Isleworth’s Oliver Ford Davies shares a comprehensive insight into the perspective of an actor through productions brought to life on stage
The director Peter Dews prophesied: “You’ll be alright when you’re forty, and even better when you’re fifty.” It turns out that Peter Dews was right, almost to the month.
In a study of British theatre through a varied acting career spanning over sixty years, Oliver Ford Davies explores the many changes within the performing arts scene through his experiences on various stages, in a variety of productions, across the country.
Davies charts the ups and downs of British theatre in the last sixty years, while offering a unique perspective on life behind the curtain and the daring journey from leaving behind an academic career and into acting. From Shakespeare to Shaw, Chekhov to Pirandello, this is the story of an actor initially struggling to make a mark before making his breakthrough at fifty, winning the Olivier Best Actor award and being propelled into thirty years of leading roles.
Oliver Ford Davies is an actor and Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Through his acting career, he has played major roles for the RSC, including Polonius in David Tennant’s Hamlet, and the National Theatre, including David Hare’s Racing Demon (Olivier Award, Best Actor, 1990). His work ranges from three Star Wars films and Game of Thrones to a regular role in Kavanagh QC. He has also been a university lecturer and a regional drama critic for the Guardian. Oliver lives in Isleworth, London.
Oliver says, “The theatre environment has changed so much over the last sixty years. The kind of theatre career enjoyed by a Judi Dench or an Ian McKellen, and also by myself, is almost certainly passing. Successful actors, male and female, now concentrate on films and television, or decamp to America, occasionally returning to play Hamlet or Hedda Gabler. There isn’t enough serious theatre to entice them to stay, and, apart from leads in musicals, it is no longer a way to make money or gain celebrity.”
Publication date: 28th November 2022
ISBN 9781915352033
Price £9.99
