A Word or Two - Stratford Festival

A Word or TwoBelow | christopher plummer (left) in rehearsal with directordes mcanuff. rehearsal PHOTOGRAPHY BY TERRY MANZO.The purpose of A Word or Two is simply tocelebrate language which seems to be fastvanishing from our midst. It could be described asshowing what impact the written word can have onimpressionable youth and is very much a personalstroll through literature, a literature that has longstirred my imagination and that, for one reason oranother, I cannot let go. The poetry and prose Ihave chosen to accompany my journey is both sillyand sad, sacred and profane; ranging fromA.A. Milne to the Bible; Shaw and Wilde toColeridge and Marlowe; W.H. Auden and Nabokovto Rostand and MacLeish; Shakespeare and Byronto Nash and Leacock. It is intended not just toshow the myriad of colours words can paint, butto illuminate along the way the several phases ofmy particular moon. If there must be a “theme,” letit be my eternal gratitude to a family who, from themoment I formed my first sentence, made me awareof the joy and magic of language which, after all, isour heritage to hold on to for dear life while we can.Over the years I have performed this piece invarious towns and venues to raise money for thearts and such charities as World Literacy. Sincethen, I have revised it considerably and it nowneeds a proper production. In that regard, I’mthrilled that Des McAnuff has consented to comeon board and add some fresh inspiration. I’m alsograteful to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival forproviding me the space on which to present it andto you, the audience, without whose presence,there is of course, nothing. Thank you so much.Christopher Plummer2

Christopher PlummerChristopher Plummer has been a professionalactor for over sixty years. This year, 2012, hisperformance in the film Beginners won him theAcademy Award, the Golden Globe, Screen ActorsGuild and Spirit awards, plus the BAFTA award(Britain’s Oscar). In 2010 he received an Oscarnomination for his Tolstoy in The Last Station.Mr. Plummer began in radio and stage bilinguallyin his native Montreal. There at eighteen, asPosthumus in Cymbeline, he was directed bythe great theatre guru Fyodor Komisarjevsky. Henext moved to New York and live television. MissEva Le Gallienne gave him his Broadway debutin The Starcross Story, 1954. But it was KatharineCornell, the last of the actress/managers, who,with her husband Guthrie McClintic, nurtured hisearly career on Broadway and at the 1955 ParisInternational Festival, where he played Jason toDame Judith Anderson’s Medea. On his return hewas Warwick opposite Julie Harris’s memorable St.Joan in The Lark and co-starred with his Canadianfriend Raymond Massey in Elia Kazan’s presentationof J.B. Over the years he has starred on Broadwayin many a prestigious production, two of whichemanated from Stratford – his King Lear and hisBarrymore.Plummer also became a leading player at theRoyal Shakespeare Company run by Sir Peter Hall,the Royal National Theatre under Sir LaurenceOlivier, and Canada’s Stratford Festival under SirTyrone Guthrie and Michael Langham. As Henry V inLangham’s memorable bi-national 1956 version, hewas the first young Canadian to head the companyhere and at the Edinburgh Festival. Altogether, hehas portrayed most of the grand war-horses of theclassic repertoire.Since Sidney Lumet introduced him to the screenin Stage Struck (1958), he has been a veteran ofwell over a hundred motion pictures ranging fromthe Oscar-winning The Sound of Music and ABeautiful Mind to The Man Who Would be Kingand The Insider; from Battle of Britain and Waterlooto The Inside Man and The Girl with the DragonTattoo. His television career has been just as prolific,highlighted by the Emmy-winning Hamlet at Elsinore,Cyrano, The Thorn Birds and one-man shows onNabokov and Steven Leacock, among many.His other awards include London’s EveningDirector des mcanuff (left) and christopher plummer.Standard, two Tonys/seven nominations; twoEmmys/six nominations; three Drama Desk Awards;the Genie/four nominations; the Edwin BoothAward; the Will Shakespeare Award; the GielgudQuill Award; and the Jason Robards Prize. In 1968he was made Companion of the Order of Canada.He received the Governor General’s LifetimeAchievement in 2000; The Theatre’s Hall of Famein 1986; plus Canada’s Walk of Fame. He holdshonorary doctorates at Juilliard in New York and atsix major Canadian universities.His daughter, Tony and Emmy award-winningactress Amanda Plummer, continues to make himas proud as ever, and his autobiography In Spiteof Myself is still enjoying success with critics andpublic alike.3