By Tom Tracy
With the aid of his daughter Francesca, who was assisting him on a recent Monday by queuing up the DVD player, Barrie Ingham introduced his students to a series of films clips from movies based on the writings of George Bernard Shaw.
For Ingham, a veteran stage and television actor and Royal Shakespeare Company honorary associate, understanding great texts means hearing them spoken aloud — either by reading it out loud yourself or hearing someone else do so.
Like a good professor of literature, Ingham seems over-prepared and in command of his subject, bristling with enthusiasm for his series of educational lectures, in this case sponsored by the Society of the Four Arts. Shaw and his contemporaries, Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward, the veteran actor Ingham told a room full of Palm Beachers, brought a new level of music criticism, political activism and theatrical works to British society of the time that are no less relevant for us here today.
“These three dramatists were brilliant wordsmiths and really turned around drama around 1930,” Ingham said. “There was so much drivel being written, but these three guys upgraded drama, which was at a very low level at that time, and two of them did it with their crazy and wild Irish writing background.”
His teaching resounded with one attendee, Paul Noble.
“Barrie Ingham’s wit, experience, energy, and intellect make Monday mornings tremendously stimulating. The participants are treated as peers rather than students,” Noble wrote in an email. “Carefully chosen excerpts are analyzed or read aloud in a congenial atmosphere probably not unlike that of an Oxford don’s study.”
A resident of Palm Beach Gardens who is enjoying semi-retirement here more than he had imagined he might, Ingham has done other community workshops at the Four Arts, including several on Shakespeare programs. He moved here with his wife, Tarne, after selling their homes in London and New Jersey, and he is turning down acting gigs to take full advantage of the season here and new friendships.
Another Ingham series, on the Bard, is a six-part course at the Four Arts called The Power of Will, starting Feb. 27. The third installment of a series, the course will feature scenes from eight plays, and get non-professional acting students accustomed to speaking Shakespeare.
“It is not for professional actors. This is for doctors and accountants and God knows who — anyone who want to increase their comprehension of Shakespeare,” he said.
Ingham brings a wealth of experience to the community, and professional friendships with the likes of Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellowes, Dame Judi Dench and Angela Lansbury.
Born in West Yorkshire, Ingham’s major theatre debut was at Manchester Library Theatre Company and then he moved to London’s Old Vic (where Kevin Spacey has been artistic director since 2003.) He played with leading production companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Mermaid Theatre Company and Royal National Theatre.
On Broadway, he worked in musicals Copperfield, with Lansbury in Gypsy and in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love, with Sarah Brightman.
Ingham also had parts in over 200 British and American films and TV productions such as Murder, She Wrote, The Avengers, Matlock, Star Trek and Remington Steele. He sometimes calls himself the “poor man’s Michael Caine” from his 10 years of work in Hollywood.
“I am still receiving scripts but at the moment I am just enjoying my life here so much,” he said, mentioning his stint as director of the Palm Beach Follies musical production in support of the preservation effort directed at the old Royal Poinciana Playhouse here. Ingham took a cast of Palm Beach volunteers and created the Follies production that was staged at the Flagler Museum, and there is talk of reviving the production later this year.
“I am afraid I just don’t want to leave at the moment,” he said. “It is very stimulating here artistically and in terms of living in paradise.”
Ingham said the Palm Beaches offers great arts opportunities and companies, including Palm Beach Dramaworks, and he thinks the town of Palm Beach can and should support its own playhouse again if the Royal Poinciana can ever be renovated and reopened as a venue for musicals and popular theater. The more theaters the better, he believes.
Molly Charland, managing director of libraries and education at the Four Arts, calls Ingham “our theatrical Pied Piper” whose workshops give people the opportunity to have an interactive theatrical experience with a proven professional. “His personal anecdotes about John Gielgud, Dame Judi Dench, Maggie Smith bring alive the magic of the theater, leaving our group begging for more,” she said.
“His enthusiasm and passion to share his knowledge with our people is that a real asset to the Four Arts Campus and the community it serves.”
After a recent workshop, Ingham took in some sunshine at the Four Arts Gardens across from the educational building and talked about his life and his interests, which now include spending time with his four children and his eight grandchildren. They are planning a cruise down the Intracoastal Waterway soon in connection with his “900th birthday”: He turned 80 on Feb. 10.
Real drama, Ingham opines, must stand on great words and the richness of the text, not just the emotional content. He teaches his Shakespeare students to learn some simple rules for speaking the lines slowly out loud, slowly to somebody, to go for the last word with emphasis and look for the alliteration. Some of his Palm Beach Follies cast have gone on to form one or two other local dinner theater concert and musical productions.
“Anything you can do to encourage theater I believe in, because it is a dying art as we know. Every community around here has good functioning theaters, yet this great town of Palm Beach with all these wonderful artistic people doesn’t have its own theater.
“I would like to see musicals, experimental theater, touring shows, and childrens’ theater because by encouraging the young and teaching them about theater you are creating the audience of the future.”
At home in Ballenisles Country Club, Ingham said, perhaps like Shaw himself, he likes keeping busy: he just built two bookcases at home, and he catches movies from time to time. He enjoyed Steven Spielberg’s War Horse and he was looking forward to see Meryl Streep’s performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
He cites John Wayne’s Oscar-winning performance in True Grit, and its use of Victorian language, as a film made great because of the screenwriting.
“Most of all I like a film with good language or where the cinematographer makes the language; something where you can see the director has really worked on the script,” Ingham says, then adds for emphasis: “I like good language.”
The Power of Will: Part III is set for Feb. 27 through April 2 on successive Mondays from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Society of the Four Arts. Scenes from eight plays, including Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth, will be discussed. Cost: $150 for the six sessions. Call 805-8562 or send an email to campus@fourarts.org.