Simon Gray

Bobo's still filling in gaps in his knowledge. Just finished *Otherwise Engaged,* Simon Gray's play from 1975 that Pinter directed and Alan Bates starred in along with Ian Charleson (the BBC Julius Caesar and All's Well, and of course Chariots of Fire) and Nigel Hawthorne (much later, The Madness of King George). *Otherwise* has a cast of seven; central guy is onstage throughout; literate fellow is hassled by a series of eccentrics, only you find out at the end that they're normal and he's the callous, unfeeling, self-centered one. Brilliantly witty.

Makes me want to read *Butley* (guy's wife and male lover leave him on the same day; recently with Nathan Lane in New York) and Quartermaine's Terms (hopelessly lonely teachers in their break room).

Simon Gray died last August. He was 71.

[ photo: Simon Gray, from iconoclast.com; read the 11/29/08 article there on "How Simon Gray and Pinter patched it up" ]

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