ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION - Washington DC Area Branch

A Special June Night

An Evening with Derek Jacobi & Richard Clifford

MONDAY, JUNE 7, at 7:30 p.m.

THE FOLGER THEATRE, 201 East Capitol Street SE

Admission, $30

As the capstone to a Hamfest series that will also include a one-woman adaptation of Shakespeare's most celebrated play by award-winning actress Kate Eastwood Norris on May 17 and 24, the Folger Theatre is presenting a special program with British acting legend Sir Derek Jacobi and actor-director Richard Clifford. They'll focus much of their attention on a 1988 production of the tragedy at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in England, where Sir Derek, a famous Old Vic and BBC Prince, directed a younger actor, Kenneth Branagh, in his first professional production of the title role. Mr. Clifford played Horatio in this rendering of the drama, and highlights of it were captured in a PBS Video, Discovering Hamlet, by filmmaker Mark Olshaker, who now serves as ESU Washington's Executive Director. In addition to the theater festivities themselves, which will feature clips from the documentary, there will be a reception at which those who are ESU members at the Benefactor level and above will have an opportunity to meet and talk with the stars of the evening. This program will be dedicated to the memory of Lynn Redgrave, a valiant and much-loved artist who had been planning to take part in Hamfest but who died of cancer on Sunday, May 2. For details and reservations, please contact Mr. Olshaker either by e-mail (esuwdc@verizon.net) or by phone (202-234-4602). For more about the Hamfest series, visit www.folger.edu or call (202) 547-7077.

ESU WASHINGTON and the Media

BBC Radio 4's "Any Questions?"

On December 7, 2001, the British Broadcasting Corproation came to the Jack Morton Auditorium at George Washington University for the first U.S. presentation of one of its most venerable offerings. In collaboration with GWU and BBC America, ESU Washington helped arrange this event, and for several months those who logged onto www.bbc.co.uk could download either the audio recording or a transcript of a special edition of Any Questions? Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but focusing primarily upon the U.S. response to more recent acts of aggression (Al Qaeda's September 11 assaults upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon), host Jonathan Dimbleby presided over a discussion that included reflections by historian Amanda Foreman (author of a biography of the Duchess of Devonshire that has now been made into a major motion picture), by writer Ted Halstead of the New American Foundation, by journalist Williaml Kristol of The Weekly Standard, and by bureau chief Hafez al Mirazi of Arab television channel Al Jazeera.

We're pleased to note that on Friday, January 16, 2009, Jonathan Dimbleby and his colleagues returned to America's capital for another edition of an attraction that is now in its seventh decade. Mr. Dimbleby is one of Britain's most revered journalists, and among his numerous distinctions are several influential books, among them The Palestinians, The Prince of Wales, The Last Governor, and Russia: A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People. Once again the BBC assembled an eminent panel, with contributions by Renee Amoore, Deputy Chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania and a candidate for the co-chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, journalist Christopher Hitchens, author of numerous books and a regular contributor to Vanity Fair magazine, Thomas E. Mann, a widely published political analyst at the Brookings Institution, and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, and now a lecturer at George Washington University and other institutions.

As in 2001, Mr. Dimbleby invited questions from an audience of approximately 200 attendees, all of whom were there as guests of the sponsoring organizations, and topics included such issues as (a) whether a country that had twice installed a leader widely reviled in Europe could be forgiven now that it was inaugurating Barack Obama as its 44th President, (b) whether America's new chief executive should expect any power plays from Hillary Clinton, the defeated candidate he'd nominated to serve as his Secretary of State, (c) how the Obama administration would handle the Middle East, particularly in light of Israel's recent invasion of Gaza, (d) what approach the President should take to Iran and its nuclear aspirations, (e) whether, given all the other priorities a new administration would need to address, it could be expected to accomplish as much as it wished on environmental issues such as climate change, and (f) what was likely to happen in the years ahead to the "special relationship" between the U.S. and the U.K.

The most riveting moment occurred when, in response to Col. Wilkerson's harsh criticism of the way Vice President Cheney and his allies in the Bush administration had deceived and manipulated Secretary Powell, Jonathan Dimbleby asked how Mr. Powell and his chief aide had stuck it out so long. Col. Wilkerson replied that "that is a question I ask myself every night when I wake up with nightmares."

ESU Washington is enormously grateful to BBC producer Peter Griffiths and his colleagues for bringing another engaging event to the New World. For more detail about this fascinating program, including links to a written transcript of the proceedings, click here for the Any Questions? page at BBC Radio 4.

David Mamet Gives 2008 Alistair Cooke Lecture

The 2008 Alistair Cooke Memorial Lecture, marking the centenary of an incomparable journalist's birth, was delivered at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Thursday, November 13, by award-winning writer and director David Mamet. Mr. Mamet has enriched our dramatic repertory with such powerful works as American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Oleanna, and Speed-the-Plow (two of which are currently enjoying revivals on Broadway), and he has received Oscar nominations for two of his superb screenplays, The Verdict and Wag the Dog. He was introduced by Justin Webb, the British Broadcasting Corporation's North American editor, and his timely reflections on today's language were followed by questions from the audience.

This event took place at the Broad Stage (1310 11th Street) in the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, a few miles west of Los Angeles. The BBC, ESU Washington, and the Shakespeare Guild hosted a reception for special invited guests immediately after the program. Representing the sponsoring organizations at this gathering were Maria Balinska, Mark Damazer, and Rosie Goldstein of the BBC, Mark Olshaker and William L. Renfro of ESU Washington, and John F. Andrews of the Shakespeare Guild. Also on hand for the occasion was Alistair Cooke's daughter, Susan Cooke Kittredge, and her husband Charles. To enjoy a recording of the presentation, which was transmitted over BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, November 18, and over the BBC World Service on November 22 and 23, visit the network's Web page for the 2008 Alistair Cooke Memorial Lecture.

Members and associates of the English-Speaking Union should take a particular interest in this affair, because shortly after the death of Alistair Cooke in March 2004, ESU Washington's most influential Vice President, Dr. Marjorie J. Williams, urged her colleagues in the organization to help devise a fitting way to perpetuate a unique cultural ambassador's legacy. Her thoughtful proposal bore its first fruits on Monday, July 4, 2005, when Senator John McCain delivered the BBC's inaugural Alistair Cooke Memorial Lecture at Dartmouth House in Mayfair. These proceedings were graciously hosted by the ESU, with its International Chairman, Lord Watson of Richmond, its Director-General, Mrs. Valerie Mitchell, and its ESU Washington Executive Director, John Andrews, on hand for the evening. Also in attendance were Mr. Andrews' wife, Jan Denton, and two other Washingtonians, Roger and Patricia Stockton Plaskett.

Others who took part in the festivities included a number of luminaries: Susan Cooke Kittredge (Alistair Cooke's daughter and literary executor), Nick Clarke (Mr. Cooke's biographer and host of BBC Radio 4's The World at One, who introduced the lecture and presided over the question-and-answer session that followed Senator McCain's remarks), Maria Balinska (Mr. Cooke's BBC editor during the final years of his legendary Letter from America series), Rebecca Eaton (Executive Producer for PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, for which Mr. Cooke was an eminently popular host), Richard Price (former chairman of BAFTA, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and a co-producer for many of the series that WGBH Boston showcased on Masterpiece Theatre), Andrew Caspari (Commissioning Editor for BBC Radio 4), Mark Damazer (Controller of Radio 4), Philip Harding (Director of the BBC World Service), and Mark Thompson (the esteemed Director-General of the BBC). A few months after the event everyone was saddened to learn that Nick Clarke was gravely ill. He died a year later,