|
|
 1988 Salisbury Festival; 1989 Edinburgh Festival 2.x.88, Playhouse Theatre, London one man show devised by Gerard Hastings and Alan Bates designed and directed by Gerard Hastings
GERARD HASTINGS was born in the northeast in 1960 and gained an M.A. in Art History and Painting from the University of Aberystwyth in 1983. In 1985, Gerard was awarded a foundation scholarship to paint in the USA by the playwright Edward Albee; his other prizes for painting include the Frances Williams and Sir Ken Bowen Thomas prizes for Fine Art and the MacFarlane Walker Bursary. He has exhibited widely with many one-man exhibitions in London, Paris and New York. Gerard Hastings has lectured at the University College of Wales and the Tate Gallery and is currently lecturing in Renaissance Art History in London. SUNDAYS AT THE PLAYHOUSE was organised to raise funds for Crusaid's Haven Project, which provides special care for people with Aids. All proceeds were given to the Haven Project. Other performers in the series included Ian McKellen, Ned Sherrin, Elisabeth Welch, Derek Jacobi & Isla Blair, Prunella Scales, Ian Partridge and Richard Burnett. Bates subsequently did a second one-man show, AN ENORMOUS YES, for Sundays at the Playhouse on 18.xii.89, in a series which also featured Michael Feinstein, Brian Cox, the Medici Quartet, Judi Dench and Michael Williams.  |
THIS YEAR as always,
drama took all kinds of shapes at the Edinburgh International
Festival, which ended its three-week run Sunday. ...And there
were one-man productions by actors unknown or well-known: "A
Muse of Fire," a compilation of excerpts -- some read, some
performed, all in some way connected with fire -- was one of
the outstanding examples of the genre, with Alan Bates as its
sole star.
"A Muse of Fire" was lapped up
by its audience. What a marvellous theme for a one-person entertainment!
Alan Bates clearly enjoyed having the stage to himself. He encompassed
a considerable range of material from John Donne's poem "Busy
old fool, unruly sun" to moving contemporary reports of
the self-immolation of Jan Palach in Czechoslovakia.
HAVING been invited individually
to contribute something to the 1988 Salisbury Festival, the theme
of which was Fire, the actor Alan Bates and painter Gerard Hastings
decided to collaborate on a project, the result of which was
A MUSE OF FIRE. It was originally conceived for Salisbury Cathedral
and tonight's performance [Sunday, 13 .xi. 89] has been specially
adapted for the Playhouse Theatre. ...This unusual collaboration
between an actor and a painter, the visual image and the spoken
word, is united through this theme of fire as seen in drama,
poetry, literary sources, prose, anecdotes, etc.