What to say about Richard Burton? Well, he probably was not
a nice person to know. He became a personality bigger than his own ego – if that
is possible. When we enter a theatre we leave our disbelief at the door and
perhaps we should do the same with our prejudices. He was a great stage actor;
a wonderful reader of poetry and prose; a great talker; a drunken womaniser; a wasted
talent on the big screen. And Rhodri
Miles showed us all those aspects in a riveting performance of his one-man show
“Burton” at the Theatre Le Colombier, Les Cabannes last night.
Set in 1971 on Burton’s 46th birthday, Gwynne
Evans’s script took us through Burton’s rather sentimental view of childhood
and youth – all poverty, hard drinking and rugby – into the early days of
theatre. Larded with theatrical anecdotes, mainly indiscreet, Miles explored
Burton’s journey from south Wales to Hollywood. His loyalty to British serious
theatre seemed to be the one redeeming quality. But his desire to
remain “faithful” to his first wife Sybil was disastrously dealt a fatal blow
when he met Elizabeth Taylor when shooting “Cleopatra”. Paid huge sums the pair
became the Branjelina of their day. Pursued relentlessly by the press they took
refuge in drink and prescription drugs and at the point of the play the
marriage was clearly on the rocks (with or without the scotch) and a couple of
years later ended in divorce. What happened next is well known and perhaps
Evans and Miles will write a sequel in due course.
Rhodri Miles exhibited a range of styles and voices, getting
apparently more gently inebriated on vodka and soda and the pace and
expressions were just immaculate – even down to the perfectly timed collapse of
the drinks trolley (keep that in Rhodri).
Taglines is a great supporter of the FET and will continue
to be so with productions of this quality.
