The Dresser

For the 2015 television version, see The Dresser (film).
The Dresser
Directed by Peter Yates
Produced by Peter Yates
Written by Ronald Harwood
Starring
Music by James Horner
Cinematography Kelvin Pike
Edited by Ray Lovejoy
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
  • 9 December 1983 (1983-12-09)
Running time
 118 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Box office $5,310,748

The Dresser is a 1980 West End and Broadway play by Ronald Harwood, which tells the story of an aging actor's personal assistant, who struggles to keep his charge's life together.

It was adapted as a 1983 film, based on a screenplay by Harwood. The film was directed by Peter Yates and produced by Yates with Ronald Harwood. The cinematography was by Kelvin Pike. The film version of The Dresser stars Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Zena Walker, Eileen Atkins, Michael Gough and Edward Fox. Finney and Courtenay were both nominated for Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards and Golden Globe Awards for their performances, with Courtenay winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama in a tie with Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies.

Plot of the 1983 film

Ronald Harwood based the play on his experiences as dresser to English Shakespearean actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit, who is the model for the character "Sir" in the play.

The Dresser opens with a performance of King Lear at a regional theatre in the United Kingdom during World War II. In the title role is an ageing, once-famous Shakespearean actor identified to us only as "Sir" (Albert Finney). He is of the old, bombastic school of British acting, full of grand gestures and fine oratory. As the curtain comes down on the last act, and as the actors line up for their curtain call, Sir lectures them on the mistakes they've made during the performance, showing us that he is the leader of this travelling band of actors bringing Shakespeare to the provinces during wartime.

Waiting backstage is Norman (Tom Courtenay), who has been Sir's dresser for decades. Norman is an efficient, somewhat effeminate little man who knows Sir's every whim and fancy, is used to his tirades and temperamental rants and is, for all intents and purposes, Sir's servant. As Norman waits for Sir to come offstage after a typically florid closing address to the audience, we see one way he copes with his job as he takes a nip from a handy little bottle of brandy always in his back pocket.

The company is hurrying to its next venue, the industrial town of Bradford, where Sir is to give his renowned portrayal of Lear. The train nearly leaves without them, as Sir makes his stately progress through the train station to the platform, Norman scurrying ahead to plead with the train guard to hold the train for Sir's arrival. But the train begins to pull out of the station, until Sir delivers a loud, commanding "STOP....THAT....TRAIN!" from the platform steps. The guard, taken aback, does just that and Sir placidly leads his company aboard.

Arriving in Bradford, however, another source of Norman's anxiety soon becomes clear, for it becomes obvious that Sir's mental capacities are rapidly fading. Norman rescues him from a confused, almost violent rant in the town square that lands Sir in the hospital. As the company tries to decide what to do, Sir unexpectedly arrives at the theatre, disoriented and exhausted, saying he has checked himself out of the hospital. Norman ushers Sir to the dressing room, fiercely resisting the stage manager's insistence that the show be canceled and insisting Sir will be ready to go on.

The middle section of the film takes place nearly entirely in the dressing room, as Norman struggles to prepare Sir for the curtain. Sir's wandering mind and nearly incoherent ramblings gradually become more focused as Norman gets him to concentrate on applying his makeup, remembering his lines; and we see how dependent the two men are on each other. Sir would have no career left without Norman; Norman, even worse, would have no life without Sir, to whom he has so long dedicated all his time and energy. By the time Sir's wife, referred to only as "Her Ladyship", who is playing Cordelia to her husband's Lear, arrives in the dressing room for the five-minute call, Sir is ready for the role he has only performed 227 times.

The curtain rises for the opening dialogue among Lear's courtiers, but Sir seems to mentally drift away while waiting for his cue, much to Norman's distress, forcing the hapless actors on stage to improvise speeches while Norman struggles to convince Sir of his entrance. Air raid sirens sound, signaling the onset of an air raid; and, indeed, distant bombs that can be heard falling seem to rouse Sir and he strides on stage to deliver what all agree is his finest portrayal of Lear in his long career.

After the triumphant performance, however, Sir collapses from exhaustion and Norman helps him to his dressing room to lie down. Sir requests Norman to read from an autobiography he claims to have been writing. Although all Sir has written is the opening dedication, Norman reads aloud Sir's gracious "thank you"'s to his audiences, his fellow actors, to Shakespeare, to stage technicians...but not a word about his dresser who has served him so long and loyally. About to protest, Norman discovers that Sir has died while he's been reading. Norman, by now slightly drunk from the evening's brandy nips, flies into a rage, accusing Sir of being a thankless old sod, and in his anger even madly scribbles an addition to Sir's writing thanking himself. But Norman's anger only temporarily covers his disorientation at losing the only life he has known for so many years and, as Norman tearfully admits, the only man he has ever loved. The film closes with Norman sprawled across Sir's body, unwilling to let go of his life and his love.

Stage productions

UK

The play was first presented on 6 March 1980 at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and then opened at the Queen's Theatre in London on 30 April 1980, with Freddie Jones as "Sir" and Tom Courtenay as Norman. The play was nominated for Best Play at the Society of West End Theatre Awards (now known as the Laurence Olivier Awards) for 1980.

Broadway

The play opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on 9 November 1981 and ran for 200 performances, with Tom Courtenay repeating his performance as Norman and Paul Rogers as "Sir". The play was nominated for the 1982 Tony Award for Best Play, Best Actor in a Play (Tom Courtenay) and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play (Paul Rogers).

Film cast

Film awards and nominations

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: two Best Actor in a Leading Role nominations (Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney), Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.[1] Albert Finney won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 34th Berlin International Film Festival.[2]

Television version

A television version of The Dresser for the BBC was shown in the UK on 31 October 2015. [3] Richard Eyre directs Anthony Hopkins as Sir and Ian McKellen as Norman, with Emily Watson as Her Ladyship, Sarah Lancashire as Madge and Edward Fox as Thornton. Filming began in London in March 2015.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Many Oscar nominees unfamiliar". The Milwaukee Journal. 17 February 1984. p. 4, Accent on the Weekend. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  2. ↑ "Berlinale: 1984 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  3. ↑ "Broadcasting of The Dresser". BBC.
  4. ↑ "Production commences on The Dresser starring Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen". BBC. Retrieved 27 March 2015.

External links

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