As Dames Judi Dench & Maggie Smith join forces & take to the stage this week in The Breath of Life, Mark Shenton welcomes back their talents & titles & wonders who will follow them into Dame-dom.
Damsels may currently be in distress in the West End right now, with Alan Ayckbourn's comic trilogy playing at the Duchess, but Dames aren't coming singly, either. A bit like the 53 bus, you wait for ages for one to come along, then two arrive at once.
The scene will be the Haymarket, where not one but two massive marquee names are gracing David Hare's premiere of The Breath of Life - a title which could sum up the expected impact of Dames Judi and Maggie (as everyone in the business refers to Dench and Smith) on the West End this autumn.
Open Sesame
Are these ladies really such a big deal? Well, yes. As critic Sheridan Morley has sagely commented, they are "almost alone in their ability to 'open' a show: that is to say, you put either (let alone both) of their names on a poster, and even if there were to be no mention of the play or author or director or the rest of the cast, you can be certain that audiences will start booking for it sight unseen."
And so it has proved yet again. In fact, on this occasion, there was no need even for the poster. Simply the online announcement of their mutual arrival in the West End led to bandwidth overload as people rushed to their computers to book. It's a fact the two ladies - amongst the last vestiges of an old-school West End, where you could become a stage star without the benefit of Hollywood or television fame - will enjoy: that even as they have moved into a world of online booking (and coincidentally collecting some Oscar nominations and wins along the way), their stage homecoming is being so much anticipated.
A Titular League Apart
This year we've seen the flip (and flippant) side of celebrity for its own sake, with American movie stars lining up to get a bit of credibility and validation of their craft by treading the West End boards. But Dench and Smith are in a league apart, and it's not just a question of title, but of titles that have actually been earned.
Dench and Smith both learnt and honed their craft on the stage, and have - despite the wider fame that is now theirs thanks to film and television - constantly returned to it, not so much to repay the debt as to reconfirm their love affairs with live performances. And how audiences do love to have them back.
The theatre is indeed often like a love affair, variously reciprocated, on both sides of the footlights. And while the work is often its own reward, there is a very public form of recognition beyond the roar of the crowd and the smell of the greasepaint. That's in the honour that makes a dame a Dame.
Knighthoods were originally military honours, and conferred responsibility as well as recognition, requiring their recipients (often at great expense and personal inconvenience) to reinforce the Sovereign's armies. Nowadays, however, though recipients remain in the gift of the Sovereign, the duties are less onerous and the recognition is all, as such honours are given to acknowledge significant contributions to national life, whether in the arts and sciences or sports and industry. Recipients nowadays range from scientists to businessmen, school head teachers to sportsmen.
Dames by Other Names
For actors - long thought of as belonging to a raffish, rogueish profession - knighthoods confer not just an honour, but also legitimacy: the fact that the Establishment is finally embracing them. To be knighted is usually, too, a mark of affection as well as an acknowledgement of the respect in which the individual is held. Knighthoods are certainly awarded for good deeds as much as for good work, and it is no coincidence therefore that Britain's best-loved actors are in receipt of one of the greatest civil honours available, beyond being elevated to the House of Lords.
As well as Dench and Smith, other beloved actresses who have carved a large part of their careers out on the stage and have been rewarded with Damehoods are Diana Rigg (who recently told the Daily Mail she was retiring from the stage) and Eileen Atkins.
Who else qualifies? Who is the next chosen one to be so elevated? That's the subject of annual fevered speculation, whenever the twice-yearly Honours lists are published. In popularity stakes, Felicity Kendal might be considered long overdue, and in terms of their work and standing in the profession, I'd say that Penelope Wilton and Sinead Cusack are increasingly strong candidates.
Thanks to Mike Kennedy for sending me this article which appeared on the What's on Stage web site on September 30, 2002.