SG: Well, you have to get the right actor to begin with.

DJ: I remember Edward Fox doing it brilliantly.

SG: It is something that a playwright has to acknowledge; actors do make an enormous difference to a part.

CS: Yes, but don’t sell yourself short. It is there in the text as well. DJ: It’s just been successfully revived.

SG: Yes, very charmingly by Nathaniel Parker, but what I’m really saying is that part of it is to do with the actor who embodies, and I hope slightly more than that, the character that you write. I thought Edward was something extraordinary in Quartermaine’s Terms. I couldn’t have conceived of him having that kind of strange aura about him, of poignancy, loss and charm. It was something unique to Edward. People still remember the performance, which for a playwright is a great nuisance because it’s much harder to revive. Actors don’t want to do a part that a living actor has made their own or that they think has made their own.