VIDEO: Queen Jane: 'unique award has made me happy'
JANE Lapotaire quoted William Shakespeare to roars of laughter as she accepted this year’s Pragnell Award at the Shakespeare Celebrations on Saturday.
The acclaimed actress told 400 guests at the Crowne Plaza Hotel: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em [Twelfth Night].
“And as far as this prestigious award goes, I certainly count myself in with the last lot."
Jane, who almost had to quit acting altogether after suffering a brain haemorrhage nearly 20 years ago, added: “To have my name on the same list as Peggy Ashcroft... that’s something that what’s left of my brain will never get around.
“It is a unique award, it reaches parts that other awards can’t reach, it has made me happy.
“And that’s down solely to the extraordinary generosity of the Pragnell family, their continued support of the Royal Shakespeare Company actors and directors, and to the Pragnell Award Committee for their profound discernment and exquisite taste!”
Presenting the award to Jane was Professor Michael Dobson, director of the Shakespeare Institute.
He said: “It is appropriate that we should be recognising Jane Lapotaire on the birthday of a Queen, since she excels at playing queens herself.
"On BBC television, for instance, an irresistible Cleopatra and a Lady Macbeth so sensual that the spirits she called upon to unsex her were clearly going to have a very hard time.
"On film, Mary Tudor in Trevor Nunn’s film Lady Jane, and on a white horse in the yard of Shakespeare’s Globe in in London 1997, Elizabeth I.
"She has also played Gertrude to Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet, Titania in the legendary performance at Stanley Wells’ 80th birthday party, and a heartbreaking Katherine of Aragon in a fine RSC production of Henry VIII in 1996, directed by a relatively obscure but rather promising actor-turned-director, poacher-turned-gamekeeper, called Gregory Doran."
RSC artistic director, Gregory Doran, told the Herald: “She [Jane Lapotaire] is one our great Shakespeareans, she has an access to the depth of Shakespeare’s emotion that is just extraordinary.”
The lunch is one of the highlights of the birthday weekend and took place at the Crowne Plaza for the second year.
There were several tributes throughout the afternoon to the RSC’s co-founders, Sir Peter Hall, and John Barton, who both died recently within four months of each other.
Michael Billington, the Guardian’s theatre critic, who gave the speech and toast to Shakespeare’s immortal memory, said: “The RSC owes its very existence to their work.”
Alan Haigh, who organised the lunch with his wife, Ros, said: “The speakers were great, I enjoyed it, it was wonderful.
"On the whole it worked, although serving 450 people is never easy.
“But everything went extremely well, and we'll start straight away for next year.”
For more from Jane Lapotaire, Michael Billington, and Gregory Doran, see our Shakespeare Celebrations special in next Thursday's Herald.
