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The Portrait Of A Lady |
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Vivien Leigh & The Stage |
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Reviews/Articles/Photos/Stories  
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The veteran
actor David Horne had starred with Vivian in The Village Squire
and Gentlemen's Agreement and at the beginning of 1935 he was
rehearsing for The Green Sash, a stage romance set in
Florence, when the actress cast as his flirtatious young wife fell
ill. Horne remembered Vivian. Could Gliddon (John Gliddon was her
first agent. He was a former actor and journalist who had just
started an agency in order to promote the creation of new British
movie stars. A mutual friend introduced the two and Vivian was his
first client) rush her down for an audition? He recalls:
'There were the usual questions - "What have you done?" etc., etc. Stage work, they meant. Of course she hadn't done any. But she started to say, "The Com�die Fran�aise..." and I cut her off abruptly. She'd been going to add, "... used to send a teacher to instruct us at my finishing school in Paris". But Leon M. Lion was duly impressed. "Let her rehearse for the day on approval", I said, "and if she's no good, say no". Well, of course, with her beauty and willpower, Vivian got her way'. The role of Giusta wall still beyond her experience and by all accounts not very well written, but her self-confidence was such that her shortcomings tended to be blamed on the writing. Vivian's fellow cast mates were helpful to her and she managed to charm the critics regardless of her inexperience. 'The dramatists have given so vague a sketch of Giusta', said novelist Charles Morgan, then The Times dramatic critic, 'that Miss Vivian Leigh has little opportunity for portraiture, but her acting has a precision and lightness which should serve her well when her material is of more substance'. (The Times, February 26th 1935) If The Green Sash failed to make theatrical history, it brought Vivian's first important press notice. At that time, a word of praise from Morgan carried more weight than a paragraph from another critic.
The beautiful young actress at home in 1935 Sources: |
2003 � Vivien Leigh & The Stage. |
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