80 Not Out

Three new octogenarians and their unmatched contributions to the theatrical world

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IN a dream,’ wrote American poet Anne Sexton, ‘you are never eighty’. The reality is different and it so happens that three eminent theatrical figures are all 80 this year. They are the actor Sir Ian McKellen and the director-playwrights Sir Alan Ayckbourn and Peter Gill.

These are very different people with rich and diverse careers, but they have, apart from their age, one thing in common: a lifelong devotion to theatre that, I suspect, few of their juniors will ever match.

The paradox of Sir Ian is that his global fame rests largely on his performance as Gandalf in the films of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but I would argue that few people are more dedicated to theatre and especially to the idea of its regional vitality.

Sir Ian learned his craft as an actor in rep theatres in Coventry and Ipswich; I first spotted him at Nottingham Playhouse in 1963, when he was a sensational Aufidius to John Neville’s Coriolanus. I’ve never forgotten his howl of pain over the dead body of his military rival.

Over the years, Sir Ian has constantly repaid his debt to the regions. In 1978 , he directed a nationwide RSC tour of Twelfth Night and Three Sisters and did a season at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, where he played Prospero and Noël Coward’s vain actor-manager, Garry Essendine, in Present Laughter.

Actually, I can’t imagine anyone less like Coward’s metropolitan narcissist than Sir Ian. The conclusive proof came from his decision to tour his one-man show to 80 theatres across the UK in his birthday year. Although it’s about to do a season at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre, its prime purpose has been to raise funds for appropriate charities at each of the venues to which it has toured.