RSC performance dedicated to Alan Rickman
At the end of last night’s performance of Love for Love Nicholas Le Provost, who plays central character Sir Sampson Legend, dedicated the performance to the memory of Alan Rickman. The company took applause, and then a member of the company indicated to the band to stop, and then Nicholas addressed the audience.
Alan Rickman's family announced the death of the much-loved English actor yesterday.
The 69-year-old, who had cancer, died in a London hospital.
Although he went on to have global success - breaking into Hollywood A-list status after appearing as baddie Die Hard Hans Gruber in 1988, and then, most notably, as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films - he first found success in Stratford-upon-Avon at the RSC.
After training at RADA, Alan worked for a time as a dresser for the likes of Ralph Richardson and Nigel Hawthorne, and appeared in several RSC productions, before landing the role as the wicked seducer, Vicomte de Valmont, in the 1985 production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses and receiving wide acclaim and a Tony nomination.
Gregory Doran, RSC artistic director, said in a statement released to the Herald:
“Alan Rickman was an original. For the RSC at Stratford, his forensic intelligence, precision and brilliant comic timing were perfectly matched to the role of the melancholy malcontent Jaques in which he played in 1985, for Adrian Noble opposite Juliet Stevenson and Fiona Shaw.
“When originating the role of the vicious Vicomte de Valmont opposite Lindsay Duncan, in Christopher Hampton's at The Other Place in that same season, he created a scintillating stylish danger which became a hallmark in a career as varied and distinguished as any actor would wish.
“His directing skills both in theatre and film were cherished by the actors he worked with, and his integrity and generosity as a man will be deeply missed.”
Alan continued to rack up stand-out theatre performances over the years, including as Mark Antony opposite Helen Mirren’s Cleopatra at the Olivier Theatre in London, and the title role in Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 2010.
Speaking to the Herald recently, Ruby Wax, who was at the RSC in the early 1980s, said: “I was so lucky to be part of an ensemble that included people like Alan Rickman… he had such extraordinary talent.”
Many will remember 1991 weepy screen romance Truly, Madly, Deeply – in which he starred alongside RSC colleague Juliet Stevenson – as another impressive leading man turn; and indeed his rather more duplicitous cheating husband in 2003’s Love Actually blockbuster
Rickman also turned his talents to directing. In 1995 he made his film directing debut with Scottish drama The Winter Guest, which starred Emma Thompson and her mother Phyllida Law. He also co-wrote and directed stage drama My Name is Rachel Corrie, which tells the story of the student who was killed by a bulldozer while protesting against the actions of the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip.
Married to the former Labour councillor, Rima Horton, who he was with for 51 years, Rickman was an avowed socialist. The couple did not have any children.
JK Rowling commented: “My thoughts are with Rima and the rest of Alan's family. We have all lost a great talent. They have lost part of their hearts.”
