# The Honourable Beast



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

I'm reading The Honourable Beast, a so-called "posthumous autobiography" of John Dexter, put together from Dexter's notes, diary and correspondence by his longtime partner, Riggs O'Hara.

Dexter was (among other things) Director of Productions at the Met from 1974 through 1981. I don't know if any of his productions are still in the active repertory, but I will find out. He looms so large both in Volpe's book (Toughest Show on Earth) and in the other one I read recently, Molto Agitato, that I thought it would be interesting. Well, every once in a while (I hate to admit it) I am just a little off. It's AMAZING. I'm having to stop and think every three pages, and let things soak in for a day or two.

Part of it is that he himself said so much and was (at the same time) so inarticulate. For a mature and capable man, for someone with as much success as he had, to still be so insecure and to still be so needy for explanations of one's own life - this is impressive and reassuring. Impressive because of what an open life he lived, taking in everything around him as quickly as it could be absorbed. Reassuring - well, I'm not sure why it's reassuring, but I'm reassured, anyway.

Part of it is that it deals so neatly with the problem of biography, the problem Virginia Woolf spent so much of her mature life working on, the problem her father killed himself on, the problem of representing people believably in print to those who never knew them. Jacob's Room is her first attempt at an answer, an experimental biography of someone who didn't exist, told in fragments and snatches of views from others' perspectives. But this is better. Riggs O'Hara has solved the problem. Dexter's intensity comes through very clearly. The difficulty he had with others, the difficulty others had with him, very clearly. It may not be the man as he was known, but I wouldn't want to be any closer. There is a limit.

Part of it is the view it gives us of a world that may be gone now or changed beyond recognition, the world of professional British theater. When he says: "I'll never forget the first reading of Othello. You can criticise the performance until you're black in the face, but that first reading made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, it was so extraordinary." He was speaking of Olivier, with whom he had a long working relationship. It reminded me of a movie I saw a long time ago, "Looking for Richard" I think it was, directed by Al Pacino, made up of bits and pieces of a Richard III he had been trying to do. Every actor in it had a different idea what film she was in. Some were good, some not so good, but Penelope Allen was from another planet. She didn't have a long scene, but the fury in her few lines crackled like a burning baby. She was there to show people how it was done, and she did. There used to be British actors who could do that. I don't know if there ever were any Americans who could. It's not something you can learn on your own, I don't think. I think there's a technique to it. If it's gone, it's a sad loss.

Well, I'm not done yet - in fact I'm only on page 69, so you can see it's had an impact.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Sounds like an interesting book . Dexter's production of Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites is beoing revived this season at the Met .


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

superhorn said:


> Sounds like an interesting book . Dexter's production of Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites is beoing revived this season at the Met .


And why did we not get this on HD instead of that tired old production of Aida or endless Marcello Giordani?


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> And why did we not get this on HD instead of that tired old production of Aida or endless Marcello Giordani?


Quite so. Although I am rather looking forward to Les Troyens. But we should all be spared the sight of Roberto Alagna looking like a Jersey Shore reject.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

superhorn said:


> Sounds like an interesting book . Dexter's production of Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites is beoing revived this season at the Met .


Wow, is it Dexter's they're doing? He was very proud of that one. Only three performances, unfortunately. I must see it.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

mamascarlatti said:


> And why did we not get this on HD instead of that tired old production of Aida or endless Marcello Giordani?


Yes he is a bit endless, isn't he? :lol:


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