Acting Wales

Stars of Stage and Screen

Peter Stead

. . . Stanley Baker, Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins, Siān Phillips, Rachel Roberts . . .

Why has Wales produced so many great actors, especially as it does not have a national theatre or cinema? Is it looks, the voice or a sense of the dramatic? Are the Welsh just natural declaimers and entertainers? These are some of the questions considered by Peter Stead in a dazzling discussion of Welsh acting on stage and screen, ranging from the career of matinee idol Ivor Novello down to the present impact of Catherine Zeta Jones and Ioan Gruffudd and the so-called Taff Pack.

In Acting Wales: Stars of Stage and Screen, Peter Stead puts forward a sociology of Welsh acting, inspired by the ways in which American and English critics have examined the role of acting within their respective cultures. He takes the view that acting can influence and enhance a culture by endowing it with new shades and depths of meaning. From that premise arise questions over and above the initial critical reaction to any particular performance. What aspects of Wales are reflected on stage and screen? In physical terms are there distinctively Welsh characteristics? How has the tension between Welshness and Englishness played out? How have individual actors related to Wales? This and so much more is examined as we look in detail at the lives and careers of more than twenty stars of stage and screen.

‘This book, elegantly written and infectious in its engagement with the theatre and cinema, discusses the careers of a dozen major stars, from Ivor Novello to Catherine Zeta Jones. In between are some of the great names, including Richard Burton, Stanley Baker, Kenneth Griffith, Anthony Hopkins and Siān Phillips. Each is considered against the background of his or her early years in Wales and, more critically, in terms of their own most memorable performances. Peter Stead, a professional historian, has done his research in preparation for writing this superb book and has come up with some fascinating facts. His judgements are balanced, illuminating and entertaining.’ www.gwales.com

Peter Stead, seen here at the Cardiff launch of Acting Wales with John Hefin, is a writer, broadcaster and historian. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Glamorgan, having previously been a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Wales, Swansea. He has twice been a year long Visiting Fulbright Fellow in the USA, first at Wellesley College, Mass. and then at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. He is the author of Film and the Working Class; The Feature Film in British and American Society (Routledge 1989) and biographical studies of the actor Richard Burton (Seren 1991), television writer Dennis Potter (Seren 1993), and the footballer Ivor Allchurch (Christopher Davies 1998). Previously he had jointly edited and contributed to University of Wales Press volumes of essays on aspects of the nation’s popular culture, Heart and Soul, The Character of Welsh Rugby (1998), a sequel More Heart and Soul (1999), For Club and Country; Welsh Football Greats (2000) and Hymns and Arias: Great Welsh Voices (2001). He has contributed essays on labour and cultural history to many other volumes and journals. As a broadcaster he has presented both television and radio programmes in Wales and radio programmes for BBC Radio Four throughout the UK. He comments regularly on Welsh sport, politics and culture. For many years he has represented Wales on the Radio Four series Round Britain Quiz, a competition Wales has won for four of the last five years. He is a Board member of Sgrīn, the Welsh Media Agency, and chairs its Production Advisory (Lottery) Committee. He is Chairman of the Swansea Arts Forum and was a member of the Government Panel that chose Liverpool as the UK capital of Culture 2008. His great interests are Sport, Theatre, Cinema, Opera and, having visited over 90 countries, Travel.

From left: Bryn Roberts, Chair of BAFTA Cymru; Richard Houdmont, Deputy Director of the University of Wales Press; John Hefin who interviewed Peter Stead at the launch, and Peter Stead.