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The Half
By Simon Annand
Faber and Faber £30
308 pages
Dateline: 2nd November, 2008
A worthwhile coffee table book? Surely not?
It may be putting forward the view of a Philistine but this reviewer
struggles to understand the purpose of this coffee table book, unless
it is to build up muscular biceps. There might be some poets who suggest
that every picture speaks a thousand words, but even this marvellous
insight into theatrical life is not worth over 3 million.
Having said that, Simon Annand has such a talent for capturing the
moment that his hefty volume is the exception to the rule that these
books are flicked through on receipt and then left on display to do
no more than gather dust or impress visitors.
The Half, for those who are not in the business, is the period of 30
or perhaps 35 minutes prior to the opening curtain of a theatrical performance.
For reasons that are not always explicable when their stress and pain
is so apparent, for three decades actors have given this wonderful photographer
unique access to their most private and reflective moments as they built
up character and confidence for yet another ascent to what they hope
will be a peak of performance.
The pictures have been taken on stages and in dressing rooms in theatres
both big and small up and down the country, which means that the major
attractions of The Half are two-fold. The first and more obvious
angle sees actors at their most vulnerable in the dressing room or on
a darkened stage.
The second area of interest is the dressing room space in which they
have to build themselves up to become kings, queens or the common man/woman
as the author demands. While the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the
National seem to treat their visitors like royalty, other theatres such
as the Arts are so short on space that use of a prison cell might be
more welcoming.
Those dressing rooms are then brightened up by their incumbents, typically
using photographs and postcards, together with what one imagines are
lucky charms of every sort. These sometimes include bottles of champagne,
presumably not typically drunk before the event, though at least one
actor from a past era looks considerably happier than most of his counterparts.
From the apparently unattributed cover photo of Cate Blanchett looking
like Simone Signoret at her coolest prior to appearing in David Hare's
Plenty for the Almeida Theatre at the Albery, the 300 plus photographs
are a delight.
Annand cleverly and imaginatively themes pictures on opposite pages
to create mini stories or views of theatrical life. He groups together
members of the same family, for example the Redgraves, people with silly
hair, smokers, the happy or terrified and those doing ridiculous calisthenics.
The overriding themes that emerge are of the incredible levels of stress
suffered by the vast majority of subjects, even those like Sir Michael
Hordern who spent decades in the profession but seemingly find every
opening curtain terrifying. Indeed, if Mrs Worthington is really keen
to keep her daughter from the stage she could do worse than buy the
young lady this book with its photos of the pensive and fearful far
outweighing the relaxed and smiling.
On a lighter note, The Half is also a fine catalogue of several
generations of the finest actors who have graced British stages in the
last three decades. Ultimately, that will probably prove to be the main
selling point. Let's hope so as, in that so many of these pictures paint
a fair proportion of those mythical thousand words, Simon Annand deserves
to hit the bestseller lists with this finely produced volume.
In addition to the book, some of these photographs also form an exhibition
which runs at the National Theatre until 9 November.
Philip Fisher
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