Show Business: The Perils of Being Sir Peter

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Does Sir Peter ever have any fun? On the Diaries' evidence, a little. Though Hall is frustrated by Olivier's "Machiavellian love of intrigue," he delights in John Gielgud's fussy modesty, Ralph Richardson's engaging bluster, Albert Finney's eagerness to tackle any role. He enjoys the artistic adventure of rehearsing: "It's really why I do this job." But there is another pleasure: confiding to the diary—and now to any Briton with £12.95 to spend—his colleagues' amorous intrigues (but rarely his own). In 1975 he reports that Pinter is "wildly and happily in love" with Lady Antonia Fraser while still married to Actress Vivien Merchant. In an irate letter, Pinter denounced Hall for relating "matters of the utmost privacy." As for Hall, he says regretfully: "We had a marvelous collaboration. Now there is no hope of getting him back."

BLOODY AND ABUSED, SIR PETER SOLDIERS ON. Surveying his domain from his aerie in the National, Hall finds as many defenders as snipers. Gielgud praises his "tremendous enthusiasm and energy." Playwright David Hare (Plenty) values Sir Peter's "help, experience and support." Michael Billington, drama critic of the Guardian, argues that "overall, Hall should get very high marks." Actress-Director Maria Aitken finds Sir Peter "very clever, very sexy, very stimulating."

Now Hall lowers his eyelids until he resembles Fu Manchu and says, "It's been a year of controversy, but no more or less than other years. I've had ups, downs, good years, bad ones. I've been constantly challenged, praised, abused, damned. Running the National Theater is a bit like being Nelson's Column out there with all those pigeons in Trafalgar Square. Personally, I can't tell you where I am. But I can tell you where the National is. It is extremely successful. Until I read John Goodwin's editing of Diaries I had forgotten—because one's memory of pain is short—what complete bloody hell it was opening this place: getting the money, getting it open, getting it to work. Now it really does work. And now I really am enjoying it."

Hall plans three new productions at the National: Coriolanus, Animal Farm as a musical and, possibly, another play from Peter Shaffer. (Hall staged Amadeus in both London and New York.) Meantime, he is happy to see the three auditoriums in the National complex filled to 80% of capacity. "I've always been a businessman as well as trying to be an artist. And I do love running things." With his $71,000-a-year contract at the National renewed for five years, Sir Peter seems destined to remain a lively British monument. Just like Nelson's Column. —By Richard Corliss. Reported by Mary Cronin/London