BBC Radio 4, 29 July 2013
Sir Frederick Ashton (Jeremy Clyde)
was one of Britain's greatest choreographers, who could attract the world's best dancers to his new productions.
In 1980 he was commissioned to produce a piece to celebrate the Queen Mother's (Phyllida Law's) eightieth birthday; he chose
to create a new work based around Rachmaninov's "Variations on a Theme of Paganini," with Mikhail Baryshnikov (Gunnar Cauthery)
and Lesley Collier (Madeline Clements) playing the leading roles.
In John Taylor's production, however, Ashton came across as something of a tortured soul.
Although revelling in the attention paid to him by the Queen Mother - he eventually tried to teach her to tango, much to her
amusement - he led a difficult personal life with partner Martyn Thomas (William Beck), whom he perpetually accused of infidelity.
Whether Thomas was guilty or not was beside the point; he provided an outlet for Ashton to express his frustrations, both
sexual as well as professional. It seemed that he was not satisfied with fame or fortune; he looked for that special
something, but could never find it.
The play suggested that this was chiefly attributable to Ashton's insecurities. He was still "little
Freddie from Peru" who, in spite of his huge talent, could never quite believe that his shows would be successful with critics
and audiences alike. Rather than dealing with these problems, he preferred instead to berate the unfortunate Martyn,
who could never leave the choreographer, in spite of repeated threats to do so.
The play had a bitter-sweet ending; although the ballet
for the Queen Mother was an unqualified success (even the elderly matriarch herself enjoyed it, despite pretending not to),
Ashton ended up isolated from his long-term partner.
The production was notable for Clyde's performance as Ashton; a chameleon-like figure who
could be at once obsequiously polite to the Queen Mother (something she enjoyed greatly) yet spiteful and vindictive in front
of Martyn. No one ever knew, or perhaps cared, who "the real" Ashton was.
