Richard III thoughts - actresses, captains and villainous lieutenants
Inspired by anteros_lmc post on the theatrical appearances of Captain Fearon and by mylodons starting to cast an Indy version of Richard III thereby,this is a little post uniting some real theatrical history, a few fangirl indulgence photos and a piece of HH cast news.
So under the cut for more about Anne Bracegirdle, an actress who did indeed play Lady Anne, among many other roles and who we could have fun pretending was Bracey's great grandmother,
gratuitously introduced picspam of what Sir Edward might look like as Richard :)
and not forgetting Lieutenant Bracegirdle himself as 'he - wot- done - it' in the newest Endeavour..
Mrs Bracegirdle -her married title was honorary,as used of all actresses in her day - was born c 1671 and seems to have been brought up from a young age by a theatrical couple who were both parents and mentors to her.
She entered Drury Lane in her teens and became a great success. As a young adult she had some roles created for her as well as playing Shakespeare and restoration classics.Here she is as the African queen in Aphra Behn's play The Widow Ranter.
She made her name initially often playing parts of young and vulnerable women and some scholars writing about her today credit her interpretation of scenes of rape as being among the first to make clear that the victim was in no way complicit in her fate.
Like many actors/actresses of her era Anne had a large following of fans Colly Cibber wrote about her in about 1690 when he joined the company as a very lowly newcomer:
It was even a Fashion among the Gay and Young to have a Taste or Tendre for Mrs. Bracegirdle… In all the chief Parts she acted, the Desirable was so predominant, that no Judge could be cold enough to consider from what other particular Excellence she became delightful
In Anne's case the fanboys became every bit as dangerous as some actors and actresses in our own time fear fandom could be.Captain Richard Hill became jealous of a playwright called William Mountford, an actor and manager colleague of Anne's whom Hill believed to be her lover.He and a man called Lord Mohn attenpted to abduct Anne - they failed in that part of their attack but thet murdered Mountford.
Depspite this tragedy which generated tremendous publicity, of course Anne made her way back into her career partly through playing and singing various roles of women deened to have gone mad in collaboration with several comtemporary composers and playwrights.She was wise enough to know that quitting while one is at the top can be good and retired from the stage in about 1707.Thus though as an actress she belongs firmly to the late Restoration period as we tend to think of it she herself lived on well into the Georgian era, dying in 1748 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. for a very good study of her 'mad'roles see a paper by Diana Solomon From Infamy to Intimacy, the mad songs of Anne Bracegirdle
I have often thought that I would like to design a fic with shipboard theatricals in which Bracey's imagined family past in acting would come to the fore and the Richard III post brought this to mind, so I thought it would be worth a word or two about Anne Bracegirdle.
Meanwhile while mentioning shipboard theatre and Richard I thought we would post one or two images of what the Indy's captain might look like in the role :)
these of course show Mr Lindsay playing Richard in the RSC production of 1998 which is near to the early HH series filming of course.
Finally the piece of actor news concerns the redoubtable Mr Bracegirdle himself and his latest career change! Not really, but just to note that it was good to see the equally stalwart Jonathan Coy in last night's new episode of the Morse spinoff Endeavour playing a man with a (hidden) past who turned out to be one of the episode's villains. Though Bracey would never countenance such dishonourable conduct, it is always good to see Mr Coy popping up. No pic of his character to be found as yet so here is the man himself:
now doesn't he look like he could be Anne Bracegirdle's five times great grandson ;)No ? oh well....
Just for the record his character's name was Archie.
So under the cut for more about Anne Bracegirdle, an actress who did indeed play Lady Anne, among many other roles and who we could have fun pretending was Bracey's great grandmother,
gratuitously introduced picspam of what Sir Edward might look like as Richard :)
and not forgetting Lieutenant Bracegirdle himself as 'he - wot- done - it' in the newest Endeavour..
Mrs Bracegirdle -her married title was honorary,as used of all actresses in her day - was born c 1671 and seems to have been brought up from a young age by a theatrical couple who were both parents and mentors to her.
She entered Drury Lane in her teens and became a great success. As a young adult she had some roles created for her as well as playing Shakespeare and restoration classics.Here she is as the African queen in Aphra Behn's play The Widow Ranter.
She made her name initially often playing parts of young and vulnerable women and some scholars writing about her today credit her interpretation of scenes of rape as being among the first to make clear that the victim was in no way complicit in her fate.
Like many actors/actresses of her era Anne had a large following of fans Colly Cibber wrote about her in about 1690 when he joined the company as a very lowly newcomer:
It was even a Fashion among the Gay and Young to have a Taste or Tendre for Mrs. Bracegirdle… In all the chief Parts she acted, the Desirable was so predominant, that no Judge could be cold enough to consider from what other particular Excellence she became delightful
In Anne's case the fanboys became every bit as dangerous as some actors and actresses in our own time fear fandom could be.Captain Richard Hill became jealous of a playwright called William Mountford, an actor and manager colleague of Anne's whom Hill believed to be her lover.He and a man called Lord Mohn attenpted to abduct Anne - they failed in that part of their attack but thet murdered Mountford.
Depspite this tragedy which generated tremendous publicity, of course Anne made her way back into her career partly through playing and singing various roles of women deened to have gone mad in collaboration with several comtemporary composers and playwrights.She was wise enough to know that quitting while one is at the top can be good and retired from the stage in about 1707.Thus though as an actress she belongs firmly to the late Restoration period as we tend to think of it she herself lived on well into the Georgian era, dying in 1748 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. for a very good study of her 'mad'roles see a paper by Diana Solomon From Infamy to Intimacy, the mad songs of Anne Bracegirdle
I have often thought that I would like to design a fic with shipboard theatricals in which Bracey's imagined family past in acting would come to the fore and the Richard III post brought this to mind, so I thought it would be worth a word or two about Anne Bracegirdle.
Meanwhile while mentioning shipboard theatre and Richard I thought we would post one or two images of what the Indy's captain might look like in the role :)
these of course show Mr Lindsay playing Richard in the RSC production of 1998 which is near to the early HH series filming of course.
Finally the piece of actor news concerns the redoubtable Mr Bracegirdle himself and his latest career change! Not really, but just to note that it was good to see the equally stalwart Jonathan Coy in last night's new episode of the Morse spinoff Endeavour playing a man with a (hidden) past who turned out to be one of the episode's villains. Though Bracey would never countenance such dishonourable conduct, it is always good to see Mr Coy popping up. No pic of his character to be found as yet so here is the man himself:
now doesn't he look like he could be Anne Bracegirdle's five times great grandson ;)No ? oh well....
Just for the record his character's name was Archie.