Year: 2001
Title of the play: Defending Jeffrey
Author: Edward Petherbridge
Director: Edward Petherbridge
Others in the Cast: None
Company/Event:
Theatre and location: West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
Other productions of the same play:
Plot summary:
Peth’s role: Himself
Reviews:
The time on stage with Archer was obviously a difficult
and unsettling period for Petherbridge. This was new to
an old hand who last appeared in Single Spies and he has
put it to good use with a tremendous show at the same
venue. At times, certainly near the beginning,
Defending Jeffrey was a little hard to follow. But
without any shadow of doubt it is a truly cultured and
classy production. Lord Archer once said while they
worked together that Petherbridge should be knighted.
And if Archer penned a book half as good as
Petherbridge’s play he really would be a noble lord. - Yorkshire Post, March 2001
Petherbridge uses his appearance as Sir James Barrington QC in the Jeffrey Archer play The Accused as a springboard. He explains at the beginning of the play that Archer, a "self confessed amateur" asked for tips and advice about the acting profession. Lord Archer's request obviously sowed several seeds in the stage veteran's active mind, resulting in a crash course in acting. Except that Petherbridge is fully aware that acting is not the sole domain of Equity card holders. - Dave Windass, What's on Stage
What it (Defending Jeffrey) does offer is an intriguing mix of mock-trial (Petherbridge up on the charge of appearing in The Accused), reminiscence, and a lecture-demo of some "Crash Tips for Jeffrey" on the art of performance. Though in need of more development and less fluttery delivery, the piece justifies its strange existence, moving in clever lateral lunges as it muses on the paradox of the law and the theatre, two professions supposedly dedicated to "getting at the truth", but all too inclined to degenerate into a game played by hirelings. - Paul Taylor, The Independent, 6 April 2001
Extract
from an interview in The Independent - Did he like Archer? Petherbridge again
doesn't answer directly, but says dryly: "If one put everyone through a
screening process for their morals or personality, one would be working with
very many fewer people, I can assure you. My biggest qualm was working with
someone who was an amateur. Of course an awful lot of actors with Equity cards
can't act, anyway. God I'm burning so many boats now." He dissolves into
giggles like a naughty schoolboy. - Veronica Lee, The Independent, 1 April 2001
After this strange exercise in watching paint dry, he re-emerges
dressed as Pierrot and, in a pool of ravishing blue light, gives a
heart-meltingly beautiful account of the prison soliloquy from Richard
II, mixed with some oblique, Oedipal stuff about never being able to
communicate properly with his father. - The Guardian
Production details:
Related links:
Interview with Peth in Bradford
Nearly half a century ago Edward Petherbridge won a scholarship worth
two guineas to study drama at the Bradford Civic's Green Room. It was his springboard to a long and distinguished career on stage and screen. Today
the National Theatre actor is back at the theatre, now called the
Priestley Centre, to tread the boards for a Bradford audience once
again. "I'm coming back to repay that two guineas," he smiled. ...
Edward will perform his one-man play Defending Jeffrey..? which is
loosely based on disgraced MP Jeffrey Archer's trial, at the Priestley
on Friday, November 23. The play, aimed at raising funds for the
Priestley - which is trying to secure its long-term future - will be
filmed by the British Theatre Museum. - Telegraph & Argus 14 Nov 2001.
Gallery:
