Last night we were at a gala to celebrate 48 plays directed by my father Sir Peter Hall for the Theatre Royal Bath over the years. The celebrations included the unveiling of a portrait of him which they commissioned me to paint, as a surprise – EG he did not sit for it, and got quite a shock when he pulled the curtain cord to unveil it. So now it hangs in the foyer of this gem of a theatre, alongside some of the greatest British theatre paintings from the Somerset Maugham collection. It’s amazing.
Afterwards we went for a drink in the garden at the Royal Crescent Hotel. What an astonishingly beautiful city Bath is.
I painted in some clues: he’s holding his book about verse speaking; ’Shakespeare’s Advice to the Players’ and behind him is a distinctive grey concrete wall, which students of Denys Lasdun’s architecture may recognise.
portrait of Sir Peter Hall hanging in the foyer
Official photos have now come through – here’s a rather better shot taken by Anna Cardy (added May 31)
