Patrick Garland


Patrick Ewart Garland was a British director, writer and actor.

Career

Garland was educated at St Mary's College, Southampton, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford where he studied English and was Literary Editor of Isis, President of the Oxford University Poetry Society and President of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. and in 1958 played Henry V directed by Peter Dews in Magdalen College deer park. Garland's poetry had appeared in John Lehmann's The London Magazine and the annual PEN anthology during his teens. He was photographed in Oxford at 23 by Lord Snowdon and later. His maternal grandfather was Herbert Granville Fell, an artist and editor of The Connoisseur magazine.
His appearances as an actor included An Age of Kings, where he played Prince John in Henry IV, Part 2 and Clarence in Richard III, among others.
Garland started a poetry festival called Poetry International in 1963 with Ted Hughes and Charles Osborne. He was a director and producer for the BBC's Music and Arts Department, and worked on its Monitor series. In 1964, he directed the Monitor film "Down Cemetery Road" about Philip Larkin, in which John Betjeman also appeared. His work with the BBC arts department included interviews with Noël Coward, Stevie Smith, and Marcel Marceau. His television film of The Snow Goose won a Golden Globe for "Best Movie made for TV", and was nominated for both a BAFTA and an Emmy.
Meanwhile, his career in the theatre had begun to develop. In 1967 he created a one-man show based on John Aubrey's Brief Lives in collaboration with designer Julia Trevelyan Oman and Roy Dotrice and the following year directed the original production of Alan Bennett's Forty Years On with John Gielgud as the headmaster of a decaying public school called Albion House. In the mid-1970s, the musical Billy, based on Billy Liar, with Michael Crawford in the lead was performed at Drury Lane, He served as the Artistic Director for the Chichester Festival Theatre twice, 1981–1985 and 1990–1994, where he directed over 20 productions. He also raised money to build and open the theatre's second auditorium, the Minerva Theatre, Chichester. He was the only director to have had four plays running in the West End of London at the same time.
In 1978 Garland directed Under the Greenwood Tree at Salisbury Playhouse. This production transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre in the Strand London West End in the spring of 1979. In 1980, Garland was responsible for the York Mystery Plays. He directed the revival of My Fair Lady on Broadway in the early 1980s with Rex Harrison and Don Giovanni and in Japan, Handel's opera Ottone. He also directed Eileen Atkins in his own adaptation of Virginia Woolf's book A Room of One's Own.
In 2000, he directed Simon Callow in The Mystery of Charles Dickens by Peter Ackroyd, followed by a tour that culminated in Australia and Broadway, and Joan Collins in Full Circle by Alan Melville. He also worked with Alan Bennett again, directing Patricia Routledge in the second Talking Heads and Bennett himself in Telling Tales.
He directed the film of Ibsen's A Doll's House with Claire Bloom, Anthony Hopkins and Ralph Richardson, and his 1971 television film of The Snow Goose won Golden Globe: "Best Movie made for TV" and was nominated for both a BAFTA award and an Emmy. He directed Fanfare for Elizabeth at Covent Garden on Queen Elizabeth II's 60th Birthday, and in 1986 at Westminster Abbey Celebration of a Broadcaster. of the late Richard Dimbleby. 1989 he directed the Thanksgiving Service in Westminster Abbey for Lord Olivier. In 1998 Garland devised 'A Christmas Glory' for the 300th anniversary of St Paul's Cathedral. He also devised and presented several performances for the Charleston Festival.

Personal life

Garland was married to the actress Alexandra Bastedo from 1980; the wedding took place at Chichester Cathedral. He was awarded Honorary D Litt at the University of Southampton 1994 and an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1997.

Memoirs and book on Corsica

Garland had been working on his memoirs, as well as a book about Corsica, that both remained unfinished at the time of his death. It was announced that his memoirs would be completed by Simon Callow.

Archive

After Garland's death the British Library acquired his archive including diaries and journals, personal and professional correspondencve, production files, prompt books and directors’ annotated scripts and material relating to Poetry International which Garland founded with Ted Hughes and the inaugural festival at London’s Southbank Centre in 1967.

Works

Books
  • Brief Lives
  • A Man Whose Disapproval One Would Least Like to Have. A personal memoir of Lord David Cecil, the Goldsmith Professor of English Literature, printed privately 31pp. c.1988
  • The Wings of The Morning
  • Oswald The Owl
  • Angels in The Sussex Air, an anthology of Sussex poets
  • The Incomparable Rex, a memoir of Rex Harrison. Republished with an introduction by Simon Callow
  • Abstract & Brief Chronicles, a series of essays read by Garland

    Poetry

published in:
  • The London Magazine
  • New Poems
  • Oxford Poetry, edited by Peter Ferguson and Dennis Keene, Fantasy Press
  • Encounter
  • Encounter
  • Sussex Seams
  • Poetry West

    Short stories

published in:
  • Gemini
  • Light Blue, Dark Blue, published by MacDonald,
  • Englanderzählt, edited by Hilde Speil, published by Fischer, Frankfurt
  • Transatlantic Review "A Lull",,,

    Introductions and articles

  • John Clare by Patrick Garland, The London Magazine, Volume 1 No.7. August 1954
  • 15 Poems for William Shakespeare, with an introduction by Patrick Garland, John Lehmann, & William Plomer; Eric Walter White,, published by Stratford-upon-Avon: The Trustees & Guardians of Shakespeare's Birthplace
  • 'Poets on Poetry' interviews with W.H. Auden, Seamus Heaney, Douglas Dunn, Patricia Beer and Marvin Cohen, The Listener, 8 November 1973
  • Ninette de Valois reminisces to Patrick Garland, The Listener, 20 June 1974
  • Alan Bennett talks to Patrick Garland, Vogue, July 1986
  • 'An Arundel Tomb' on Philip Larkin's poem, includes: "An Enormous Yes: a Memoir of the Poet" by Patrick Garland, 1987
  • These Things also are Spring's, poems by Edward Thomas, selected and with an introduction by Patrick Garland, Folio Society, 1988
  • David Cecil: A Portrait by His Friends, edited by Hannah Cranborne, The Dovecote Press, 1990
  • Sussex Seams: A Collection of Travel Writing by Paul Foster, foreword by Garland, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1996
  • Chichester and the Arts 1944-2004 – A Celebration edited by Paul Foster, introduction by Garland, University College Chichester, 2004
  • 'Laborious Lobster Nights, Farewell', Charleston Magazine, Issue 22, Autumn/Winter 2000, published by the Charleston Trust
  • 'The Habit of Art' by Alan Bennett, theatre programme article: "The Poet Auden" by Garland, Royal National Theatre, 2009
  • articles for The Oldie.

    Chichester Festival Theatre productions

  • 1975
  • * An Enemy of the People – with Donald Sinden, directed by Garland
  • * Monsieur Perrichon's Travels – with Rex Harrison, directed by Garland
  • 1977
  • * The Apple Cart – directed by Garland
  • 1978
  • * A Woman of No Importance – directed by Garland
  • * Look After Lulu! – directed by Garland and Theatre Royal Haymarket
  • 1981
  • * The Cherry Orchard – directed by Garland
  • * The Mitford Girls – directed by Garland
  • * Underneath the Arches – by Garland, Brian Glanville and Roy Hudd in association with Chesney Allen – directed by Roger Redfarn
  • 1982
  • * On the Rocks – directed by Jack Emery and Garland
  • * Cavell – directed by Garland
  • * Goodbye, Mr Chips – directed by Garland and Chris Selbie
  • 1983
  • * As You Like It – directed by Garland
  • 1984
  • * Forty Years On – directed by Garland
  • * The Merchant of Venice – directed by Garland
  • * The Philanthropist – directed by Garland
  • 1989
  • * Victory – directed by Garland and Matthew Francis
  • * Tovarich – directed by Garland
  • 1992
  • * King Lear in New York, by Melvyn Bragg – directed by Garland
  • 1993
  • * Pickwick – directed by Garland
  • 1994
  • * Pygmalion – directed by Garland
  • 1998
  • * Chimes at Midnight – directed by Garland
;Minerva Theatre productions at Chichester Festival Theatre