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Author Elizabeth Charlesworth
Published 04/11/2017
Vivien Leigh performed with The Old Vic Company 12 times, and was always close to the theatre.
She first performed with The Old Vic Company in June 1937 as Ophelia opposite Olivier’s Hamlet in a production staged at Elsinore, Denmark. She performed on The Old Vic stage in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the role of Titania, and on 12 January 1938, the cast met a young Princess Elizabeth during the interval. According to director Tyrone Guthrie, as Vivien and Robert Helpman bowed and curtsied, their fairy king and queen wire head dresses became entangled and it was down to the Queen and the two young Princesses to detangle them before the second act.
When I come into the theatre I get a sense of security. I love an audience. I love people, and I act because I like trying to give pleasure to people.
Vivien Leigh at The Old Vic
1937 – The Old Vic Company at Kronberg Castle, Denmark
Ophelia in Hamlet | by William Shakespeare | Directed by Tyrone Guthrie
1937 – The Old Vic, London
Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream | by William Shakespeare | Directed by Tyrone Guthrie | Costumes by Oliver Messel
1943 – North Africa
Various parts in The Spring Party, a revue put on by members of The Old Vic to entertain troops
1948 – The Old Vic Tour of Australia and New Zealand
Lady Anne in Richard III, Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal, and Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth, all opposite Laurence Olivier, who also directed
1949 – New Theatre, London, for the Old Vic repertory season
Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal
Lady Anne in Richard III
Antigone in Antigone | by Sophocles
1961 – Old Vic Company tour of Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South America
Viola in Twelfth Night | by William Shakespeare
Paola in Duel of Angels | by Jean Giraudoux
Maguerite Gautier in Lady of the Camellias | by Alexandre Dumas| Directed by Robert Helpmann