Words from Ian McKellen

Of its first production on the West End stage, the critic Kenneth Tynan wrote 'Donald Wolfit and Ernest Milton upstage each other to the greater glory of God.' Miscast in the Wolfit role, as the heavyweight martyr Don Fernandez, I learnt little except that Hochwaelder's dialogue was not a patch on Shakespeare's. — Ian McKellen, December 2006

Comments and Reviews

"The acting of I. M. McKellen, as the Father Provincial, who meets his death in checking the rebellion he has authored, is sure, delicate and clear, though he and others should cultivate greater variety of inflexion and pace." — Bolton Evening News, 26 March 1958

"Some characterizations, notably that of the Father Provincial himself, were remarkably sensitive and explicit." — The Times Educational Supplement — 4 April 1958