I thought I knew Lenny Henry.....
Long standing comic, noisy Guffawer, crazy presenter of TV shows, co-founder of Comic Relief.
That's your lot. That's what I knew, what I thought I knew.
BUT THEN I heard how he'd made the most brilliant of Othellos for Northern Broadsides.....
How his talent for Shakespeare had emerged like sharp triumphant arrows flying to some theatrical bulleseye.
THEN someone I know saw his "Comedy Of Errors"........and she was equally riveted. AND believe me, THIS ( particular) LADY is not easily riveted...
.
SO when he was coming to Theatr Clwyd(
www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk ) in a production of "Fences" ( director: Paulette Randall, associate director for 2012 Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games, among other things) we had to go.
" Fences" was written by August Wilson ( hailed as "perhaps the greatest American stage poet since Tennessee Williams") and was 1st produced in 1987.
AND this play provided Lenny H with the most superb of characters and scripts....in which he gave a performance that stunned us.
Movingly, tragically, amusingly...only a handful of years back, he was an Undiscovered Actor....
BUT he's now well and truly DISCOVERED.
Thank Heavens indeed!!