A Tribute To David Mercer
Aldwych TheatreSunday 26 October 1980
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Those taking part include:
Joan Bakewell
Anna Cropper
Frank Finlay
Barry Foster
Bettina Jonic
David Halliwell
Nigel Hawthorne
Michael Hordern
David Jones
Adrian Mitchell
Brian Phelan
Harold Pinter
Jonathan Pryce
Alan Sillitoe
Don Taylor
David Warner
Stage Manager: Titus Grant
Sound Operator: John Leonard
Arranged by Christopher Morahan and Barry Hanson
In 1971 Frank played Bernard Link, the socialist middle-aged theatre critic in Mercer's After Haggerty for the RSC. The play was a great success, transferring to the West End and co-starring Billie Whitelaw.
In the late 1960's Mercer was part of a group instigated by film & TV producer Tony Garnett of actors, writers and directors, including Ken Loach, Roy Battersby and Corin and Vanessa Redgrave who would meet at Tony Garnett's cottage. These meetings would form the basis of the Trevor Griffiths's play, The Party (1973) which tackles a series of debates between a group of socialist intellectuals on the contemporary state and future hopes of Marxism in a capitalist world set against the background of the Paris riots.
In The Party Frank played Malcolm Sloman - the heavy drinking Marxist playwright - an informal portrait of Mercer.
