Editing Laurence Olivier (section)

===1957–1963: Royal Court and Chichester===
During the production of ''The Prince and the Showgirl'', Olivier, Monroe and her husband, the American playwright [[Arthur Miller]], went to see the English Stage Company's production of [[John Osborne]]'s ''[[Look Back in Anger]]'' at the [[Royal Court Theatre|Royal Court]]. Olivier had seen the play earlier in the run and disliked it, but Miller was convinced that Osborne had talent, and Olivier reconsidered. He was ready for a change of direction; in 1981 he wrote:

{{blockquote|I had reached a stage in my life that I was getting profoundly sick of—not just tired—sick. Consequently the public were, likely enough, beginning to agree with me. My rhythm of work had become a bit deadly: a classical or semi-classical film; a play or two at Stratford, or a nine-month run in the West End, etc etc. I was going mad, desperately searching for something suddenly fresh and thrillingly exciting. What I felt to be my image was boring me to death.{{sfn|Findlater|1981|p=40}}}}

[[File:Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright 1960.jpg|thumb|alt=middle-aged man with young woman on stage|Olivier, with [[Joan Plowright]] in ''[[The Entertainer (play)|The Entertainer]]'' on Broadway in 1958]]
Osborne was already at work on a new play, ''[[The Entertainer (play)|The Entertainer]]'', an allegory of Britain's post-colonial decline, centred on a seedy variety comedian, Archie Rice. Having read the first act—all that was completed by then—Olivier asked to be cast in the part. He had for years maintained that he might easily have been a third-rate comedian called "Larry Oliver", and would sometimes play the character at parties. Behind Archie's brazen façade there is a deep desolation, and Olivier caught both aspects, switching, in the words of the biographer [[Anthony Holden]], "from a gleefully tacky comic routine to moments of the most wrenching pathos".{{sfn|Holden|1988|pp=314–316}} [[Tony Richardson]]'s production for the English Stage Company transferred from the Royal Court to the [[Palace Theatre, London|Palace Theatre]] in September 1957; after that it toured and returned to the Palace.<ref name="times-entertainer"/> The role of Archie's daughter Jean was taken by three actresses during the various runs. The second of them was [[Joan Plowright]], with whom Olivier began a relationship that endured for the rest of his life.{{efn|The other two Jeans were [[Dorothy Tutin]] at the Royal Court, and [[Geraldine McEwan]] for part of the run at the Palace.<ref name="times-entertainer"/> Plowright rejoined the cast when the production opened in New York in February 1958.<ref name="nyt-entertainer"/>}} Olivier said that playing Archie "made me feel like a modern actor again".{{sfn|Holden|1988|p=318}} In finding an ''avant-garde'' play that suited him, he was, as Osborne remarked, far ahead of Gielgud and Ralph Richardson, who did not successfully follow his lead for more than a decade.{{sfn|Bragg|1989|p=99}}{{efn|In 1955 Richardson, advised by Gielgud, had turned down the role of Estragon in [[Peter Hall (director)|Peter Hall]]'s premiere of the English-language version of [[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'' and later reproached himself for missing the chance to be in "the greatest play of my generation".{{sfn|Miller|1995|pp=162–163}}}} Their first substantial successes in works by any of Osborne's generation were [[Alan Bennett]]'s ''[[Forty Years On (play)|Forty Years On]]'' (Gielgud in 1968) and [[David Storey]]'s ''[[Home (Storey play)|Home]]'' (Richardson and Gielgud in 1970).{{sfnm|1a1=Miller|1y=1995|1pp=228–229|2a1=Croall|2y=2000|2p=456}}

Olivier received another BAFTA nomination for his supporting role in 1959's ''[[The Devil's Disciple (1959 film)|The Devil's Disciple]]''.<ref name=BAFTA/> The same year, after a gap of two decades, Olivier returned to the role of Coriolanus, in a Stratford production directed by the 28-year-old [[Peter Hall (director)|Peter Hall]]. Olivier's performance received strong praise from the critics for its fierce athleticism combined with an emotional vulnerability.{{sfn|Billington|2004}} In 1960 he made his second appearance for the Royal Court company in [[Eugène Ionesco|Ionesco]]'s [[Theatre of the Absurd|absurdist]] play ''[[Rhinoceros (play)|Rhinoceros]]''. The production was chiefly remarkable for the star's quarrels with the director, [[Orson Welles]], who according to the biographer [[Francis Beckett]] suffered the "appalling treatment" that Olivier had inflicted on Gielgud at Stratford five years earlier. Olivier again ignored his director and undermined his authority.{{sfn|Beckett|2005|p=106}} In 1960 and 1961 Olivier appeared in Anouilh's ''[[Becket]]'' on Broadway, first in the title role, with [[Anthony Quinn]] as the king, and later exchanging roles with his co-star.{{sfn|Billington|2004}}

[[File:Spartacus - 1960 - poster.png|thumb|alt=colourful Hollywood film poster|Poster for [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s ''[[Spartacus (film)|Spartacus]]'', one of two films in which Olivier appeared in 1960]]
Two films featuring Olivier were released in 1960. The first—filmed in 1959—was ''[[Spartacus (film)|Spartacus]]'', in which he portrayed the Roman general, [[Marcus Licinius Crassus]].{{sfn|Coleman|2006|p=318}} His second was ''[[The Entertainer (1960 film)|The Entertainer]]'', shot while he was appearing in ''Coriolanus''; the film was well received by the critics, but not as warmly as the stage show had been.{{sfn|Munn|2007|p=23}} The reviewer for ''The Guardian'' thought the performances were good, and wrote that Olivier "on the screen as on the stage, achieves the tour de force of bringing Archie Rice&nbsp;... to life".<ref name="Guard: Entertainer"/> For his performance, Olivier was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.<ref name="Oscar: Entertainer"/> He also made an adaptation of ''[[The Moon and Sixpence (TV movie)|The Moon and Sixpence]]'' in 1960, winning an [[Primetime Emmy Award|Emmy Award]].{{sfn|Tanitch|1985|pp=188–189}}

The Oliviers' marriage was disintegrating during the late 1950s. While directing [[Charlton Heston]] in the 1960 play ''The Tumbler'', Olivier divulged that "Vivien is several thousand miles away, trembling on the edge of a cliff, even when she's sitting quietly in her own drawing room", at a time when she was threatening suicide.{{sfn|Munn|2007|pp=197–200}} In May 1960 divorce proceedings started; Leigh reported the fact to the press and informed reporters of Olivier's relationship with Plowright.{{sfn|Coleman|2006|p=326}} The [[decree nisi|decree ''nisi'']] was issued in December 1960, which enabled him to marry Plowright in March 1961.{{sfn|Coleman|2006|pp=330 and 334}} A son, Richard, was born in December 1961; two daughters followed, Tamsin Agnes Margaret—born in January 1963—and actress Julie-Kate, born in July 1966.{{sfn|Munn|2007|pp=205, 209 and 218}}

In 1961 Olivier accepted the directorship of a new theatrical venture, the [[Chichester Festival]]. For the opening season in 1962 he directed two neglected 17th-century English plays, [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]]'s 1638 comedy ''The Chances'' and [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]]'s 1633 tragedy ''[[The Broken Heart]]'',<ref name="times-chichester-1"/> followed by ''Uncle Vanya''. The company he recruited was forty strong and included Thorndike, Casson, Redgrave, [[Athene Seyler]], [[John Neville (actor)|John Neville]] and Plowright.<ref name="times-chichester-1"/> The first two plays were politely received; the Chekhov production attracted rapturous notices. ''The Times'' commented, "It is doubtful if the [[Moscow Arts Theatre]] itself could improve on this production."<ref name="times-chichester-2"/> The second Chichester season the following year consisted of a revival of ''Uncle Vanya'' and two new productions—Shaw's ''[[Saint Joan (play)|Saint Joan]]'' and [[John Arden]]'s ''The Workhouse Donkey''.<ref name="times-chichester-3"/> In 1963 Olivier received another BAFTA nomination for his leading role as a schoolteacher accused of sexually molesting a student in the film ''[[Term of Trial]]''.<ref name=BAFTA/>