Wednesday, September 29, 1999
Shakespearean actor portrays reluctant legend
BY JACKIE DEMALINE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
He was a legendary Hamlet and he was a legendary lush. John Barrymore, the Great Profile, was the epitome of romantic dreams on-screen and a nightmare of a husband when the cameras stopped rolling.
His life is the subject of Barrymore, an almost-one-man show (there's an offstage “prompter”) by playwright William Luce, an ace at one-person shows including The Belle of Amherst.
Playhouse veteran Philip Pleasants (The Woman in Black, Someone to Watch Over Me) plays the star in the twilight of his life.
Barrymore is in his dressing room, supposedly running lines for Richard III and what he hopes will be a triumphant return to the stage. But he can't concentrate.
Too many years as an alcoholic rob him of memory so he wanders off into naughty limericks and wicked reminiscences.
He'll be dead in a month, done in by drink.
Barrymore is all about life in the theater and, specifically, one particular life in theater.
It turns out that John Barrymore was a reluctant scion to the family business. Both he and brother Lionel had intended to be (visual) artists, not stars.
If Barrymore didn't think much of a life in the theater, it's just one more thing that he doesn't have in common with the man playing him. Philip Pleasants has spent more than 40 years of his life onstage (“I started very young,” he says dryly) and he's loved every minute of it.
“Bringing a character to life onstage,” he says, “by some miracle and alchemy to become that character for that audience in that time” is as good as it gets.
He won't be imitating John Barrymore, says Mr. Pleasants, but “bringing my insights to his complexities.” Among those insights: “I suppose one would call him a cad.”
These days Mr. Pleasants' constant companion is the Barrymore biography Damned in Paradise, which he refers to regularly. “A lot of the lines (in the play) were lifted directly” from the book.
If John Barrymore came to the stage by following in the family footsteps, Mr. Pleasants may have come by way of bedtime stories. His mother used Shakespearean plots “cozy and sanitized, of course” to help him into sleep.
As he grew older they read scenes together. When he reached high school, the drama teacher spotted him. She just happened to run a summer stock company and while he was a “lousy” student, thanks to mom he sure could read lines. He was still in high school when he had his first professional employment as an actor.
While he's played a variety of roles (including working his way up from major domo to Salieri in Amadeus) Mr. Pleasants remains a Shakespearean at heart.
He's been a resident actor with Alabama Shakespeare Festival (in Montgomery) for 20 years and spends about eight months a year there. A highlight for him was playing Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.
He'll be rushing back as soon as the Barrymore run ends to join rehearsals already in progress for another favorite (and ongoing) role. He's the festival's Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.
IF YOU GO
• What: Barrymore
• When: 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 24
• Where: Playhouse in the Park Shelterhouse, Eden Park
• Tickets: Tonight's preview $24.50; $31.50-39.50 Sept. 30-Oct. 24. Any unreserved tickets are half-price day of show. Purchase between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the Playhouse box office or PNC Bank Tower Tix booth. 421-3888.
Children's center will be named for Sabin
Children's consolidates services to treat related disorders
Cabbies try to dodge danger
Police seek 3 who fled after cabbie's killing
Web site spreads blessings for pets
Christian school in city 'a natural'
City cash could save hotel for the poor
Growth gets blame for dwindling aquifer
I-71/75 bids to reopen
Thirsty Tristate gets rain
Anti-lice ammo
How to eradicate head lice at home
Don't make yourself sick
Woman advocates use of natural hormones
GET TO IT
Miss these premieres, you don't miss much
Shakespearean actor portrays reluctant legend
Bauer denies infidelity rumor
Boone orders more studies on sewer plant
Condo owners sued over family-size cap
County to let administrator OK small deals
Covington vying for Weed and Seed cash
Dayton picks police chief
Doctors: Ex-guard insane
Girl recants; conviction quashed
Housing authority taps new director
MainStrasse businesses want new rehab program
Nurse sentenced for taking patient's morphine
TRISTATE DIGEST
Youngsters get a sample of how politics works
