'Straight Face' by Nigel Hawthorne
Review of British Stage Actor and Yes, Minister Star's Autobiography
Nigel Hawthorne's autobiography reveals a down-to-earth actor prepared to work diligently towards success.
A frank memoir by one of the best-known actors in Britain's recent past, 'Straight Face' doesn't flinch from revealing Nigel Hawthorne's truthful critiques of certain experiences, nor from admitting his own weaknesses.
Early life
Born in Coventry in 1929, Nigel was taken with his parents to live in South Africa at the age of four. His interest in acting was unexpected, but his parents acquiesced when it became a serious ambition. In 1951, armed with some practical experience from amateur and professional theatre, Hawthorne set off for the UK. He quickly found a job, albeit a menial one. In the brief time before moving to a provincial repertory company, he soaked up as many West End productions as possible. For several years, work was more off-stage than on. Hawthorne worked as a stage-hand and as a housekeeper. He also met a companion, Bruce Palmer, one of the backstage crew at Northampton's theatre. Palmer and Hawthorne remained a couple for the next 27 years, although theirs was not a relationship of romantic love and Palmer was promiscuous.
Hawthorne himself did not lightly enter into sexual liaisons.The title of his book, 'Straight Face', alludes to a life-long personal conservatism. Not for him the camp, cruising gay lifestyle.
His profile increases
In 1957 he returned to Africa, where his enhanced work experience won him decent parts in high-profile plays such as 'Look Back in Anger' and 'School for Scandal' at the main South African theatres. He was proud to be involved in ground-breaking productions like the anti-apartheid piece 'Try For White' and Pinter's 'The Caretaker'. One of his more unusual jobs was preparing the script for the South African version of the satirical revue, 'Beyond the Fringe'. This he achieved, working from an audio recording made in the wings of London's Fortune Theatre. To his relief, his script worked.
Hawthorne returned to England in late 1962, considerable acting experience now under his belt. Naturally, he went to see the London production of his small triumph, BTF, and was astonished by how different it was from his version. Shortly after, he found himself at a casting call for the show itself. Overawed by the presence of Cook, Moore, Bennett and Miller in the stalls, his audition was hopeless. However, his big break was just around the corner. In 1963 he joined Joan Littlewood's innovative company at Stratford East for 'Oh What A Lovely War'. His autobiography, like his career, really comes to life as he recalls Littlewood and how she proved to be his rock and mentor. Hawthorne provides a candid contrast between Littlewood 's supportive Theatre Workshop, with its emphasis on creativity through improvisation - which at first he 'didn't get' - and the Royal Court in the 60s, where he felt actors were undervalued.
The Yes, Minister years
Hawthorne's personal stage was now set for his most successful period: from the Royal Shakespeare Company's powerful hit 'Privates on Parade' by Peter Nichols, via BBC sitcoms 'Yes, Minister' and'Yes, Prime Minister', he moved on to Broadway fame in 'Shadowlands' and the marvellous role of the demented-tormented King in Alan Bennett's 'The Madness of George III'. By the time of these successes, Hawthorne had settled down with the second, and more compatible, of his long-term companions, Trevor Bentham.
One disappointment late in his career was a film version of Garrick & Colman's 'The Clandestine Marriage' (writing credited to Bentham), which Hawthorne tried to rescue by extensive re-editing, raising considerable funds to do so. The year it appeared, 1999, Hawthorne was knighted.
His swansong was Lear for the RSC. After treatment for cancer, Nigel Hawthorne died on Boxing Day 2001. He had mailed the last chapter of his manuscript just two days earlier.
'Straight Face' by Nigel Hawthorne is published by Hodder & Stoughton.
