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National Service - Diary of a Decade
By Richard Eyre
438 pages
Published by Bloomsbury at £18.99
Dateline: 27th October, 2003
The photo on the front cover of this diary shows the author overshadowed
by a giant NT sign. This nicely summarises his life during the 10 years
from 1987 that he spent as Director of the National Theatre.
New York Times journalist Frank Rich describes Eyre as "the most
successful and versatile producer in the world". Even so, he didn't
ever really work out how you could put on good theatre in the beautifully
designed but impractical Olivier auditorium. Of directing Macbeth
there, he draws an analogy with "walking into a firing range in
a minefield".
Richard Eyre is clearly an aesthete and an inveterate reader. Often,
his short, sharp diary entries look more like a commonplace book. They
contain quotes from the great and the good - politicians, poets and
most of all, theatre practitioners. These vary between the illuminating
and on occasions, the unintelligibly deep. He also loves jokes (often
corny), which sadly dissipate as life becomes serious; and is not immune
to gossip.
This book demonstrates, more than anything else, that being director
of the National Theatre is as much about politics, finance and administration
as it is about art. Eyre was regularly fighting a government that he
intensely disliked, to get funding to shore up deficits that are a direct
result of a policy of maintaining artistic integrity in the subsidised
sector.
His successor, Trevor Nunn, seemed far keener to fill the National's
three theatres with blockbuster musicals and light dramas as a means
of balancing the books than Eyre ever was. As a result, stress became
second nature and halfway through his period of office, he had almost
given up sleeping.
The stress was exacerbated by extraordinary bad luck as so many people
in his circle died, particularly during the early years of his reign.
These included his Alzheimer-raddled mother, his father with whom he
had a difficult relationship, and perhaps most traumatic of all, the
actor Ian Charleson.
Eyre also had the most awful luck with his Hamlet, perhaps more
appropriate for the Scottish play. Daniel Day-Lewis gave his all, to
such an extent that he suffered a nervous breakdown. As one of the most
charitable gestures imaginable, the director allowed the terminally-ill
Charleson to take on the role. By all accounts, he played it most movingly.
Other productions were far less ill-fated. These included Ian McKellen
as Richard III, the David Hare Absence of War trilogy,
Carousel, An Inspector Calls and Alan Bennett's The
Madness of George III - and away from the National, La Traviata.
One of Eyre's charming strengths is the ability to name-drop with ease.
In this job, it is inevitable that one will come across not only many
famous actors and playwrights such as John Mortimer and Sirs Ian McKellen
and David Hare, but also politicians (his friends the Kinnocks, the
less-respected Major and Mellor), royalty and leaders of every form
of art. Fortuitously, he has a director's ability to recognise character
and paint incisive verbal portraits of people in a few lines.
As a diarist, Eyre leaves the Christian names that he had originally
written but helpfully put surnames in brackets where they could be in
doubt. With friends and associates such as Salman and Germaine this
isn't always necessary.
Like his predecessor and another diarist, Sir Peter Hall, Eyre eventually
let the job get to him. By early 1994 he was close to breakdown: "I
want my life back - from reading plays, from propagandising for the
theatre, from funding problems, from the moaning, from the sniping,
from under the constant cloak of anxiety". The short-term solution
- Prozac.
Eyre announced his decision to leave the National a couple of years
in advance and clearly began to enjoy himself. On the stages, he was
extremely successful, directing John Gabriel Borkmann with Paul
Scofield, Vanessa Redgrave and Eileen Atkins and then Ian Holm's King
Lear, a revival of Guys and Dolls and Hare's Amy's View
simultaneously.
He was also (after a few moral qualms) knighted and had the pleasure
of seeing Tony Blair become Prime Minister with his help.
It is good to see that after a traumatic period at the top, Richard
Eyre ended his ten years at the National on a high. While reading the
diary may not quite be living them, any prospective director of RNT
would do well to read National Service before accepting the job.
You can buy National
Service: A Diary of a Decade from our Bookstore for £13.29,
a saving of £5.70.
Philip
Fisher
Articles Indices:
Articles from 2004
Articles from 2003
Articles from 2002
Articles from 2001
Articles from 2000
Articles from 1999
Articles from 1998
Articles from 1997
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