Celebrating Sir Alec Guinness

The centenary of the birth of Sir Alec Guinness was celebrated on Friday, 16 October, with a special Mass at Corpus Christi Church in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, followed by 'Two Halves of Guinness' a one-man show performed by Trevor Littledale telling the life story of the great actor.

For many years Alec Guinness lead the Catholic Stage Guild (now the Catholic Association of Performing Arts - CAPA) and often popped into Corpus Christi.

During the Mass, Fr Alan Robinson, Chaplain to the Association said members of the acting profession have a vocation, to "to show us ourselves".

Alec Guinness had been a very accomplished and versatile actor, Fr Robinson said. Kind Hearts and Coronets', in which he played eight members of the D'Ascoyne family, was one of his own most favourite films. (Besides Whatever Happened to Baby Jane).

After the Mass, the party moved to the Club for Acts and Actors nearby, where actor Trevor Littledale gave a superb performance of 'Two Halves of Guinness' - Mark Burgess’ funny and insightful one-man show.

Fast moving and funny, the play opens in the late 1970s, as a whole new generation is getting to know the actor in a role he was less interested in - Obi-Wan Kenobi - in the Star Wars blockbuster series. Sir Alec then takes us back to his strange, rather lonely childhood with a mystery hanging over the identity of his father. The acting profession seems the only one he is suited for. He reflects on his early struggles in the acting profession - encounters with Dame Edith Evans, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Laurence Olivier and many others - his war service in the Navy, his family, his conversion to Catholicism, his thoughts on acting, and his shattering insecurity.

Littledale gives a virtuoso performance as this complex, enigmatic person - as well as giving us glimpses of many of the other characters in the great actor's life.

For more information on the Catholic Association of Performing Arts, see: www.catholicassociationofperformingarts.org.uk/