Maggie as Lady Macbeth

[vaneramos]

In a Salon article by Steve Vineberg, appears this reference to Maggie Smith's performance of Lady Macbeth at the Statford Festival in Ontario:

[Martin] Knelman, who chronicles the history of the Canadian Stratford Shakespeare Festival in his book "A Stratford Tempest," sees the beginning of Smith's collaboration with the festival's brilliant young artistic director, Robin Phillips, as the salvation of her career. She performed at Stratford in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1980, often under Phillips' direction and often opposite Brian Bedford. By this time she was remarried, to playwright Beverley Cross, who was an old, pre-Stephens flame. (He helped to raise her two sons by Stephens, Chris and Toby, both of whom became actors.) I was in my 20s then, teaching high school in Montreal, and I used to make the seven-hour drive to Stratford in a state of joyfully prolonged delirium once or twice a summer to see those productions, conscious that I was watching a pair of theatrical legends and a company in a golden age. I saw her Rosalind and Lady Macbeth and Beatrice, her Queen Elizabeth in "Richard III," "The Sea Gull" and "The Guardsman," Edna O'Brien's "Virginia" and a completely reconceived "Private Lives" -- all magical, unforgettable.

This is the same Lady Macbeth I saw at the age of about 13. She was incredibly sinister.

Comments

[robearal.livejournal.com]

It MUST have been stunning-- one of the world's best actresses (if not THE best) playing the best female role in Shakespeare.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I wish I had been old enough to appreciate and remember better what I saw, but undoubtedly the experience galvanized my interest in theatre.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

And I agree that she's a candidate for "THE best".

[butterflyminds.livejournal.com]

I still think your original list was a good one, and Maggie Smith would be great to see in live theatre. I'd have liked to see Jessica Tandy too.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Here's an article discussing the setting of A Midsummer Night's Dream in which Tandy and Cronyn performed. I must have been 12 when I saw it. Titania and Queen Elizabeth I are still vividly connected in my imagination.

http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/TRIC/bin/get.cgi?directory=vol9_1/&filename=knowles.htm

[paulintoronto.livejournal.com]

Ah, I remember those days, and I saw many of the productions you mention here. Lots of people said she was too old to play Rosalind in As YOu Like It, but I thought she was great.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Wow, did you see Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, too? I didn't see Smith as Rosalind; that would have been amazing. I wish I had a better memory about those performances—only know they left a strong impression on me.