Editing Ralph Richardson (section)

===Old Vic, 1930–32===
{{Hatnote|Details of Richardson's work, 1930–32: [[List of roles and awards of Ralph Richardson#rrS30|Stage]]}}
[[File:Old Vic0185.JPG|thumb|alt=external view of front of Victorian theatre|right|The [[The Old Vic|Old Vic]] (photographed in 2012)]]
In 1930 Richardson, with some misgivings, accepted an invitation to join [[The Old Vic]] company. The theatre, in an unfashionable location south of the [[River Thames|Thames]], had offered inexpensive tickets for opera and drama under its proprietor [[Lilian Baylis]] since 1912. Its profile had been raised considerably by Baylis's producer, [[Harcourt Williams]], who in 1929 persuaded the young West End star [[John Gielgud]] to lead the drama company. For the following season Williams wanted Richardson to join, with a view to succeeding Gielgud from 1931 to 1932. Richardson agreed, though he was not sure of his own suitability for a mainly Shakespearean repertoire, and was not enthusiastic about working with Gielgud: "I found his clothes extravagant, I found his conversation flippant. He was the New Young Man of his time and I didn't like him."<ref name=h67/>

The first production of the season was ''[[Henry IV, Part 1]]'', with Gielgud as Hotspur and Richardson as Prince Hal; the latter was thought by ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' "vivacious, but a figure of modern comedy rather than Shakespeare."<ref name=m327/> Richardson's notices, and the relationship of the two leading men, improved markedly when Gielgud, who was playing [[Prospero]], helped Richardson with his performance as [[Caliban]] in ''[[The Tempest]]'':
{{blockquote|He gave me about two hundred ideas, as he usually does, twenty-five of which I eagerly seized on, and when I went away I thought, "This chap, you know, I don't like him very much but by God he knows something about this here play."{{space}}... And then out of that we formed a friendship.<ref name=h67>Hayman, p. 67</ref>|}}
The friendship and professional association lasted until the end of Richardson's life. Gielgud wrote in 1983, "Besides cherishing our long years of work together in the theatre, where he was such an inspiring and generous partner, I grew to love him in private life as a great gentleman, a rare spirit, fair and balanced, devotedly loyal and tolerant and, as a companion, bursting with vitality, curiosity and humour."<ref>Gielgud, John. "A great gentleman, a rare spirit", ''The Observer'', 16 October 1983, p. 9</ref> Among Richardson's other parts in his first Old Vic season, Enobarbus in ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'' gained particularly good notices. ''[[The Morning Post]]'' commented that it placed him in the first rank of Shakespearean actors.<ref name=m327/> At the beginning of 1931 Baylis re-opened [[Sadler's Wells Theatre]] with a production of ''Twelfth Night'' starring Gielgud as Malvolio and Richardson as [[Toby Belch|Sir Toby Belch]]. [[William Aubrey Darlington|W. A. Darlington]] in ''The Daily Telegraph'' wrote of Richardson's "ripe, rich and mellow Sir Toby, [which] I would go many miles to see again."<ref>Miller, p. 40</ref>

During the summer break between the Old Vic 1930–31 and 1931–32 seasons, Richardson played at the [[Festival Theatre, Malvern|Malvern Festival]], under the direction of his old Birmingham director, Ayliff.<ref name=roles/> Salaries at the Old Vic and the Festival were not large, and Richardson was glad of a job as an extra in the 1931 film ''[[Dreyfus (1931 film)|Dreyfus]]''.<ref>Miller, p. 62</ref> As his wife's condition worsened he needed to pay for more and more nursing; she was looked after in a succession of hospitals and care homes.<ref>O'Connor, p. 59</ref>

Succeeding Gielgud as leading man at the Old Vic, Richardson had a varied season, in which there were conspicuous successes interspersed with critical failures. [[James Agate]] was not convinced by him as the domineering [[Petruchio]] in ''The Taming of the Shrew''; in ''Julius Caesar'' the whole cast received tepid reviews.<ref>"The Old Vic", ''The Times'', 26 January 1932, p. 10; and Miller, p. 47</ref> In ''Othello'' Richardson divided the critics. He emphasised the plausible charm of the murderous [[Iago]] to a degree that Agate thought "very good Richardson, but indifferent Shakespeare",<ref>Agate (1934), p. 87</ref> whereas ''[[The Times]]'' said, "He never stalked or hissed like a plain villain, and, in fact, we have seldom seen a man smile and smile and be a villain so adequately."<ref>"The Old Vic", ''The Times'', 9 March 1932, p. 10</ref> His biggest success of the season was as [[Nick Bottom|Bottom]] in ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]''. Both Agate and Darlington commented on how the actor transformed the character from the bumbling workman to the magically changed creature on whom [[Titania (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Titania]] dotes. Agate wrote that most of those who had played the part hitherto "seem to have thought Bottom, with the ass's head on, was the same Bottom, only funnier. Shakespeare says he was 'translated', and Mr Richardson translated him."<ref>Hobson, p. 39</ref> With [[Sybil Thorndike]] as a guest star and Richardson as Ralph, ''[[The Knight of the Burning Pestle]]'' was a hit with audiences and critics,<ref>"The Old Vic", ''The Times'', 5 January 1932, p. 10; "The Grocer's Boy", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 6 January 1932, p. 8; and [[Ivor Brown|Brown, Ivor]], "The Week's Theatres", ''The Observer'', 10 January 1932, p. 11</ref> as was a revival of ''Twelfth Night'', with [[Edith Evans]] as Viola and Richardson again playing Sir Toby, finishing the season to renewed praise.<ref>"The Old Vic", ''The Times'', 30 March 1932, p. 8; "Twelfth Night", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 30 March 1932, p. 11; and Brown, Ivor, "Old Vic – Twelfth Night", ''The Observer'', 3 April 1932, p. 14</ref>