<Archive obituary> Dame Flora Robson, DBE, (1902-84)
Michael Rhodes
<Times, July 9, 1984>
DAME FLORA ROBSON
Emotional acting of great integrity
Dame Flora Robson, DBE,the well-loved actress, died on July 7 at the
age of 82.
Her instensity and her thrillingly individual voice naturally gave
distinction to many dramas, from Bridie's "The Anatomist" to a
succession of frightening domestic thrillers. Although she claimed to
have no sense of humour, she gave comic roles in delightful
truthfulness that was too seldom exercised.
Most of all, perhaps, she was known for her understanding portrayal of
frustrated characters, which went straight to the heart with its
tender realisation of their loneliness and innate dignity. Frequently
told in her youth (when such things mattered more than they do now)
that she lacked good looks and allure, she had, as James Agate
indicated, inner beauty that could astonish. By courage and
resourcefulness she overcame more than her fair share of setbacks,
rising to the highest level in her profession.
She was chiefly Scottish by descent; only one of her grandparents came
from south of the Border. She herself was born on March 28, 1902, at
South Shields, Durham, and first went to school at Palmer's Green,
north London, after her father, David Mather Robson, formerly a marine
engineer, had joined a shipping firm in London. Flora, the youngest
but one of a family of seven passed into what is now R.A.D.A. in 1919
and won the bronze medal.
One of her instructors recommened her to Mr Basil Dean, who engaged
her for Clemence Dane's "Will Shakespeare" in 1921. There followed a
tour with Ben Greet in Shakespeare and an engagement with J.B. Fagan
for the first two seasons at the Oxford Playhouse. But thereafter,
discouraged, she turned from the stage and started working as a
welfare officer in a factory in Welwyn Garden City, where her parents
now lived.
Four years later Sir Tyrone Guthrie, once a fellow member of Fagan's
company, came to the Garden City to adjudicate at a drama contest,
and, while being entertained by the Robson family, said he had been
appointed by Anmer Hall to direct a company at the Festival Theatre,
Cambridge, that autumn: Flora Robson went back to the stage as a
member of that company, aged 27.
At Cambridge she was a success, specially as the step-daughter in "Six
Characters in Search of an Author" and in "Iphigenia in Tauris", and
in London in 1931 she was again a success in Mr Peter Godfrey's
production of O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms" at a club theatre and
in "The Anatomist", with which the Westminster opened under the
management of Anmer Hall.
In the latter her handling of the scene where an Edinburgh prostitute
is lured to her death by the two notorious Irishmen Burke and Hare,
caused the truthfulness of her acting and firm grasp of character to
be widely remarked on.
Within two years, J.B. Priestley's "Dangerous Corner", Somerset
Maugham's "For Services Rendered" and Eugene O'Neill's "All God's
Chillun Got Wings" (in which she played Paul Robeson's stage wife)
established her as an emotional actress of complete integrity and
marked out her particular territory.
After making her first important film with Korda ("The Rise of
Catherine the Great"), in which she played the Empress Elizabeth, she
struck out in a different direction with a season at the Old Vic. Sir
Tyrone Guthrie, on being appointed director of productions there, had
at once thought of enlisting her, and she in turn had put him in touch
with Charles Laughton, who joined the company as leading man.
Mutual respect notwithstanding she and Laughton did not find their
styles blending effectively, and her Isabella (in "Measure for
Measure"), Lady Macbeth and Katharine of Aragon sometimes seemed
inhibited by Shakespeare's language. But, returning to Gwendolen in
"The Importance of Being Earnest", which she had first played at
Oxford, she rediscovered her endearingly understanding gift for comic
parts, and, having also delighted in the Old Vic with Mrs Foresight in
"Love for Love" presently went into the Haymarket with Dodie Smith's
crisply wise, matter-of-fact heroine in "Touch Wood" (1934).
The next few years offered too little that was solid in the way of
roles. "Mary Read", a play about a woman pirate, designed specially
for her by Bridie, proved unsatisfactory, and "Autumn" by Margaret
Kennedy and Gregory Ratoff, though the occasion of an exquisite
performance by her as a judge's wife in love with the same man as her
step-daughter, was novelettish. Her film contract with Korda gave her
one more great opportunity: Queen Elizabeth I in "Fire Over England".
Film work in Hollywood, beginning with the housekeeper in "Wuthering
Heights" for MGM, was followed by engagements in the American theatre
which, included a revival of Maxwell Anderson's "Elizabeth the Queen"
and her first romantic comedy role in John Van Druten's "The Damask
Cheek", kept her in North America during the early part of the Second
World War.
Late in 1943 Guthrie obtained the necessary priority for her to return
by boat to England, where she then toured for the Council of the
Encouragement of Music and the Arts in a new version of Zola's
"Therese Raquin", and took more parts in films such as that of
Cleopatra's nurse in Gabriel Pascal's adaptation of Shaw's chronicle
play.
After the war she continued in supporting parts in films and star
roles in the theatre, which were not always wisely chosen to do her
full justice. With "Message for Margaret" by James Parish, and in
again having a chance to play Lady Macbeth, this time in New York with
Sir Michael Redgrave as her partner, she was lucky. On the other hand,
when she had succeeded brilliantly as the gay and charming Lady Cicely
in "Captain Brassbound's Conversion", Shaw forbade a transfer to the
West End of London because he could not face an increase in his tax
liability.
For the lost opportunity there was compensation in Lesley Storm's
"Black Chiffon", in playing Paulina to Sir John Gielgud's Leontes in
Peter Brook's production of "The Winter's Tale", in the governesses
role in a stage version of Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw" and
in the two years' run of a thriller "The House by the Lake" during
which she made four films and gave several poetry readings for the
Apollo Society.
Her Mrs Alving in "Ghosts" in 1958 was probably her most distinguished
piece of work at the Old Vic, revisited by her after an absence of 24
years, but the poise and delicacy of her acting were seen to even
greater advantage in her next role of Miss Tina, another character
flowering late only to be nipped by the frost, in Sir Michael
Redgrave's adaptation of James's "The Aspern Papers".
Her final West End appearances were as Mrs Borkman (opposite Sir
Donald Wolfit's John Gabriel) when Ibsen's great late play was revived
in 1963, then Miss Prism in "The Importance of Being Earnest" at the
Haymarket in 1968, and finally revivals of "Ring Round the Moon" and
"The Old Ladies". The greatest delight among these four was her
tenderly sympathetic, delicately comic, Miss Prism (partnered by
Robert Eddison's Chasuble), a fitting farewell to a lifelong
relationship with the play which had even included a Lady Bracknell in
1964, at the short-lived theatre in Newcastle-upon-Tyne named after
her.
As an epilogue, she played Prism once more for John Counsell's 70th
birthday performance at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, in 1975. After her
retirement from the stage she continued to make films for cinema and
television, the latter including a memorable Miss Pross in "A Tale of
Two Cities" and the rich old lady who provided a turning-point in the
award winning "The Shrimp and the Anemone".
She was appointed CBE in 1952, the year that saw her take up office as
Chairman of the Council of RADA, and was created DBE in 1960. Five
British universities awarded her an honorary D Litt. She never
married.
END.