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PUBLISHED BY INDEPENPRESS (2011)
SLIM CHANCES and unscheduled appearances
by Edward Petherbridge
With a Foreword by Ian McKellen
In this fascinating collection of essays, he tells the story of his life in the theatre (low ebbs included), from his first acting lesson, watching Norman Evans in Humpty Dumpty at the Bradford Alhambra, and his early years in ‘tatty’ rep, through his frustrations and triumphs at the Old Vic under the leadership of Laurence Olivier, to his role in the formation of the democratic Actors’ Company and his membership of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Along the way he recounts several ‘unscheduled’ appearances, in Peter Brook’s Oedipus, for instance, and in Wormwood Scrubs as a young conscientious objector.
Part memoir and part master class, this unique anthology of prose and poetry, lavishly illustrated throughout by Petherbridge’s own artwork and many rare photographs, is a wonderfully entertaining, incisive and often moving exposition of the very heart of the mystery of acting.
Those who haven’t met Petherbridge or seen his work will sense, in his words here, what they are missing.
Ian McKellen
Edward Petherbridge has produced a charming and insightful narrative, full of humour, theatrical lore and honesty. A must for anyone interested in 20th-century theatre.
A. L. Kennedy
The book is a complete joy - a compelling portrait of theatre in our time and a wonderful self-portrait and a powerful master class in theatre and a glorious collection of anecdotes. Human, humane, revealing, inspiring.
Gyles Brandreth
I’ve become addicted to reading several pages a day … the anecdotes are so hilarious and treasurable … and the passages on the National under Olivier are priceless.
This limited-edition five-hour compilation features a glorious selection of prose and verse from Petherbridge’s book, Slim Chances and Unscheduled Appearances (published 2011), as well as new, never-before-published material. It includes snatches of the original music from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (NT, 1967) and Nicholas Nickleby (RSC, 1980), and Petherbridge singing a number from the Broadway musical Coco and two songs by Noël Coward, with Jason Carr at the piano. The final CD brings us right up to date as Petherbridge prepares to play King Lear in an imaginative two-man exploration with Paul Hunter, My Perfect Mind, which opens early in 2013.
