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Dateline: 23rd February, 2011
And the Sheridan Morley Prize for 2011 goes to…. The judges for the Sheridan Morley Prize, awarded for excellence and originality in a theatre biography, autobiography or diary announced their decision at a reception at the Garrick Club on Tuesday morning attended by such luminaries as theatre director Sir Peter Hall, Timothy West and Frank Thornton, publisher Ion Trewin and critic and playwright Nicholas de Jong and several of his former critic colleagues. Sheridan's widow and frequent co-author Ruth Leon welcomed guests saying how delighted Morley himself would have been to know that four years after his death so many of his former friends and colleagues, people he respected and loved, were gather to witness the presentation of an award that celebrated what he loved doing so much, writing about the theatre. This prize, which she set up with the help of James Hogan of Oberon books and the involvement from the start of the Garrick Club, was not conceived as being for academic work (though all the books on the short list were books of scholarship) but for books about theatre that even people not involved in theatre would find exciting and enjoyable to read. This year, although they had conferred earlier in the morning to finalise their decision on the winner two of her jury were unable to be there to talk about the books that they had shortlisted and make the presentations to their authors: Richard Eyre was deep in rehearsals for Betty Blue Eyes and, with the news from Libya and New Zealand demanding his attention, Geordie Greig, editor of the Evening Standard had to be at his post at the paper.. Fortunately actress Siân Phillips (whom Ruth declared could only not be a Dame because she had not wanted to be) was presented and opened for the judges by talking about Christopher Stevens's book Born Brilliant - The Life of Kenneth Williams which she described as "most thoroughly enjoyable". "Kenneth," she said, "was a wonderful character and a great performer - and we are all interested in people who make us laugh." When she first met and worked with him he was already becoming a celebrity and she saw him being forced to become the person his audience loved, having to cope with the difficulties that are created when personal personality clashes with public persona: something which this book explains but, like Kenneth, she assured us, it is also very funny! A well-written life (she quoted) is as rare as a well-lived life - and this was one. Responding, Christopher Stevens pointed out that had Williams lived this would have been his 85th birthday exactly. He felt that he had lived with Kenneth so long, while working on the book that he knew him and that if, after his death, Kenneth had woken up to find he'd gone he probably wasn't unhappy about it. His was a difficult life but it was a joy to work on the book. Finishing the Hat by Stephen Sondheim was the next book on the shortlist, and Ruth Leon spoke of Sondheim's skill as both lyricist and composer and the quality of the book and Sarah Mengue, Sondheim's agent accepted the certificate and bottle of champagne presented to each of those on the short list. Next came Putting it On by Michael Cordon and Alan Strachan which Leon described as being about the nuts and bolts of putting on a play - an extraordinary trick. Codron she knew to be a very private person, she thought that, like Roy Redgrave (Michael Redgrave's father and first of that theatrical dynasty) who wanted his gravestone to bear just his name and the word 'Actor', Michael Codron's would just say 'Producer'. Retiring person though he may be Codron was there to receive the plaudits, though rather, he told us, as the understudy, for most of the words were Alan Strachan's Author and critic Michael Arditti, stood in for the missing judges to speak on Mike Bradwell's The Reluctant Escapologist, though he had to admit that he had not personally read it! It is a lively, amusing and very personal record of Bradwell's work with the companies he has created or been involved with throughout his professional life as performer and director especially of devised work. Bradwell's agent Ligeia Marsh accepted the citation and champagne on his behalf. Last of the short list was My Life in Pieces by Simon Callow. As Michael Arditti said, when Callow is not performing, directing, or fronting arts programmes on television he seems to be writing, a succession of books since his first Being an Actor in 1984 including biographies of Laughton and Welles and his account of his relationship with literary agent Peggy Ramsay. This book draws on his puiblished work in books and periodicals and brilliantly links them all with links that take in his own experience and his experience of the work of others. Callow (himself on the panel of judges for the first Sheridan Morley Prize in 2000) said how unnerving it was to be short-listed, for at the same time as the acclaim you have to prepare yourself for failure. He spoke of how Sheridan had loved theatre but, more importantly, liked it and brought a huge affection for actors, directors, and the smell of it, the risks and the perils. He described his own book as not exactly a love poem to theatre but an adoring evocation of theatre - a theatre that has changed enormously in forty years - and a summary of what has been lost. Callow may have prepared himself for failure but his trepidation did not have to last much longer for now Ruth Leon announced the winner who receives a cash award of £2000. It was Simon Callow's My Life in Pieces and he had to come forward again to respond which he did most graciously by talking entertaining about Mike Bradwell's book which he recommended highly! Howard Loxton
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