Editing Michael Hordern (section)

====Return to Stratford-upon-Avon and ''Jumpers'' revival====

In 1976 Hordern joined the [[Royal Shakespeare Company|RSC]] in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he appeared as Prospero for [[Trevor Nunn]] in ''The Tempest'', an engagement which the actor found to be unpleasant because of his poor relationship with the show's director, [[Clifford Williams (actor)|Clifford Williams]].<ref name="HORDERN143" /> After that came a short run of ''Love's Labour's Lost'' in which he played Don Adriano de Armado opposite [[Alan Rickman]] and [[Zoë Wanamaker]]. Hordern was the oldest member of the company and found it difficult to adjust to the behaviour and attitudes of some of the younger and less experienced actors. He found it different from the 1950s: non-intimate, characterless, and lacking in morale because management preferred discipline rather than offering guidance and assistance to their young actors.<ref>Hordern, p. 144.</ref> Writing in his 1993 autobiography, Hordern wrote: "Being at Stratford again after all these years was rather like being on a battleship or an aircraft carrier that doesn't often come into harbour. You are at sea for long periods and away from the rest of your service and if the captain of your ship is a good one then the ship is happy; if not, then the commission you serve is very unhappy because you are a long way from land. At Stratford that season I was a long way from land."<ref>Hordern, p. 145.</ref> Later, in 1976, Hordern portrayed the kingly father of the Prince (played by [[Richard Chamberlain]]) in the musical film adaptation of ''[[Cinderella]]'', ''[[The Slipper and the Rose]]'', for which he received a nomination for the [[BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role]],<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160311153159/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b635dea "The Slipper and the Rose"], [[British Film Institute]], accessed 18 February 2016.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Supporting Actor |url=https://www.bafta.org/awards/film/supporting-actor |access-date=20 February 2025 |website=Bafta }}</ref> and returned to the role of George in Stoppard's ''Jumpers'' at the Lyttelton Theatre.<ref>[http://archive.spectator.co.uk/page/2nd-october-1976/28 "''Jumpers''"], ''The Spectator'', 1 October 1976, p. 28.</ref>{{#tag:ref|The Lyttelton Theatre is one of three separate auditoriums which form the [[Royal National Theatre]]. It was named after [[Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos|Oliver Lyttelton]], the National Theatre's first board chairman. It can accommodate an audience of 890 people.<ref name="NATIONAL">[http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/backstage/lyttelton-theatre "Littleton Theatre"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213191458/http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/backstage/lyttelton-theatre |date=13 February 2016 }}, Nationaltheatre.org, accessed 23 January 2016.</ref>|group= n}} The theatre critic Kenneth Hurren "enjoyed it immoderately" and thought the revival revealed a "tidier play than it look[ed]". Hordern compared it to the 1972 version by saying: "It is unquestionably a busy little number, and my first impression of the piece, back in 1972, was that it had more decoration than substance, and that the decoration was more chaotic than coherent."<ref name="NATIONAL" />