Customer Reviews

Darlings of the Gods: One Year in the Lives of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh

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A really enjoyable book, novelised from the TV series of the same name about the 1948 Olivier-Leigh tour to Australia with the Old Vic, when Larry was supermarket famous but the equally starry Vivien was becoming increasingly fragile. Then Peter Finch comes on the scene as a potential buffer for the marital fights, but also as an aspiring actor who could be given his big break by association with the world's most glamourous romantic couple. Is Olivier genuinely fond of Vivien or calculating? Is she really suffering deeply or trying to retain his attention? You can enjoy this fictionalisation as star gossip (as I do), but I most enjoyed O'Connor's brilliant probing of the mechanics of the private and public relationships between lovers who are also great actors. He shows them 'performing' their romance, mixing up ambition and personal desires, snapping in and out of role onstage and off. We are never sure if the characters are 'genuine' in their interactions or giving another (geninely great) performance, and neither really do they. Their tragedy and their survival equipment come wrapped up in one perplexing package. Not to be missed by fans of theatre or by students of what Diderot called 'the paradox of the actor'. Which is relevant to non-actors as well: amateur performers of ourselves in our many roles who might show occasional brilliance.