Edith Evans | |
|---|---|
 Dame Edith Evans in a 1972 portrait | |
| Born | Edith Mary Evans (1888-02-08)8 February 1888 |
| Died | 14 October 1976(1976-10-14) (aged 88) Cranbrook, Kent, England |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1910–1976 |
| Spouse | |
Dame Edith Mary Evans (8 February 1888 – 14 October 1976) was an English actress. She was best known forher work on theWest End stage, but also appeared in films at the beginning and towards the end of her career. Between 1964 and 1968, she was nominated for threeAcademy Awards.
Evans's stage career spanned sixty years, during which she played more than 100 roles, in classics byShakespeare,Congreve,Goldsmith,Sheridan andWilde, and plays by contemporary writers includingBernard Shaw,Enid Bagnold,Christopher Fry andNoël Coward. She created roles in two of Shaw's plays: Orinthia inThe Apple Cart (1929), and Epifania inThe Millionairess (1940) and was in the British premières of two others:Heartbreak House (1921) andBack to Methuselah (1923).
Evans became widely known for portraying haughty aristocratic women, as in two of her most famous roles as Lady Bracknell inThe Importance of Being Earnest, and Miss Western in the 1963 film ofTom Jones. During her performance as Lady Bracknell, her elongated delivery of the line 'A handbag' has become synonymous with theOscar Wilde play. By contrast, she played a downtrodden maid inThe Late Christopher Bean (1933), an eccentric, impoverished old woman inThe Whisperers (1967) and – one of her most celebrated roles – Nurse inRomeo and Juliet, which she played in four productions between 1926 and 1961.
Evans was born inPimlico, London, the daughter of Edward Evans, a junior civil servant in theGeneral Post Office, and his wife, Caroline Ellennée Foster. She had one sibling, a brother who died at the age of four. She was educated at St Michael's Church of England School, Pimlico, before being apprenticed at the age of 15 in 1903 as amilliner. She commented in later years that she loved the rich and beautiful materials of the craft, but could not manage to make two hats alike.[1] While working in a milliner's shop in theCity she began attending drama classes inVictoria; the classes developed into an amateur performing group, the Streatham Shakespeare Players, with whom she made her first stage appearance in October 1910, as Viola inTwelfth Night. In 1912, playing Beatrice inMuch Ado About Nothing, she was spotted by the producerWilliam Poel and made her first professional appearance for him inCambridge in August of that year; she played Gautami in a 6th-century Hindu classic,Sakuntalá, in a cast including the youngNigel Playfair.[2] Poel then cast her as Cressida inTroilus and Cressida in London and subsequently atStratford-upon-Avon. The critic ofThe Manchester Guardian found her diction inadequate, but otherwise approved: "Miss Edith Evans, who, without quite the invincible charm for Cressida, gave an interesting performance".[3]
Evans'sWest End debut was inGeorge Moore'sElizabeth Cooper in 1913.[n 1] The play received poor notices, but Evans was praised: "In the very small part of a maid Miss Edith Evans made the success of the afternoon. She put more into her few minutes than most of our approved 'stars' can suggest in leading parts."[4] In January 1914 she made her professional Shakespearian debut as Gertrude inHamlet.[5]
In 1914, at Moore's instigation, Evans was given a year's contract by theRoyalty Theatre inSoho.[6] She played character roles in comedies, as a junior member of casts that includedGladys Cooper andLynn Fontanne.[5][7][8] Over the next ten years she polished her craft in a wide range of parts.[1] She played in a silent film calledA Welsh Singer, directed by and featuringHenry Edwards in 1915, and also had a minor role in another 1915 film,A Honeymoon for Three, starringCharles Hawtrey.[9][10][11] She then appeared inEast is East in 1917, but thereafter made no more films for over thirty years.[12] She toured in Shakespeare withEllen Terry's company in 1918, appeared in light comedy alongside the youngNoël Coward (Polly With a Past, 1921) and played five newShavian roles, Lady Utterword inHeartbreak House (1921)[n 2] and the Serpent, the Oracle, the She-Ancient and the ghost of the Serpent inBack to Methuselah (1923).[14] In 1922 she made whatJ. T. Grein inThe Illustrated London News called "a personal triumph" inAlfred Sutro's comedyThe Laughing Lady.[15]
By this time Evans was well known to the critics, and frequently received excellent notices; with her performance as Millamant inThe Way of the World in 1924 she achieved wide public fame for the first time.[16] Nigel Playfair cast her as the strong-willed and witty heroine in his revival ofCongreve'sRestoration comedy at theLyric Hammersmith, in 1924. The critics resorted to superlatives:
[T]he main pleasure of the evening is due to Miss Edith Evans's Millamant, a part in which she definitely "arrives." This actress imposes herself upon the audience first of all by her Rubens-like vitality. We have always known that she can fill the stage. Physically she may have no more affinity with Congreve than a fiower-girl of Piccadilly Circus, but she has the art and the wit that transfigure the woman and give us the great lady, the coquette, the rogue, and the lover all in one. It was delicious to hear her demand to be "sole empress of her tea-table," but sublime to see her "dwindle into a wife."[17]
James Agate wrote, "Let me not mince matters. Miss Edith Evans is the most accomplished of living and practising English actresses."[18]Arnold Bennett noted in his journals that this Millamant was the finest comedy performance he had ever seen.[19] Her colleagues too were struck by the performance.John Gielgud recalled:
It was as Millamant ... that she took the town by storm. It was a unique and exquisite performance. She purred and challenged, mocked and melted, showing her changing moods by subtly shifting the angles of her head, neck and shoulders. Poised and cool, like a porcelain figure in a vitrine, she used her fan – which she never opened – in the great love scene, as an instrument for attack or defence, now coquettishly pointing it upwards beneath her chin, now resting it languidly against her cheek. Her words flowed on, phrasing and diction balanced in perfect cadences, as she smiled and pouted in delivering her delicious sallies.[20]
In the 1925–26 season, Evans joined the company of theOld Vic, playing Portia inThe Merchant of Venice, Cleopatra inAntony and Cleopatra, Katherina inThe Taming of the Shrew, Rosalind inAs You Like It, Mistress Page inThe Merry Wives of Windsor, Beatrice inMuch Ado and Nurse inRomeo and Juliet – one of her most celebrated roles.[16][n 3] The schedule of rehearsals and performances was hectic. She recalled, "It was altogether a momentous season for me. I lost 17lb in weight and on the only free day from rehearsal ran off and got married."[16] Her husband was George (Guy) Booth (1882 or 1883–1935), an engineer whom she had known for more than twenty years; there were no children.[6] Marriage to someone unconnected with the theatre suited Evans, who did not share the taste of many of her colleagues for what Gielgud called "publicity, gossip and backstage intrigue".[22]
Looking back in 1976 at Evans's careerThe Times observed that the two decades after her success as Millamant showed the range of her talent. The paper counted among her "performances of absolute assurance" in this period those inTiger Cats (1924),The Beaux' Stratagem (1927),The Lady with a Lamp (1929), andThe Apple Cart (1929) in which she played Orinthia, the king's mistress, a role written for her by Shaw.[1][n 4] During the 1930s she played in severalBroadway seasons, some productions transferred from London and others new.[5] While she was in New York playing the Nurse oppositeKatharine Cornell as Juliet, Evans's husband died suddenly in London. She returned, devastated, and encouraged by colleagues found solace by throwing herself into her work.[22]
Evans's notable roles of the 1930s included Irela inEvensong (1932), Gwenny inThe Late Christopher Bean (1933), four Shakespeare parts, and in 1939 Lady Bracknell inThe Importance of Being Earnest.[1] She played the last of these on and off for seven years, on tour and in London, and by 1947, when a Broadway run was offered, she declined to act in the piece again.[22] She played Lady Bracknell on film (1952) and television (1960) but never again on the stage.[5]
During the Second World War Evans joined anENSA company travelling toGibraltar to entertain Allied troops.[24] The following year she played in a West End revival ofHeartbreak House, this time playing Hesione Hushabye.[25] She toured for ENSA in Britain, Europe and India in 1944 and 1945. Returning to London, at the end of the war she played Mrs Malaprop inThe Rivals. The production was not liked by the critics, and Evans's performance drew respectful rather than ecstatic reviews.[26][27]
Evans played Shakespeare's Cleopatra for the last time in 1946–47, in her late fifties. Her performance divided the critics: opinions varied from "an agonising disaster"[28] to "a joy to watch".[29]Kenneth Tynan said, "Lady Bracknell has been involved in a low Alexandrian scandal".[16] Evans had never been classically good looking, but she was a great enough actress to "convey beauty without being conventionally beautiful".[16] What troubled many, including Agate and Gielgud, about her Cleopatra and other tragic heroines was not her appearance but a sense that tragedy came less naturally to her than comedy.[22] Some of the great Shakespearian tragic roles she constantly refused to play, notably Lady Macbeth. She told Gielgud, "I could never impersonate a woman who had such a peculiar notion of hospitality",[30] which he took to mean that she could not contemplate the character's "explicit admission of evil".[22] Evans once remarked, "I don't think there is anything extraordinary about me except this passion for the truth",[6] a passion revered by Gielgud and others, but one that prevented her from attempting a character whose essence she could not understand.[22] She said to Shaw that she had been asked to play Volumnia inCoriolanus, but "isn't she a bloodthirsty old harridan? I could never play her."[16][n 5] This did not mean that she had to like the characters she played, but she had to understand them. When she first read through the role of Lady Bracknell with Gielgud she commented, "I know those sort of women. They ring the bell and tell you to put a lump of coal on the fire."[20]
In 1948 Evans returned to the film studios after an absence of more than thirty years. At the instigation ofEmlyn Williams she appeared inThe Last Days of Dolwyn.[6] The cast included Williams,Richard Burton, in his first film,[31] andAllan Aynesworth, who had created the role of Algernon inThe Importance of Being Earnest in 1895. This was Aynesworth's last film; Evans went on to make eighteen more over the next three decades. She played an elderly Welsh woman,[n 6] and was well received by reviewers, although one wondered if she was yet quite at home before the camera: "there are indeed moments when she looks as disproportionate as a life-size Rembrandt in a one-room flatlet. But it is not, of course, the flatlet which stays in the memory".[32] In the same year she played Countess Ranevskaya inThorold Dickinson's film version ofThe Queen of Spades.[12][n 7]
In the theatre, Evans returned toThe Way of the World in 1948, exchanging the role of Millamant for that of the formidable old Lady Wishfort. The production received mixed notices, and Evans's Wishfort – "like a preposterous caricature ofQueen Elizabeth"[34] – though much admired, overshadowed the rest of the cast.[35] In November of the same year she made one of her rare appearances inChekhov, as Ranevskaya inThe Cherry Orchard. Her performance divided opinion: inThe ObserverIvor Brown wrote of "the glorious impact of an authentic genius at the highest level of world-theatre",[36] but the anonymous reviewer inThe Times thought that she "remains, a little mysteriously, outside of the character".[37]
Over the next ten years Evans played in only six stage productions because she appeared in long-running West End plays. From March 1949 to November 1950 she appeared as Lady Pitts inDaphne Laureola in London and then New York. At the Haymarket she played Helen Lancaster inWaters of the Moon, which ran for more than two years. In April 1954 she played Countess Rosmarin Ostenburg inThe Dark Is Light Enough, and at the Haymarket she was Mrs St Maugham inThe Chalk Garden from April 1956 to November 1957.[5] In May 1958 she returned to the Old Vic company, playing Queen Katharine inHenry VIII in London and then at theShakespeare Memorial Theatre,Stratford-upon-Avon. At the same theatre in the 1959 season she played the Countess of Rousillon inAll's Well That Ends Well, and, despite her earlier words to Shaw, Volumnia inCoriolanus.[5] In the 1950s she made three films,The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) - in which she famously gave an exaggerated delivery of the line "A handbag?" -Look Back in Anger (1959) andThe Nun's Story (1959).[5]
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In 1960 Evans played Judith Bliss in a television production ofNoël Coward'sHay Fever.[38] In the 1961 Stratford season Evans played Queen Margaret inRichard III and appeared for the last time as the Nurse inRomeo and Juliet.At the Queen's Theatre in November 1963, she played Violet inGentle Jack byRobert Bolt.[n 8] In 1964 in a production for theNational Theatre, she returned to the role of Judith Bliss inHay Fever, heading a cast that in Coward's words "could play the Albanian telephone directory".[40] Her films from the first half of the 1960s wereTom Jones (1963),The Chalk Garden andYoung Cassidy (both made in 1964).[5]Her biggest film part of the 1960s was the central character, Mrs Ross, inThe Whisperers (1967) for which she received anOscar nomination and five major awards.[n 9] After that her screen appearances were in supporting roles in ten more films. When she was 87 she played the Dowager Queen inThe Slipper and the Rose (1976), in which she sang and danced.[6]
Evans's last stage roles were Mrs Forrest inThe Chinese Prime Minister at the Globe (1965), the Narrator inThe Black Girl in Search of God at theMermaid (1968), and Carlotta inDear Antoine,Chichester Festival (1971). After she found learning new roles too much, she presented an anthology of prose, poetry and music under the titleEdith Evans and Friends, both in the West End and elsewhere.[25] In this show she made her final performance on the West End stage, on 5 October 1974.[6] Her last public appearance was a BBC radio programmeWith Great Pleasure, a selection of her favourite works, given before an invited audience in August 1976. InThe Guardian, Nicholas de Jongh wrote of her evident frailty, "Yet she can still give the single words and phrases an imperious or serene grandeur, as in her final speaking ofRichard Church's poem where she welcomed 'that summoning touch of death our neighbour'. What a glorious star is going out."[41]
Bryan Forbes, who had directed Edith Evans inThe Whisperers andThe Slipper and the Rose, wrote her biographyNed's Girl, first published in 1977.[42][43]
Evans died at her home inCranbrook, Kent, on 14 October 1976, aged 88.[6]
Evans was appointedDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by KingGeorge VI in 1946.
Evans received honorary degrees from the universities ofLondon (1950),Cambridge (1951),Oxford (1954) andHull (1968).[25]
Evans was painted byWalter Sickert as Katharina in Shakespeare'sThe Taming of the Shrew. For many years a sculpted head of Evans was on display at theRoyal Court Theatre. In 1977 a portrait by Henry Glintenkamp[44] was sold as part of her estate.
Evans's ashes are interred atSt Paul's, Covent Garden, London.[45] Ablue plaque was unveiled outside her house at 109Ebury Street, London, in 1997.[46]
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Edith Evans was cited as Best Supporting Actress by theNational Board of Review (NBR) forThe Nun's Story in 1959. The NBR also cited her as Best Supporting Actress forThe Chalk Garden in 1964 and as Best Actress forThe Whisperers in 1967. Her role inThe Whisperers also won her awards from theBritish Film Academy, theHollywood Foreign Press Association, and theNew York Film Critics Circle.
