News of the death of the wonderful comic actress Prunella Scales at the age of 93 has reminded me of a little anecdote in my first book, Beyond the Notes, in the section about touring Japan with the Florestan Trio in 2000. Twenty-five years ago!
For context, I should explain that Prunella Scales, her husband Timothy West and their son, actor Samuel West were friends and supporters of the trio. We followed their careers with interest.
When the trio was performing in Tokyo, we discovered the atmospheric Shomben Yokocho (now more often known as Omoide Yokocho), a tiny area of narrow lanes packed with minuscule restaurants, each seating no more than half a dozen people at a counter, with the cooks working a few feet away. We found a little Taiwanese establishment where we ate delicious fried dumplings, beansprouts with liver and green cabbage, etc, and wondered at the amount everyone was drinking.
A couple of days later, after our concert, Anthony and Richard went back to Shomben Yokocho. Anthony told me about it the next day. As I reported in the book, ‘… the clientele was noticeably rougher, and they had the feeling they were amongst gangsters. Suddenly, one of the gangsters got up to leave, and in the press of people his jacket was pulled backwards off his shoulders, revealing a T-shirt with the words ‘Prunella Scales’ on it.
…I tell Ant I don’t believe his story, and quiz him thoroughly as to whether it is really true. Eventually he says, ‘Well, to be honest, what I actually saw was ‘runella Scales’.’ For some reason this is even more convincing than his first version.’
That’s a very funny and sweet memory, thank you for sharing!
Pleasingly surreal! Timothy West was a wonderfully funny writer, and I treasure his story about how in the 1980s he would speed up slightly during Lear’s final speech so that he could die before the audience’s digital watches all went “Beep!” for eleven o’clock. He concludes: “But you shouldn’t have to worry about this when you’re playing King Lear, should you?”
I don’t know if this tale is in Timothy West’s memoirs, but I remember hearing him describe an occasion when (I think) he was playing Falstaff, and his son Sam was playing Prince Hal. In a rehearsal break, Tim got a chance to look at his son’s script, which had been left lying around. Beside a certain passage, Sam had written something like ‘What is Hal thinking when he meets the old man? Is he reminded of his own father, or is he preparing to repudiate his old companion?’ Intrigued, Tim looked at his own script. Beside this same passage, he had written, ‘Pick up boot’.
He used this as an example of the changing stagecraft of different generations.
Thank you, that’s funny and very interesting. Laurence Olivier filming with Dustin Hoffman and observing his elaborate method acting exercises sighed: “Why doesn’t the dear boy just act?”