John Gielgud (1904–2000)

I have read Sterne's book before - as a theatre obsessed teenager. With the benefit of now being able to read it alongside William Redfield's far superior 'Letters from an Actor' it's difficult to see this as anything other than some sort of chronological record of rehearsals and conversations based on Sterne's highly dubious idea of secretly taping everything without initially letting anyone (Gielgud and Burton included) know. His reverence for Gielgud in particular becomes rapidly wearing and his analysis - such as it is - is naive in the extreme. However, it's a useful supplement to Redfield and one can see how it will be doubly so for Jack Thorne in his new play. Redfield is incidentally quite amusing in his view of Sterne's insignificance and apparently nonchalant about the recordings. If you only read one book about that 1964 Hamlet then, read Redfield's. But if your curiosity is piqued, you'll enjoy this too.
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