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Neill of Summerhill (Routledge Revivals)
A. S. Neill was arguably the most famous child educator of the twentieth century. He was certainly the most controversial. All over the world, countless parents and teachers have been shocked, delighted or inspired by his subversive ideas about education, or by a visit to ‘that dreadful school’ which continues to this day – Summerhill. First published in 1983, this sympathetic but critical exploration of his iconoclastic ideas and personality is the result of interviews with two hundred ex-pupils, parents and teachers about life at Summerhill, and of the practicality of Neill’s philosophy about child freedom. Jonathan Croall has also drawn on many unpublished letters and documents, which help to illuminate Neill’s personal struggles, and his analysis and friendship with Homer Lane, Wilhelm Stekel and Wilhelm Reich. The result is a fascinating and revealing portrait of a remarkable man who, in his absolute determination to be ‘on the side of the child’, remained in permanent opposition to the adult world.
Sybil Thorndike
'I would rather have been a pianist than anything,' Sybil Thorndike said late in her life, but posterity would never know her as anything other than a majestic actress of stage and screen, whether alongside Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier, or, most famously, as Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan. In this authorized biography, written with unique access to the Thorndike family archive and using hundreds of her unpublished letters, Jonathan Croall has written an engaging, sympathetic, yet critical account of one of the most remarkable women of the twentieth century. As a young actress, Thorndike spent three years traveling around America, playing over a hundred Shakespearean parts.
Performing King Lear
King Lear is arguably the most complex and demanding play in the whole of Shakespeare. Once thought impossible to stage, today it is performed with increasing frequency, both in Britain and America. It has been staged more often in the last fifty years than in the previous 350 years of its performance history, its bleak message clearly chiming in with the growing harshness, cruelty and violence of the modern world. Performing King Lear offers a very different and practical perspective from most studies of the play, being centred firmly on the reality of creation and performance. The book is based on Jonathan Croall's unique interviews with twenty of the most distinguished actors to have unde...
The Coming of Godot
Fifty years ago Sir Peter Hall directed the English language world premiere of Samuel Backett's Waiting for Godot. Now he has returned to this extraordinary classic, the quintessential absurdist piece that has become one of the most important works of modern drama. Jonathan Croall, who had access to rehearsals for this landmark anniversary production, combines an account of this theatrical journey with an informative history of the play that has intrigued, baffled, provoked and entertained all those who have ever come across Vladimir, Estragon and the ever elusive Godot. Foreword by Sir Peter Hall.
In Search of Gielgud
While putting together his widely praised biography of the great classical actor, Jonathan Croall talked to more than a hundred actors, directors and designers. In Search of Gielgud: A Biographer's Tale is the diary he kept during his exhaustive research. In it he records their revealing personal memories, most of them previously unpublished, of Gielgud on stage, in rehearsal, and off duty. Among those he interviewed were stars such as Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dorothy Tutin, Dirk Bogarde, Richard Briers, Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Simon Russell Beale and Anna Carteret; playwrights Edward Albee, David Storey, Christopher Fry, Charles Wood and Hugh Whitemore; leading directors Peter Brook, Bill Gaskill and John Schlesinger; and designers Jocelyn Herbert, Tanya Moiseiwitsch, and Margaret Harris of Motley. The book also charts the many problems the author had to overcome to prevent the biography from being abandoned, notably a sustained attack by a rival biographer, the wayward behaviour of an elusive editor, and the unpredictable attitude to the book of Gielgud himself.
John Gielgud
John Gielgud's career of signature acting roles forever changed our interpretation of the classical repertoire and cemented his role as one of the finest and most influential actors of all time.
Performing Hamlet
Stage history -- The fifties : Michael Redgrave, Alec Guinness, Richard Burton, Paul Scofield, Michael Redgrave -- The sixties : Jeremy Brett, Peter O'Toole, David Warner, Nicol Williamson -- The seventies : Alan Howard, Ian McKellen, Albert Finney, Ben Kingsley, Derek Jacobi, Frances de la Tour -- The eighties : Jonathan Pryce, Michael Pennington, Anton Lesser, Roger Rees, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Daniel Day-Lewis -- The nineties : Kenneth Branagh, Alan Cumming, Stephen Dillane, Ralph Fiennes, Alex Jennings, Paul Rhys -- The noughties : Mark Rylance, Adrian Lester, Samuel West, Michael Maloney, Ben Whishaw, Jamie Ballard, David Tennant, Jude Law -- The teens : Rory Kinnear, Michael Sheen, Jonathan Slinger, Maxine Peake, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paapa Essiedu, Andrew Scott, Simon Russell Beale -- Hamlet observed : the National Theatre at work -- Hamlets at Elsinore.
Gielgoodies!
'A glorious compendium of John's scintillating irreverences and fabulous faux pas... He was one of the greatest of all theatrical personalities, and these utterly characteristic throwaway squibs bring him vividly back to life.' Simon Callow This delicious feast of "Gielgoodies", compiled by Gielgud's biographer, reveals a less well-known side to this celebrated man of the theatre: his lightning wit, his love of scandal and gossip, his wicked delight in putting down his fellow-artists, his relish of bawdy humour. Full of startling new material, drawn from many unpublished letters and Jonathan Croall's extensive interviews, the book also celebrates the man who dropped a thousand bricks. Gielgud's excruciating gaffes were legendary, and here are both the famous and the unknown, collected in all their glory. Whether committed backstage, in the wings or in rehearsals, on film sets or in television studios, they bring this merry and much-loved man vividly to life.
From Silent Film Idol to Superman
A popular romantic actor with a fan club rivalling that of Ivor Novello, John Stuart was frequently mobbed by his adoring fans. He starred in films by Alfred Hitchcock and G.W. Pabst, played opposite British stars such as Madeleine Carroll, Fay Compton, Gracie Fields, and German actor Conrad Veidt, and was also the first actor to ever speak on screen in Britain. Yet despite a film career lasting six decades and 172 films, his name and achievement are little known today. With access to Stuart's private archive, his surviving films, press cuttings, film reviews, interviews, profiles, features, and gossip columns, his son Jonathan Croall presents a detailed account of an actor who made a significant contribution to the British film industry of the 20th century.
