Words from Ian McKellen

Next term I landed a wonderful part, the tutor to Vera who adores him as much as he adores her mother. One night the leading lady asked me not to kiss her on the lips as her husband would be in the audience: a bit odd I thought but then I was starting to take acting very seriously. I wasn't much comfortable pretending to fancy women as much as Beliaev does; but I did my best. — Ian McKellen, December 2006

Comments and Reviews

"Ian McKellen showed very convincingly the character changes of the young tutor: at first shy with his employers and buoyant with the children, then, after Natalya's declaration of love, suddenly growing up as he makes his important decision to go away." — Cambridge Daily News, 4 February 1959