Theatricals

The idea of retelling theatre stories began with a second-hand copy of Donald Sindens Theatrical Anecdotes. Other anthologies biographies and histories followed. Widening circles of biblio-graphies soon spread out into earlier anthologies and accounts from practitioners within the theatre - Oxberry Bunn Wilkinson Macready - as well as from the memoirs of ardent theatregoers - Pepys Hunt Moore Haydon... But the remarkable degree to which certain stories are repeated again and again makes specific acknowledgment of sources impossible. For example Macklins final octogenarian appearance as Shylock Barrymores hurling of a fish from the stage Charles Kembles treatment of a crying child in the audience Garricks parsimony Ralph Richardsons parrot Barrys and Garricks competing Romeos - these are typical of hundreds of set pieces which recur almost obsessively. And the same blunder or witticism may well be attributed to a surprisingly large cast.