Zoe Caldwell on Margaret Leighton
"They don't craft people like that often, so we're not going to have anyone like her on the stage for a very long time. If ever."
Great Performers: Margaret Leighton.
Tennessee Williams' SLAPSTICK TRAGEDY, 1966.
"She was crafted from the moon. Delicate, beautiful, pale. I loved to watch her move. On stage. In life. Anywhere. This was a star. This was an actress. When I was younger, very insecure, very afraid, I envied and mocked Margaret Leighton, among others. She was so much higher than I thought I could be. Not only was her stage life so brilliant, but her private life as well. I felt like old boots next to her silk stockings. I didn't know until later that I could not be fascinating as long as I was envying and mocking others. That is not fascinating behavior.
"All of us [Margaret Leighton, Kate Reid, Zoe Caldwell] did precisely what Tennessee Williams wrote on the page. We honored every word, every comma, every semi-colon, every explanation point, every full stop. Our director [Alan Schneider] not so good, not so loyal. Our director lost faith in our playwright and in us, and I quit. They lured me back. I went back for Tennessee. I went back for Kate Reid. I went back for Margaret Leighton. We were comrades. We were working for Tennessee Williams.
"Critics were maddening. Again. They accused all three of us of bad acting. Overacting. Caricature. We acted what Tennessee wrote. Years later I went to the very locale of that play, and I saw the women, I saw the clapboard houses, I saw the shifting sands, I saw the detritus of humanity that found itself on those sands. All true. A sharp eye had captured these people.
"Kate and I were broad. Broads. Very broad. Margaret--can't call her Maggie, not right--was humanity. Margaret was what life pounds down. She was dust. So, she was moon dust. She broke my heart when she walked on the stage. Not a word, not a gesture. You see, I was acting. I was good, but I was acting. Margaret was being. She was so frail, so trusting, so afraid. It ate at you. It ate at me. What do I know? The play failed. It was not a good season for Tennessee, and the word was out: He cannot write. He does not know humanity. He is no longer valid. What was the question he asked you? Do I matter? In that year, in that time, in that play, he did not. Not to those who criticize.
"He mattered to me. He mattered to Margaret Leighton. Did he matter to Kate Reid? I don't know. Kate was good and loyal to him, but Kate moved on in a way I could not. Straight ahead. Onward! I think Margaret and I were haunted by that play and by that man.
"I hate that you didn't see Margaret Leighton on the stage. She was so extraordinary. They don't craft people like that often, so we're not going to have anyone like her on the stage for a very long time. If ever. So theatrical, yes; so true, yes. Work that out. I can't. I can't be as real as Margaret Leighton. And I regret this, but I no longer envy her. I salute her."--Zoe Caldwell on Margaret Leighton in Tennessee Williams' SLAPSTICK TRAGEDY/Interview with James Grissom/2006.
SLAPSTICK TRAGEDY opened on February 22, 1966 and closed on February 26, after seven performances. Zoe Caldwell received a Theatre World Award and the Tony Award (her first of four). Kate Reid was nominated as Best Actress.