Going Straight
From Seven Arts (Dec 1964)
by John Peter
Look up Maggie Smith in Who's Who and you will find a list of parts that would seem to define her firmly as a comedienne of an unmistably English stamp, playing mostly, elegant roles in formal comedies of wit, polish and oblique understatement. Look up her parts in the current repertory of the National Theatre and you will see her making remarkable excursions into Ibsen and Shakespearean tragedy. A welcome contrast: for an actress of her very special gifts can all too easily become identified with a particular type of role and recognized as a kind of permanent theatrical figure.
But acting is, after all, the art of perenially transforming yourself into what you are not and no one is more aware of this than Maggie Smith. She has, she says, always been terrified of acquiring a permanent image. Her first part was Viola in Twelfth Night in an OUDS production in Oxford, where she was born. She was then 18 and afterwards her first professional appearances were mostly in revues. She soon came to feel very strongly the need to break out of this comparatively limited genre. In the same way, she feels enclosed in comedy; and acting in The Master Builder and Othello during the past year has been for her, the fulfillment of a very real inner need.
Her favourite part? There's no such thing. With a wide-ranging ambition, Maggie Smith is interested in playing everything that might come her way. The most stimulating part she has had, she says, was Desdemona in Othello. In this role she has found the greatest satisfaction of her career. 'Every time you open your mouth-she says-is a challenge.' The words are thoroughly characteristic of the speaker. For Maggie Smith is a hard-working, energetic actress deeply delighted by her work and constantly in search of new things. This is why she finds repertory work in the National Theatre so satisfying and fulfilling.
She had three nine-month runs in the West End, in The Rehearsal, The Private Ear and the Public Eye and Mary, Mary which won her fame, praise and awards; yet she cannot help having some regrets over the time she spent on them. 'One's span of life in the theatre -she says - is limited; and there were three years gone by in as many plays.' She finds working in the National Theatre more varied and much more satisfying. Not only are there more parts to play; there is also a gradually developing company-spirit, a sense of knowing intimately other actors' work and style. In West End productions, with new personal barriers to break down each time, this kind of continuity and sense of integration was all too often missing.
And other people in the theatre are most important to Maggie Smith. Anyone who has seen her on stage must have noticed that she is no detached soloist who plays her own melody irrespective of the orchestra's score: indeed, one of the most remarkable things about her acting is the way she reacts, the way her face and the inflexions of her voice reflects the things that are said and done to her.
All this does not imply any lack of independence. Her approach to a part is personal; she makes her own assessments and interpretations; and she cannot remember any disagreements with director except over minor details. Again, she learns with relish; she finds it 'such a marvellous thing to work with Edith and Noel on Hay Fever; they just know everything there's to know about comedy.' Television? The response was unenthusiastic. She finds the technical complexities of television work tiresome. When 'it takes simply hours to crawl from one end of the studio to the other', there is little interest or energy left for the acting.
The last, searching question of every reporter, 'What are your plans? What else would you like to play?' produces no fireworks. The answer, utterly naturally, is: everything, anything. And it is one of the best things about a company like the National Theatre that it can offer a wider scope to an actress of boundless energy and glowing talents, but whose early achievements could make her forever typecast.
Our theatre is not plentifully blessed with convincing young heroines of range and stature. English actresses find more natural affinities with comedy which has less passion and more poise. Few have crossed the line successfully. Are we perhaps about to see someone do it at Waterloo Road? Such is her success there anyway it looks as though she will be able to keep going straight just as long as she wants.