Poster available in A2 or A3:
Doris Lessing, the novelist, saw Fenella perform in LUV at The Arts Theatre in 1963. Fenella said she was lovely and they became friends but fifty years later, she recalled what the writer had said about her performance. ‘Fenella, you don’t know what you’re doing on stage there. It’s so marvellous.’
I thought, ‘What does she mean, I don’t know what I’m doing? I know precisely what I’m doing. I’ve chosen each thing that she’s praised and decided to do it like that; emphasise this, throw away that. Even the way I stand. It’s all worked out.’
What she meant was, ‘It’s amazing you’ve been able to play this part because we all know you’re just a fun actress and here you are getting all of these very clever points in. I can’t think how you’ve done it.’

Let me put it in one word. Patronising. Although she meant it kindly, it is the department of fucking cheek.