Gough and Chekhov

[sawyl]

I was sad to learn that Michael Gough, Alfred in Tim Burton's Batman, has died at the ripe old age of 94. I have happy — if such a thing can be said of Chekhov — memories of seeing Gough as Firs in a production of The Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych in, I think, 1989. I remember being impressed by the stellar cast, which included Judi Dench and Ronald Pickup, and being really wowed by Chekhov's strange mix of farce and pathos — the perfect thing to appeal to a morose, literature obsessed teenager.