Tony Church | Theatre | The Guardian

Publish date: 2022-12-01
TheatreObituary

Tony Church

A founder RSC member, he played a key role in state- subsidised theatre

The British theatre was transformed in the 1950s and 60s, not so much by its writers as by its actors, and Tony Church - who has died after a long illness, aged 77 - played a crucial part in that process. As a founder associate member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1960, he went on to become one of its stalwart members and chief advocates.

A Cambridge University contemporary of Sir Peter Hall and John Barton, he played a crucial role in defining the whole idea of a radical, state-subsidised theatre in this country, moving on from the RSC in 1967 to be the founding artistic director for the first three years of the Northcott Theatre in Exeter.

The recent skirmish over funding there is indicative of the loss of faith in the subsidised theatre enterprise that Tony embodied. He was a civilised, intelligent artist who brought a new, modern humanity to his playing of such Shakespearean roles as Claudius, Ulysses, Friar Laurence and the First Gravedigger in Hamlet. He was the best-ever Polonius, in the David Warner Hamlet for the RSC in 1965.

More than that, he stood for values that mattered each time he took to the stage. Even after, as a critic, I had accused him of being dull or boring, or making up numbers, he would approach me with a sideways glance, a twinkle to disarm, a longer view of where the show was going.

He was, in fact, a gem of an actor, and much appreciated in the US, notably in Denver, Colorado, where he first appeared with the RSC in 1975. From 1989 to 1996, he was dean of the National Theatre Conservatory graduate scheme, a far cry from his background in regional rep and college drama. Hall says Church was a true company actor who had found his ideal role by working in America. He relished the acclaim he was accorded there, and discovered his metier as both teacher and director.

Church was born in London and grew up in the south-east of the city. His father was a journalist. From Hurstpierpoint college, West Sussex, he went to Clare College, Cambridge, where Hall recalls their first encounter in 1949: "A figure crossed the bridge in the mist and came towards me. Like me, he carried his gown, new and untorn. And like me, he looked anxious. He introduced himself. His voice was reassuringly cockney. His name was Tony Church and he was bent on being an actor."

Here was this prematurely middle-aged actor, who had the youth and ambition of everything Hall was vaguely committed to, and at that stage was unsure how to express. The two young men started a conversation and worked together on five productions, including Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.

Church was part of a Cambridge set that would go on to transform the British theatre, and when Hall went to the Oxford Playhouse en route to the Arts Theatre in London and the formation of the RSC, his acting company also included Church, alongside Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Billie Whitelaw, Ronnie Barker and Derek Francis.

Church's gift for friendship and his gravitas would take him, later in his career, into posts with the Arts Council, where he was drama panel chairman in the early 1980s, and subsequently the British Council. He was a born teacher and fulfilled that at both the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, from 1982 onwards and the RSC, with whom he appeared until 1987.

The last few years of Church's life were spent on the Greek island of Hydra. His recently completed autobiographical memoir should be worth reading. While he appeared on film and television, his outstanding contribution was in the theatre. He recorded no fewer than 26 major Shakespearean roles, though we think of him as Polonius or Brabantio rather than Leontes or Shylock. He married the actor Margaret Blakeney in 1958 and divorced her late in life in order to ratify his relationship with the artist Mary Gladstone in 2003. He is survived by her, and the two daughters and son from his first marriage.

· John Anthony Church, actor and director, born May 11 1930; died March 25 2008

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