ABSTRACT
Now, as it so happens on very rare occasions, I was offered a directing role from RADA of all places. The director of RADA, a most charming and cultivated man called Hugh Cruttwell, apparently saw one of my early productions and picked me as a movement person. We met and had a very pleasant chat and I was booked to direct the Oresteia. All three plays. This was a nightmare, since one play I can cope with, but the three of the trilogy was just a little too much. Well, the long and short of it was that I had to back out of the trio of plays. At the end of the day, a whole day spent reading the stuff tediously translated and boringly read, I went downstairs and almost tearfully told Mr Cruttwell that it was too much for me. ‘Then why not just do the first part, part one, Agamemnon. Have a drink.’ he said, and this most elegant and sensitive of men went to the drinks cabinet and poured me a whiskey and water. I felt better already and happily agreed to do the first part. Another director would direct the final two parts, Orestes and The Furies.
