At 91, veteran stage actress Thelma Ruby is gaining considerable attention in the British press these days for her one-woman show That’s Entertainment.
In an interview this week with BBC Radio 4, Ruby recalled her first brush with Shakespeare – playing Mistress Quickly opposite Orson Welles’ Falstaff in his 1960 Irish stage production of Chimes at Midnight.
She has fond memories of Welles, though she called him “naughty” for skipping rehearsals, reading from the script at a dress rehearsal, and then walking out on stage on opening night and being brilliant. (According to Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who worked on the production, after a week of rehearsal Welles left to secure funding and Hilton Edwards directed the play, working on blocking and lighting. Welles returned two days before the premiere for the first dress rehearsal).
“He was so friendly, and so lovely,” Ruby said of Welles. “In fact, when we did our season in Dublin – there was an actor in the company called Keith Baxter – and he would invite Keith and myself back after the show every night to visit him in his hotel room. And I thought, ‘Oh, he’s so brilliant and he’s so intelligent and clever. How can I talk to Orson Welles.” I didn’t need to worry. He did all the talking all night.”
She recalled a 35th birthday party held for her during the play’s run. “He got up and paid me such compliments.”
In That’s Entertainment, Ruby is accompanied by pianist and musical director Jonathan Williams for an autobiographical show that mixes monologues, songs and star-filled anecdotes. Her screen credits include The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000), Room at the Top (1959) and The Man Who Liked Funerals (1959).
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