The Dresser

Some years ago now we went to a play called 'The dresser', about which I can remember very little, apart from the fact that we went. An event noticed at reference 1, with the play itself to be found at reference 2. A story about the relationship of an aging matinée idol, now in provincial repertory with his own company, with his long serving and long suffering dresser. 

Then the other week, we stumbled across a couple of films of same on Prime, probably films which one had to pay for. Taking the first one with Finney & Courtenay first. With Edward Fox appearing in both, although not in the same part.

The overriding take-away for me was the dreariness and drudgery of the repertory theatre. The half empty theatres, the grotty dressing rooms, the grotty digs and the continual travelling. You must have been obsessed with the theatre to put up with it. You must be part of, turn in, a fine performance from time to time, to make it all worth while. You must like to spend your time pretending to be someone else. Or is it the business of projecting something to an audience? You like to be able to dominate, to carry an audience?

I am reminded that lots of people, not just the luvvies themselves, are fascinated by dramas which are about luvvies, by dramas which are about dramas. Shakespeare, for example, has plays within plays - and there are lots of other examples. Perhaps one could get a PhD by researching the genre over the centuries?

Both good films, although I thought Courtenay more plausible than McKellen as the dresser. Both by being younger and by not hogging the limelight. At least McKellen could do the distance, while I had thought that he was overdoing it a bit with his combined version of the two parts of Henry IV which we saw at Wimbledon - for which see reference 8. 

I wonder now whether such an actor (as portrayed in the present films) would have had such a long time dresser? Would he have wanted one? I don't think I would, but some aristos keep their body servants for a very long time and some senior executives keep their (equally long suffering) secretaries for a very long time.

PS 1: a tribute to the way that one signs up for Prime for what seems like a very modest monthly subscription, then get sucked into buying lots of films which are not included in the basic package. Well, not quite basic, as we opted for ad-free. Well, more or less ad-free.

PS 2: I associate to Northern Broadsides whom we used to see at the Rose in Kingston. Then one of the few old-style repertory companies still in business, led by an actor-manager. See references 5 and 6. I day say that there is more to be found, but that is left as an exercise for the reader.

PS 3: I was also reminded of a correspondent who had been trained for the world of rep, a world which was dying  by the time that he got there. But he used to be very nostalgic about the nomadic life - grim though it might have appeared in these two films. I associate to reading a magazine interview with a wrestler - probably in the waiting room of an old-style gents barber - in which the nomadic life of a wrestler came across as pretty grim too. Another world that has died. And then there is the world of the string quartet, where there is plenty of provincial, spiced up with the occasional Wigmore. See reference 7.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/10/dressing-up.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresser.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresser_(1983_film).

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresser_(2015_film).

Reference 5: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/search?q=northern+broadsides.

Reference 6: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=northern+broadsides.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/08/life-in-string-quartet.html.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/03/geriatrix.html.