The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan
Edited by John Lahr
Hardcover: 420 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc
ISBN: 1582341605
Kenneth Tynan came to prominence as drama critic
for England's The Observer where he championed the
New Wave in theatre, passionately praising John
Osborne's Look Back in Anger as "the best young
play of its decade." Possessing a stinging, often
wicked, wit, his influence was great and even
frightening. To prevent Tynan from pillaging him
in print, Laurence Olivier invited the critic to
serve as a consultant for the National Theatre from
1962-1971 where Tynan felt frustrated that, as a
critic, he observed rather than created art,
becoming "everybody's advisor...and nobody's boss,
not even my own."
By the time he began his diaries
in 1971, he was already suffering from the
hereditary form of emphysema that would claim his
life nine years later, and attempting to pay for a
lifestyle too lavish for his dwindling finances.
After emigrating to California in 1976 where his
second wife, Kathleen, "rented a huge
movie-star-type house for us in Santa Monica," Tynan wonders, "What have I done - more ominously,
what am I going to have to do to deserve all
this?"
What Tynan wanted to do is stage a sequel to the
controversial revue Oh, Calcutta which he created,
finish a biography of Wilhelm Reich that he had
been contracted to write, and find financing for a
sex film he hoped to direct. The sequel came to
pass, as did a job writing six profiles for the New
Yorker (where he had been employed for two seasons
as the magazine's drama critic), but the book was
never completed, and the film proved nothing more
than a dream. But Tynan found comfort and a
certain artistic satisfaction in what he calls "the
last refuge of whatever ego one has" - his
diary.
The private scribbling of famous writers have a
voyeuristic allure. Even if the words are written
with eventual publication in mind (and what diary
is not?), the reader hopes to see the luminary the
way the reader sees himself: with every blemish
exposed and maneuvering his uncertain way through
the booby traps of life. The Diaries of Kenneth
Tynan do not disappoint. Page after page reveals a
highly intelligent man as mercilessly honest when
critiquing himself as he is in critiquing others.
"I don't mind failing," he writes, "so long as the
air is filled with cries of incredulity and
compassion." Of Olivier, he says, "He does not
trust anybody. He does not understand
participation."
There are insightful takes on
Ethel Merman, Jerry Lewis, Richard Burton and
Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Miles Davis, Gore
Vidal and other celebrities whom Tynan either met
or whose performances he witnessed with an eye
unclouded by the smoke from the publicity
machine.
But Tynan doesn't need to drop famous names to hold
the attention. He offers illuminating thoughts on
a wide range of topics, including economics
("Inflation rides high," he notes in 1973, "and I
believe intentionally. A super-rich class is being
built on top of the existing structure..."), the
difference between theatre and film ("The greatest
films are those which show how society shapes man.
The greatest plays are those which show how man
shapes society"), politics (Tynan was a socialist)
and sex, the taboos against which he was devoted to
shattering.
A devotee of sado-masochism, Tynan does
not shy away from recording, in vivid detail, his
fondness for spanking. Some sensational passages
are devoted to his exploits, but when read as a
whole with the entries documenting his failing
health and wounded spirit, they simply serve to
complete the portrait of a fiercely gifted but
disappointed man who pursued pleasure to escape his
very real physical and psychological pain.
The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan are often funny,
occasionally shocking, and always sad, wise and
readable. The cover blurb gets it right: this is
"compelling literature."
Brian W. Fairbanks
Entertainment Editor
Entertainment...
