Serena in Limehouse and Johnny in Kilburn
In between shows, it’s been a “bumping into” and “catching up with” sort of week for me, with many charming encounters and one serious session with my old friend Petroc Trelawny, the smooth, uncombative classical music presenter on Radio 3.
Over both snooker and lunch tables in his preferred Savile Club bolthole, Petroc continues to give me the impression that he might well succeed Roger Wright as head honcho of the station one day. We are both aboard the Lenten wagon but I fear for his resolve as he has a highly social few days planned soon in Dublin.
He was keen to hear of my dash to Limehouse to try and persuade Sir Ian McKellen (happy to be known as both “Serena” and “Damian” these days) to attend our Whatsonstage awards concert on Sunday; but the triumphant King Lear award-winner is bound for Venice with some of his pals in the cast for a weekend jolly.
Still, it was hard to avoid him this week at either the Kneehigh opening of Brief Encounter or the first night of Ring Round the Moon at the Playhouse. He says he’s slowing down a little and is happy to work for just six months of the year now. But he can’t keep himself away from others’ first nights. “It’s why I became an actor.” He says. “I just love going to the theatre.”
He points out to me on his terrace overlooking the Thames an expressive hand of Oscar Wilde holding a cigarette on a plinth. It is one of several hacked (the hand is always being replaced) from the Maggie Hambling sculpture behind Charing Cross.
Who are these vandals? “Not even homophobes..” sighs Sir Ian, counting the ways in which society is going to the dogs…”but members of the anti-smoking lobby.”
John Rogan, the marvellous Irish actor who suffered a paralyzing fall nearly three years ago and is now confined to a wheelchair, loves going to the theatre almost as much as Ian.
Do you see any less of him around town as a result of his accident? Do you hell. John, who is rehearsing in Kilburn for a new play at the Soho Theatre, has been spotted at both recent big opera house openings and the Old Vic Spacey/Goldblum double act.
When I catch up with him at the Tricyle for lunch, he echoes the sentiments of his friend Simon Russell Beale in today’s Independent: “I feel very deeply,” says Russell Beale, “that the most exciting thing you can do is watch real live people on stage. I still get a thrill from going to the theatre. And that applies on the other side of the footlights for me. I just love being there.”
If you think you’ve got a few problems, just thank your lucky stars when contemplating what happened to John. He simply blacked out near the top of an escalator on the Tube, fell to the bottom and broke his neck.
He spent three months in the Middlesex Hospital and nine months in Stoke Mandeville. Giving three hearty cheers for the National Health Service, he says all the anger and bitterness has drained away and he’s getting on with work and pleasure, with the help of his friends and the overwhelming generosity of his fellow actors.
That’s what you call courage. And if ever you need a definition of the medical properties of Doctor Theatre, look no further than John Rogan. He makes you feel glad, and fortunate, to be alive.