What: The Half collects more than 300 photographs of actors backstage in British theaters over the past few decades. Photographer Simon Annand has captured the actors during the sacrosanct thirty minutes before curtain-up known as "the half." Here you'll find fascinating and revealing shots of dreamboats (Laurence Fox, Ioan Gruffudd, David Tennant), look-at-them-thens (Colin Firth in 1985!), stage goddesses (Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith), and thespian lions (Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley, Ian McKellen) . . . I could go on.
Representative quote (caption): "Dan Stevens, Hay Fever by Noel Coward, Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2006. Leaping downstairs towards the stage, past Judi Dench's dressing room."
You might not like it if: You're looking at the book in my general vicinity and you get annoyed as I keep gasping about the presence of several of my personal favorites: Sinead Cusack, Anne Marie Duff, Jennifer Ehle, Stephen Fry, Romola Garai, Michelle Gomez, Richard E. Grant, Tamsin Greig, Damian Lewis, Joanna Lumley, Jonny Lee Miller, Maxine Peake, Rufus Sewell, Toby Stephens, David Suchet, Catherine Tate, Ruth Wilson . . . I could go on.
How to get it: Well, I just got it at the bookshop of the National Theatre in London. Not sure what you're going to do.
I'll echo a gasping moment for Sinead Cusack, Jennifer Ehle, Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, and
ReplyDeleteDavid Suchet. I would add gasps for Derek Jacoby,
Alan Bates, Kenneth Branagh, and Penelope Wilton,
and I could go on. . .whether they are in the book
or not.
Bloody good taste you have there.
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