Celebrities Who Performed At The Kenton Part 2 - Michael Macliammoir | Henley Operatic Society - HAODS - Drama at its very best | His, Irish, Mac, Have, Theatre - Henley Operatic Society - HAODS

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Henley Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society

Affiliated to the National Operatic & Dramatic Association. Registered Charity 259404.

President: Simon Williams.

simon williams our President HAODS was formed in 1922 and each year usually puts on two musicals and a play at Henley's Kenton Theatre and, every other year at an open-air venue. Our major shows are the musicals, usually one around April and again in November. Productions of plays varies, but we always have an entry into the Kenton Drama Festival.

We are fortunate to own the well-equipped Green Room, behind the Kenton, which is where we hold our rehearsals and social events; our extensive wardrobe is also stored there, in a recently built extension. Rehearsals usually take place three nights a week for large productions, which increase to Sunday rehearsals closer to the production date. Readings and our auditions are generally open to all. If you are a non-member and are fortunate enough to be cast in a show, you will be required to join as a performing member.

The Kenton Theatre is a Regency gem, opened in 1805, set in the heart of Henley-on-Thames. The fourth oldest working theatre in the country, the Kenton’s two hundred and thirty four seat auditorium has a warm, friendly and cosy intimacy that makes it a perfect performance space for both HAODS's large scale musicals and intimate plays. Kate Winslet and the West End's Oliver, Harry Stott are just two of the many stars who trod the Kenton stage at an early age, Harry having appeared in our production of Singin' in the Rain in 2004.

New members are always welcome – whether as budding actors, or to help backstage with set building, costumes or props – or maybe just as a supporter to enjoy the social functions. Drop into one of our Coffee Mornings, Club Room Lunches or come and see a production. You will have the warmest of welcomes and the best of times if you stay! Click here to Join Us.

Vice Presidents
Mr M Chalcroft His Worship the Mayor of Henley Mr J Luker
Mr R Hardy CBE His Worship the Mayor of Falaise Mr J A R Yeates
Mr Simon Langton Mr J Yeates Mrs A Luker

Life Members
Nansi Diamond Mary Reece

NODA Long Service Awards
1977 Mrs V Barter 1983 Mr JAR & Mrs J Yeates
1976 Mr J & Mrs A Luker 1990 Mrs J Taylor

Click here to view a list of all the Henley Operatic shows from 1922 to today

Celebrities Who Performed At The Kenton Part 2 - Michael Macliammoir

Written by Bill Port

Michael MacLiammoir (1899-1978) – Actor, Designer, Playwright, Wit and
Raconteur

Despite his Gaelic name and his insistence that he was born in Cork,
Michael MacLiammoir was an Englishman.

He was born Alfred Lee Willmore in Willesden, London on October 25th 1899. As a child he became a member of Beerbohm Tree’s company and appeared in Peter Pan with Noel Coward. Despite all his efforts, Willmore seems to have lost out to Coward for all the best parts and he decided to become an artist and studied at the Slade School, London then at the Willesden Polytechnic School of Art. He later returned to the stage and, while touring with the Anew McMaster Company, he met Hilton Edwards, the man who was to become his life-long partner.

After a visit to Ireland in 1916, Willmore had become fascinated by the Irish language and set out to learn it. He was later to become fluent in several European languages and was able to converse with wit and fluency in all of them. He became a fanatical idolator of Yeats. When he was given the chance in 1927 to join the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, he re-invented himself as Micheal MacLiammoir and sought every opportunity to put into practice his own ideas of Yeat’s plays and of the theatre itself. He was accompanied by Hilton Edwards and, together, they founded the Dublin Gate Theatre Studio whose productions were staged at the Peacock Theatre, an annex of the Abbey.

“The Boys”, as MacLiammoir and Edwards were called, were
fantastic characters and delighted in flamboyant behaviour, stirring up
reaction in the straight-laced Dubliners. Still “The Gate” flourished,
concentrating on the works of contemporary European and American
dramatists but also encouraging new Irish playwrights.

“The real business of The Gate”, said MacLiammoir, “is with methods of
acting, production and design – to create a vision of certain phases of
national life other than that of the cottage or the tenement.”

Not an easy objective in an Ireland still recovering from a disastrous
civil war.

The success of the Gate can be measured in the number of prominent Irish
playwrights whose plays have become classics. Names like Brendan Behan,
Brian Friel, Tom Murphy and Hugh Leonard spring to mind.

MacLiammoir later became famous for his one-man shows which he toured
all over the world. The most famous of these was The Importance of Being
Oscar based on the life of Oscar Wilde and it was this which he
performed at the Kenton from 15th to the 17th June 1967 not long after
the theatre was re-opened.

He died on June 3rd 1978.

“We actors are born at the rise of a curtain and we die with its fall,
and every night in the presence of our patrons, we write our new
creation and every night it is blotted out forever. What use is it then
to say to our critics ‘Oh, but you should have seen me last Tuesday”

Bill Port

More information regarding this famous celebrity can be found here at Wikipaedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miche%C3%A1l_Mac_Liamm%C3%B3ir

Here is an extract from that source which helps round off Bill Port's account of this famous man's involvement at the Kenton.

"As Alfred Willmore he was one of the leading child actors on the English stage, in the company of Noel Coward. He studied painting at London's Slade School of Art, continuing to paint throughout his lifetime. In the 1920s he travelled all over Europe. Willmore was captivated by Irish culture: he learnt Irish which he spoke and wrote fluently in and changed his name to an Irish version, presenting himself in Ireland as a descendant of Irish Catholics. While acting in Ireland with the touring company of his brother-in-law Anew MacMaster, Mac Liammóir met his partner and lover, Hilton Edwards. Their first meeting taking place in the Athaeum, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, which is currently in a state of disrepair. Deciding to remain in Dublin where he lived at Harcourt Terrace, the pair assisted with the inaugural production of Galway's Irish-language theatre, An Taibhdhearc; the play was MacLíammóir's version of the mythical story Diarmuid agus Gráinne. Mac Liammóir and Edwards then threw themselves into their own venture, co-founding the Gate Theatre in Dublin in 1928. The Gate became a showcase for modern plays and design (even as Mac Liammoir himself maintained an ongoing fascination with Celticism). Mac Liammóir's set and costume designs were key elements of the Gate's success. His many notable acting roles included Robert Emmet/The Speaker in Denis Johnston's The Old Lady Says "No!" and the title role in Hamlet. In 1948, he appeared in the NBC television production of Great Catherine with Gertrude Lawrence. In 1951, during a break in the making of Othello, MacLíammóir produced Orson Welles's ghost-story Return to Glennascaul which was directed by Hilton Edwards.

He played Iago in Welles's film version of Othello (1952). His Iago is unusual in that MacLíammóir was about fifty (and looked older) when he played the role, while the play gives Iago's age as 28. This may have been because of Welles' intended interpretation - he wanted Iago played as an older "impotent" consumed by envy for the younger Othello.[1] The following year, he went on to play 'Poor Tom' in another Welles project, the TV film of King Lear (1953) for CBS. Mac Líammóir wrote and performed a one-man show, The Importance of Being Oscar, based on the life and work of Oscar Wilde. The Telefís Éireann production won him a Jacob's Award in December 1964. It was later filmed by the BBC with Mac Líammóir reprising the role. He narrated the 1963 film Tom Jones and was the Irish storyteller in 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968) which starred Dudley Moore. In 1969 he had a supporting role in John Huston's The Kremlin Letter. In 1970 MacLíammóir performed the role of narrator on the cult album Peace On Earth by the Northern Irish showband The Freshmen and in 1971 he played an elocution teacher in Curtis Harrington's What's the Matter with Helen?. Mac Liammóir claimed when talking to Irish playwright, Mary Manning, to have had a homosexual relationship with General Eoin O'Duffy, former Garda Siochana Commissioner and head of the quasi-fascist Blueshirts in Ireland, during the 1930s. The claim was revealed publicly by RTÉ in a documentary, The Odd Couple, broadcast in 1999. However, Mac Liammóir's claims have not been substantiated. Mac Liammóir is the subject of the 1990 play The Importance of Being Micheál (also published as a book) by John Keyes.

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