Editing Michael Hordern (section)

====''Jumpers''====

The playwright [[Tom Stoppard]] approached Hordern in 1971 with a view to him playing a leading part in<ref name="HORDERN132-133">Hordern, pp. 132–133.</ref> the playwright's new play ''[[Jumpers (play)|Jumpers]]'', a comic satire based around the field of academic philosophy.<ref>Hordern, p. 132.</ref> Hordern was to play George Moore, a bumbling old philosophy professor, who is employed at a modern university and who, throughout the play, is in constant debate with himself over his moral values.<ref name="HORDERN132-133" /> Hordern, though thinking the play was brilliant, disliked the script on the initial read-through as he did not understand its complex situations and strange dialogue. His co-star would be [[Diana Rigg]], who played Moore's wife Dotty, and the entire piece was to be directed by [[Peter Wood (director)|Peter Wood]].<ref>Hordern, p. 133.</ref>

''Jumpers'' was scheduled to appear at the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] at the start of 1972, but encountered problems when the theatre's director, Laurence Olivier, called the play "unintelligible" before walking out during the first read-through in disgust. Despite this, rehearsals went ahead, which the cast found difficult; the play featured many scenes, a complicated script, and relied heavily on the opening scene, a sceptical speech about the existence of God which lasted 13 minutes. In his autobiography, Hordern commented: "Each day my fists would sink into my cardigan pockets as I tried to make sense of it all."<ref name="HORDERN134">Hordern, p. 134.</ref> In a meeting shortly before the opening night, Olivier complained to Stoppard that the play was overlong and, in some parts, laborious. Stoppard agreed to reduce the epilogue by half. The decision angered Hordern as it meant the extra stress of learning a new script at short notice. He vented his frustrations on Wood who agreed to leave his character alone and instead to cut many of the other scenes.<ref name="HORDERN134" /> The final dress rehearsal also experienced disruption when the [[revolving stage]] broke down and had to be fixed half-way through. The problems had ceased by the opening performance the following evening; it was a night which Hordern called "unbelievable, one of the highlights of my career".<ref name="HORDERN135">Hordern, p. 135.</ref> The actress [[Maureen Lipman]], who was in the audience on the opening night, said that her husband, the playwright [[Jack Rosenthal]], had "laughed so hard he thought he was going to be seriously ill".<ref>Quote from Maureen Lipman; Hordern, p. 135.</ref>

The critic [[Michael Billington (critic)|Michael Billington]], writing in ''The Guardian'', gave a mixed review: "Once or twice one of Stoppard's brightly coloured balls falls to the ground, partly because Michael Hordern's moral philosopher substitutes academic mannerism for apprehension of the argument. But this is not to deny that Hordern's simian habit of scratching his left earlobe with right hand or leaning over his desk as if he is doing intellectual press-ups is very funny to watch or that he is brilliant at displaying cuckolded curiosity."<ref>The author quoting Michael Billington in ''The Guardian''; Hordern, p. 135.</ref> Harold Hobson, the drama critic, thought that failing to enjoy the play was "not actually a criminal offence but it is a sad evidence of illiteracy".<ref>The author quoting Harold Hobson; Hordern, p. 135.</ref> ''Jumpers'' won the ''Evening Standard''{{'}}s Best Play Award which, much to Hordern's amusement, was presented by the philosopher [[A. J. Ayer]].<ref name="HORDERN135" />