at last with all the enthusiasm that's been bottled up
since November. He says that, while Richard might be a psychopath, he
prefers to think of him as a product of his time: civil war has raged
throughout his lifetime, the Crown constantly up for grabs, everyone
somehow crippled by it all, guilty and neurotic about who killed who, why
and when. I ask to meet up with Bill Dudley as soon as possible to devise
the deformity.
    Bill agrees: `Richard has lived with his shape all his life, so has everyone
else at court. It is an unremarkable factor in their lives. So it would be
good if we could have it for rehearsals and everyone can get used to it.
Then we can forget about it and concentrate on his character, instead of
whether this arm is shorter than that one, or the hump two inches higher
or lower.'
    Agony when lunch ends. We could go on talking for hours.
    Stand on the platform, waiting for the tube; it's a bitterly cold day but
I hardly feel it. I'm glowing with excitement and relief. Can't sit still on
the tube, can't concentrate on my newspaper.
    Ring Sally to tell her I've decided. She makes rather a good suggestion
about The Party: bring it all out into the open, talk to Mal, get him to read
the play and give him first choice of the two parts.
Thursday 5 January
    Anxiety about not getting to the gym enough. I mustn't let it slip now: for
Richard, I'll need to be stronger and fitter than ever before in my life.
    ACTON HILTON The rehearsal-room is laid out with a forest of vertical
poles to denote doorways and walls. Without my glasses I keep crashing
into these on fast exits, suddenly finding one between the eyes like I've
stepped on a garden rake.
    Excellent rehearsal of the first Tartuffe/Elmire scene. Bill is tactfully
scaling down my performance for the camera, keeping the good gags,
helping me cut out the hops, winks and eyebrow dances - my survival
tactics. He urges me to consider the brilliance of the arguments, points
out how Tartuffe's proposition -'Love without scandal, pleasure without
fear' - is a definitive statement on hypocrisy. `Tartuffe's brochure, right?
If he were to print one to circulate round the ladies of Paris, what would
the cover say? "We offer love without scandal, pleasure without fear." '

    His imagery is very inspiring today. Talking about how much Tartuffe
is getting off on the religious kick, he says, `He'd love to screw stark naked
except for the giant rosary entwined around their bodies like a snake.'
    We try the scene again without all the business. I can feel the power of
the words doing the work. Must trust language more.
    Read The Party again - the second version which the National toured.
The play gets better with each reading, but the part gets worse.
Friday 6 3'anuary
    NATIONAL THEATRE With Susie [Susie Figgis, film casting director]
to see Fugard's Master Harold and the Boys. Over drinks at the bar I tell
her I've decided to do Richard.