Rest in Peace Alan Rickman 1946-2016

What started as a normal, thirteen in a dozen kind of day ended in shock.

Alan Rickman, long time member of my band of heroes had died that morning, news arrived in an e-mail from a friend saying "you've probably heard the news about Alan Rickman's passing. I'm heartbroken. Just wanted to touch base and share my grief".

I had not heard or read about it yet, and went online straight away in hopes of the news being false… one of those hoax articles but it soon turned out to be true… the BBC does not do hoax...

I'm shellshocked.

Not many things hit me so hard that it leads to tears, I had no personal relation with mr Rickman, I've been a long time admirer of his body of work which made him part of my personal band of heroes. Heroes are supposed to be immortal, we think they will be there for all time. It hurts to realize they are not.

Metatron (Dogma), Hans Gruber (Die Hard), Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensibility), the Sheriff of Nottingham (Robin Hood), He (Song of Lunch), Judge Turpin (Sweeney Todd) to just name a few in the diverse roles, all filmed to revisit at will. I was lucky enough to be awed as well by his stage work. Twice I jumped on a plane and flew out to various stages in Dublin and New York just for the opportunity to see him go back to his stage roots. I'm fortunate that I can make these decisions, for members of my little band of heroes I go to great lengths to see them work on stage, and I'm very glad that I did for mr Rickman. Such a talent, Stage presence to the hilt and that voice… oh that voice.

I had hoped to get another chance, to see his Lear, his take on Beckett, Pinter, another Ibsen, or perhaps one of his own original works, but it's not to be.

I was familiar with most of his work, but I did not know much about the person, other than that he was certainly very nice to - and patient with - his fans at stage door.  In the last few days I've learned so much more about him. His friends, compatriots and coworkers took to the web and spoke beautiful words about their lost friend. They say he was funny, friendly, down to earth, the best of friends that always took the time to help, support and simply be there when they needed him. Who took an interest in their work, went to their plays, exhibits, arranged auditions. A private person, I learned he was in a relationship for 50 years with his wife, a man who was devoted, passionate, politically and socially engaged. A person anybody would be proud to call friend. The suddenness of this news made it feel unreal, and yet now, three days later I can feel some sort of consolation that until the end he could be the private person that he was. No rumors, no public displays. "Alan Rickman has died at the age of 69", it dropped like a bomb and rightly so.

I was mourning the loss of my hero, now I am also mourning the loss of the person. I feel deeply for all those that knew the real Alan Rickman, my deepest sympathies and heartfelt condoleances for his wife Rima, and his friends and family.

I hope I am the friend to my friends as he was to his, but I know I am probably not. If anything, this new knowledge of the man behind the artist I so admired, inspires me to try harder.


Epic Tea Time with Alan Rickman (Official HD Version)

Scored by: Music from Inception - Mind Heist Created by: David Michalek Description: The film of Alan Rickman is from the project, Portraits in Dramatic Time…

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Links to some of the public tributes
Michael Billington - Alan Rickman a master of theatre who looked back in languor

Sean Biggerstaff
Daniel Radcliffe
JK Rowling
Emma Thompson
Ian McKellen
Stanley Tucci
Richard Curtis
Neil Kinnock

Patrick Stewart; Kate Winslet; Helen Mirren; Emma Thompson; Ian McKellen; Sigourney Weaver; Richard Wilson; Brian Cox; Ruby Wax; Harriet Walter; Stephen Poliakoff; Max Stafford-Clark; Zoe Wannamaker; Catherine Bailey; Janet Suzman

Celebrity stunt casting - Lindsay Lohan's failed mission of taking away attention from being a celebrity name and draw attention to the fact that she's an actress

Casting Lindsay Lohan in Mamet's 'Speed the Plow' at London's West End I thought was a bold move... acting abilities aside if I were a producer the not-so-reliable reputation alone would make me nervous.

Lindsay Lohan as Karen and Nigel Lindsay as Charlie Fox in Speed-the-Plow.
Photograph: Tristram Kenton

That same reputation made many people expect a train wreck... even before rehearsals started rumors made it to Playbill.com saying Lohan was already "final warning" for her behavior during rehearsals for the upcoming London revival of Speed-the-Plow.

I've not seen the play, I will not see it because I'll not get to London during its run,  if I were I'd probably go see it, if not to see how this stunt casting worked out but because I was a huge fan of The West Wing - casting the accomplished Richard Schiff would have been enough reason for me to bag myself a ticket.

Because stunt casting this is...

‘I’m at a point when I want a diligent routine and I really want to get back into work. And I wanted to do something different: people have certain perceptions of me and I wanted to change them by doing something like a Mamet play,"she told Time Out London.

She went on to say: "I’m hoping it’ll take away attention from me as a celebrity name and draw attention to the fact that I’m an actress."

Really? A Mamet Play in London's West End is your idea of a good opportunity to get your toe in the water? and even more interesting, it's your attempt to draw away from being a celebrity name and going back to being an actress first?

I think the producer had a different idea and cast you because of the celebrity rep... but hey, who cares why you were cast, go for it!

First opinions were...  terrible:

Lindsay Lohan defends Speed-the-Plow West End debut after messing up lines
The Independent 

but honestly, this was after the first preview... and it's called previews for a reason. Yes I'd expect the cast to be off book even in the first preview, but they might still be tweaking, the show has not openend yet, you have no real expectation to the finished product...

Lohan going on the defense though... maybe not a great idea if the thought really was to shed celebrity and return to the basic of being an actress. Defense draws attention.

All in all what that first wave of critisism did was make me curious on the professional reviews... the critics that head to protocol and wait for opening night to watch the finished product and judge that.

To be honest I was surprised... the reviews are a bit of a mixed bag... my go-to critic is The Guardian's Michael Billington:  Speed-the-Plow review - Lindsay Lohan brings unusual naivety to tame revival... sure, he only gives it 2 stars (aka it's a bomb imo) but Lohan gets off pretty good, it's Schiff that amazingly apparently fell flat.

Lindsay Lohan (Karen) and Richard Schiff (Bobby Gould) in Speed-The-Plow. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

the Independent's headline:  Speed-the-Plow, theatre review: What a turn up! Lindsay Lohan silences the doubters with a deft performance

Paul Taylor gave it three stars, but ended his review with

A good but by no means a great night out whose value does not depend on the swirl of publicity occasioned by the female lead.

his headline is really all the positive he has to say about Lohan, both Schiff and Nigel Lindsay did work out well for him:

Richard Schiff and Nigel Lindsay are in fine, darkly frisky form as the pair of producers whose longstanding friendship she threatens to sunder.

Lindsay Lohan with Richard Schiff in rehearsal for 'Speed-the-Plow'

I would have liked to have seen this, to form my own opinion, but going by the peoples reactions to the previews and after reading the mixed bag of professional reviews, I think it's not a huge miss... I'll survive I think.

Kudos for the producers to take a chance, I hope it works well for them and their celebrity name doesn't fall back but sticks to her intention to leave her more troubled past behind at least for the entire planned run. Kudos to Lindsay Lohan for trying something new, stage work takes more bravery than movies or tv I think. The decision to do a play may have been easier than actually going out there and do it.  Great, good or bad, I'll never know for myself, but according to the critics... not too bad to say the least.

Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter page is added, so far only basics, there is so much material about him out there it will take some sifting through. I've included a video gallery to this page, if I like it I might add one to more pages.

about Harold Pinter...
he passed away christmas 2008, just a few days before I saw my first Pinter play performed.  A few days after his death I attended a talk by Michael Billington, he has been the theater critic for the UK newspaper The Guardian for many years. He was talking about the hot plays in town, what to see and what would be impossible to get tickets for (a tease and a challenge all rolled in one) but due to events ended up talking quite a lot about Pinter. a few anecdotes that I will not share here, but I will say that Michael spoke so fondly and with such passionate (professional) admiration that I instantly felt I should see his work and read up about him... I did buy a few books on Pinter, and am fortunate to have seen some of his work performed since, but real life distracted me and most of the books sit on the 'to read' pile at home. Now that I am typing this out I can only say that that pile of books has gotten way out of hand, I really should make time to simply read!

So the (Billington)talk I attended was in London, I was on this fabulous(!) theater trip, really one of the best trips of my life, theater related or not. A few days later, the last play of the trip was the Pinter play... No Man's Land, at the Duke of York, I think it was the very last performance of the run. It had a fabulous all star cast: Michael Gambon, David Bradley, David Walliams and Nick Dunning. Going in fairly blind on the makings of Pinter (I had in preparation of the trip read the play but found it impossible to make sense of) I was stunned. it was riveting, mesmerizing, still incomprehensible at times but in a way seeing it on stage instead of on paper it all made sense to me... of course when talking to others in my group after the play it turned out they had made sense of it too, just with a completely different take on meaning... I think for me that will always be the essence of Pinter.

Afterwards two of us waited outside at stage door to catch a glimpse of the great Gambon, he was gracious as ever in shaking off his fans quickly :)

note: Gambon is a seasoned stage actor, he worked with Pinter on and off for 30 years. He performed in Pinters plays and was also directed by him. Pinter came to see this production on opening night, just a few months before he died. On my Michael Gambon page  I have included his farewell to Pinter, from the No Man's Land stage. I feel very lucky to have seen this production, and also that Gambon was part of the cast in my first Pinter experience.

That day January 3rd 2009, this evening holds very special memories to me, those of you that might read this and were there that evening, you may know and remember, those of you that were not present, sorry I'll not elaborate much, suffice it to say that 'No Man's Land', at this time, with this cast, and in the  enlightening company I was in... unforgettable very dear memories!