Sybil Thorndike

A review of a new book on the life of Sybil Thorndike says that "she was a pioneer, even when an established star, never happier during the second world war than when touring Welsh mining villages in 'Medea' and 'Macbeth'."
I can testify to the fact that she toured Welsh mining villages, having been present at a performance in Blackwood, Monmouthshire, of "Macbeth". I can't remember much about it being very young but I do remember the excitement it
caused. It seemed that everyone was speaking of the event before the performance and, of course, the Institute of Mineworkers Hall (called colloquially "the Stute") was packed to the roof.
I believe that she and her husband, Lewis Casson, brought a limited number of performers with them so Blackwood theatre company provided most of the extras required.
The Blackwood Theatre group was a well known amateur group in South Wales. When I was young I saw them do Shaw's "Saint Joan" and some of the famous Greek tragedies; and when, later, I went to Blackwood in my capacity of theatre critic for the much despised South Wales Spectator (one of those journals that focussed most pages on society weddings), I reviewed a good performance of "The Father" by Strinberg. So you can see that this theatre company was no ordinary amateur group only producing standard farces and popular West End plays - they often did the big stuff.
Sybil Thorndike had a tremendous reputation as an actress early in her career doing the first "Saint Joan" for example but, as with all actors of that time, they tended to be left behind when "Look Back in Anger" and so on came along.
The review in The Spectator mentions her in "that legendary Uncle Vanya" as "an unforgettable nurse rooted in the earth like a Courbet-figure". I saw it and remember Olivia's great performance and Redgrave's wonderful Vanya himself but, alas, I do not recall her in it. Olivia always made everyone seem small beside him - even the rhiniceros in a play by Ionesco.