Editing Donald Wolfit (section)

===1930s===
After further West End appearances, Wolfit joined [[Barry Jackson (director)|Sir Barry Jackson]]'s company in 1931 for a six-month tour of Canada. He played Robert Browning in ''[[The Barretts of Wimpole Street]]'', Young Marlowe in ''[[She Stoops to Conquer]]'', Joe Varwell in ''[[Yellow Sands (play)|Yellow Sands]]'', Coade in ''[[Dear Brutus]]'' and Shakespeare in ''[[The Dark Lady of the Sonnets]]''.<ref name=ww/> He overcame his hatred of Gielgud enough to accept the role of Thomas Mowbray in ''[[Richard of Bordeaux]]'' (1932) with a cast headed by Gielgud and [[Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies]]; the piece ran for more than a year.<ref>Harwood, p. 112</ref> Wolfit made a impression in 1933 in the title role of a one-night-only production of ''Hamlet'' at the [[Arts Theatre]] using the [[First Quarto]] text rather than the [[First Folio]] text usually given. ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' said:
{{blockindent|Mr Donald Wolfit definitely wins his spurs with his performance of Hamlet. ... His one fault – a common one to young actors – was to raise the pitch too high  before the closet scene, in which the note of hysteria was too dominant in consequence. But it was on the whole a very vivid piece of playing.<ref>"The First Quarto Hamlet", ''The Daily Telegraph'', 24 April 1933, p. 8</ref>|}}

Encouraged by this success Wolfit determined to try his hand as an actor-manager. He secured financial backing and staged a week-long drama festival in his native Newark in 1934. He presented ''[[Arms and the Man]]'', ''[[The Master Builder]]'' and ''[[Twelfth Night]]'', playing Bluntschli, Solness and Malvolio. Among the actors he engaged were [[John Clements (actor)|John Clements]], [[Elspeth March]], [[Margaret Rutherford]] and [[Margaret Webster]]. <ref>Harwood, p. 116</ref> In the same year, on 15 September, he married Susan Katherine Anthony; they had a son and a daughter.<ref name=dnb/> He made his first film appearance in 1934, as [[St Francis of Assisi]] in a short film called ''Inasmuch''. He appeared in other films in the 1930s, after which he did not work in films again until the 1950s.<ref>Harwood, p. 285</ref>

Wolfit joined the [[Shakespeare Memorial Theatre]] companies for the festivals of 1936 and 1937, with eight major roles in the first, including Hamlet, and five in the second.<ref name=ww/> His Hamlet was favourably reviewed by the critics and, according to his biographer [[Ronald Harwood]], "the performance of Hamlet elevated Wolfit to the ranks of leading players". The critic [[Audrey Williamson (critic)|Audrey Williamson]] wrote that although Wolfit was never as physically suited as Gielgud to the role of Hamlet, in his Stratford performances he gave the character "an electric drive and force of suffering ... There was thought behind every gesture and line and again and again one was struck by the subtlety of detail".<ref>Williamson, p. 268</ref> Another critic wrote, "Mr Wolfit has crowned his season's work with a distinguished performance not unworthy of comparison with the great Hamlets".<ref>Harwood, p. 127</ref> 
The director at Stratford was [[Ben Iden Payne]], whose daughter Rosalind Iden became Wolfit's leading lady. He fell in love with her, left his wife, and lived with Iden, eventually marrying her in 1948.<ref name=dnb>[[Ronald Harwood|Harwood, Ronald]], [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36992 "Wolfit, Sir Donald (1902–1968)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, January 2008. Retrieved 20 March 2024</ref>