John Neville, actor and director, born 2 May 1925; died 19 November 2011

[Guest]

A fine actor who did not deserve the traditional Mandy treatment

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/nov/21/john-neville

[french frank]

I still have a lingering memory of seeing him as Richard II in the days when Bristol Hippodrome (not the Bristol Old Vic where he was in rep a bit earlier) still had legitimate theatre and the Old Vic toured, I think. Gaunt and fair with a beautiful speaking voice, that is still my ideal of Richard.

[Mandryka]

Still remembered for his pioneering work as director of the (then new) Nottingham Playhouse and for sharing the roles of Othello and Iago with his shorter-lived contemporary, Richard Burton.

[Stillhomewardbound]

Mandryka ... I was rushing to make the very same allusion. In a more enlightened time there was a move to revive regional theatre and retrieve it from the slough of despond of the failing repertory companies. The Nottingham Playhouse was easily one of the most successful products of this move.

Neville created a most remarkable theatre company that dominated regional theatre in a spectacular way. It was specifically a directors/actors collegiate however he had a run-in with the founding fathers of the council, or more accurately, they had a run-in with him. (The saga is accurately detailed on Wiki). Anyway, after his first season, Stuart Burge took up the reigns and carried on exactly as Neville had intended.

My pa, the late departed TP, was an early recruit of Burge and he stepped into a production house, as established by Neville, that was everything an actor could wish for. His colleagues included Barry Foster, Penelope Wilton and Barrie Rutter, and almost Christopher Plummer (a story for another) while amongst the directors were Jonathan Miller and Richard Eyre.

The productions produced then were The Ruling Class, School for Scandal, The Seagull, King John and Playboy of the Western World and the audiences turned out in their droves. Yes, there was an element of getting West End names in to the provinces, but the actual magnet proved to be very strong productions which the public lapped up. For TP it was the acme of all that aspired to.

All too sadly, no one speaks anymore of the Nottingham Playhouse, nor indeed the Bristol and Birmingham Hippodromes. Much less of the Leeds and Liverpool Playhouses (and the Everyman too).

God only knows, John Neville laid the foundations which endured until the barbarian Arts Council cuts of the Thatcher era and beyond

[Mandryka]

With the possible exception of the Manchester Royal Exchange, regional repertory theatres seem to exist under sufferance these days. There are many reasons for this, not all of them financial/political, though those are certainly significant factors. Sadly, it seems that popular taste is becoming increasingly conservative - people tend not to turn out for things unless there is a celeb/soap star in the cast; or, bizarrely, if it's something they're already familiar with (which explains the depressing recent trend of turning hit films into plays/musicals).