1993
Patrick Caulfield—Richard Wilson—Lake District—Radio Sussex—Berlin—Riverside Studios—Mesmer—Peter Sellars’s The Persians, Salzburg—Neil Kinnock—Vienna—Steve Reich—Sleepless in Seattle—Vienna—Mesmer—Berlin—Hungary—Paris—Arts rally—Felix Awards—Caribbean
13 JUNE
Quiet pleasure of preparing food for friends.
1pm Michael G., Christopher and Laura Hampton, Danny & Leila [Bertrand] Webb, Jane and Mark and Rima and Lily.
The sun emerged and we spilled into the garden.
20 JUNE
Patrick Caulfield [English painter] who says he hates painting but it’s how he earns a living. ‘The horror of walking into this small room. Important to do something. Doesn’t matter what. Just something.’
21 JUNE
Arrive home, switch on BBC2—Pina Bausch.1 The Real Thing. (After reading another article in The Face about Hot Young Things.) She has such a graceful determined truthfulness. And Robert Lepage2 pays homage. Of course.
23 JUNE
12ish Midland Bank to talk of possible house purchase.
1ish David Coppard [A.R.’s accountant]—movies, taxes, arrangements, expenses. How does he retain his charm?
4ish Belinda Lang & [her husband] Hugh Fraser—Lily’s birthday. But she’s sick. Apparently I upset Elaine Paige on Election Day. My casual cruelty again.
24 JUNE
Finish Christopher Hampton’s Nostromo script. How do you cram that book into a movie? Maybe he has … I don’t know.
A morning on the phone—How few real conversations there are. Mainly a desire to present a moving target.
12 Gym. I’m not sure about all this.
4 Take Mum to Goldsborough Apartments. She’s a brave soul. Feel myself persuading her. It’s probably not the real answer.
25 JUNE
→ The gym.
This is hard work.
pm Talk to Christopher of Nostromo, Sunset Blvd—Andrew Lloyd Webber in tears some days ago. ‘I’ll postpone 6 months and bring in Hal Prince.’ Trevor Nunn says I need 30 secs of dialogue in this scene. ‘What about?’ ‘I don’t mind.’
26 JUNE
6pm Coliseum. Macbeth … A strange mixture of Argentinian Fascism & Dr Finlay’s Casebook.
Peter Jonas,3 David Pountney [opera director] & Mark Elder [conductor] all saying au revoir [to English National Opera]. A world I know little about, sitting among fanatical applauding Tories. Jonas made speech about the Arts & NHS. I wanted to cheer. The audience went a bit quiet. The quiet of dissent.
28 JUNE
A race against time. Reading scripts before lunch w. Belinda and Hugh—traumatised because their nanny has given notice, but typically, Belinda puts a delicious lunch on the table, immaculately, on time, being told at 11.30ish it’s 12.30 lunch not 1pm. She’s been ill and in the studio and looks $1m.
10.30 Sleepless in Seattle—Halfway through I think ‘I was in this movie.’4
1 JULY
Dinner with Richard Wilson—wonderful food at L’Accento—Something’s certain.
Carol Todd calls … Delicate stages on Riverside.
Roger5 calls. He’s, shall we say, not hopeful.
2 JULY
3.40am Awake trying to locate one worthwhile, nameable emotion that deserves this sleeplessness. The dream was of walking down one’s own corridor at night, in the dark, trying to work out the geography only with my hands—finding doors that should have been locked, not.
(NB Hand this to the nearest amateur psychiatrist.)
4 JULY
am Driving through the Lake District to Ruskin’s house.
5ish—Ferry back across the lake.
6.58 to Euston.
Really good to see Roger & Charlotte Glossop6 again and now their wonderful, loving children.
They had a real, simple, generous, open attitude to work and life. Not a single deception or selfishness. They’ve built their dream and are living it. And giving it to others. Such an antidote to the shenanigans of this week.
5 JULY
12 Juliet Stevenson arrives—a flurry of lost keys, inability to get men on the phone etc.—in other words, as ever, late.
But it’s fun to work through the show with two bright lights like these.
Juliet has, of course, been clamped.
6 JULY
3.30 Interview for Radio Sussex—this is why I don’t want to do them any more. A man who talks of ‘paddies’ and thinks one-person shows are the salvation of British theatre.
8 JULY
3.30 Flight to Berlin.
Lance [W. Reynolds, producer] on the flight, Wieland [Schulz-Keil, producer] drives me to the hotel and then to the restaurant—I can’t let go with them; I’m pulling on the reins all the time until they sign.
9 JULY
Fittings with Birgit [Hutter, costume designer]—instantly an angel full of the right ideas. Wigs & makeup need to be shown.
5.05 Flight to London.
7ish—script to Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Pat O’Connor7 wants to party; but for some strange reason they’re off to Ireland for a week (they only just got here).
14 JULY
It seems sometimes to be in the stars that some days are peaceful and some are manic.
9am David comes to deliver a bookcase and mend a cupboard, Steve comes to fix the stereo, Janet comes to clean, Ruby [Wax] to show some outtakes and the phone rings and rings and rings.
If it isn’t the Riverside lunch; it’s not a Riverside lunch it’s a dinner; did I read the Rudkin script?8 Can we go to Stroud? Who can come, who can’t?
8pm Supper with Louise Krakower [film director].
9.50 Groundhog Day.
Nearly. Not quite Capra. But a relief.
15 JULY
A day which led to Riverside shenanigans. And a 7pm dash with the proposal. Jane [Hackworth-Young] screwed up or screwed us in a big way. What’s underneath this? If it turns out to be Jules Wright I shall screw her to every sticking place I can find.9
16 JULY
As for Riverside we wait and see. Ditto Mesmer.
I think Deborah Warner10 has the right idea. Only do what you want to, make yourself a unique entity—then you get invited to Salzburg & Bruno Ganz. 200 extras and five horses to do Coriolanus.
18 JULY
Home to phone message saying Jules Wright has been given Riverside and then a call from Roger Spottiswoode telling me the latest Mesmer horror stories. Is this a big test? What sense can one make of the Riverside situation? I am writing this not angry (yet—that will arrive in a big way if we discover anything untoward) just numb from the endless pursuit and advancement of the mediocre in this country.
19 JULY
Most of today picking up the telephone receiver.
Mesmer seems to be breathing again. A cheque has been sent—was it signed? Misspelt? Something must delay it, surely.
Jules Wright has Riverside, no she doesn’t, yes she does, were we read? Maybe not. Is [Jane] H.-Y. a traitor or innocent stroke power-mad? At all events it’s not coming to us although we don’t know if there’s any money to run the place.
20 JULY
Maybe today a corner was turned and for that I guess I’m grateful in the middle of all this shite.
Malcolm & Sweet Pea [assistants to Thelma Holt] were so practical and focused—it was very moving—they’d laugh if I said so to their faces.
Somehow we got through it all—all those letters without mentioning Jules Wright by name—as yet. Then Thelma returned and the room is filled with humanity and good humour.
Returning home I discover that J.W.’s proposal is all of 4 pages. ‘Put-up job’ says Rima without a pause. Her certainty is often hilarious.
10.30ish—Billboard Cafe. Juliet [Stevenson], Mary McGowan, Lindsay Duncan & [her husband] Hilton McRae. Acquainting them of the day’s facts creates focus, strength & purpose. We’ll see, we’ll see, we’ll see.
Somewhere in here Mesmer careers crazily on. Faxes, phone calls, entreaties, promises, demands. Questions. Somehow no answers. Plus I’m offered £50,000 a week to do Slice of Sat Night11 in West End. MAD MAD MAD.
Copyright © 2022 by the Estate of Alan Rickman
