The play's subject may be un-attractive, but the play itself has a continuing tension that no good playgoer will care to miss." The Times Anna Massey shows in the playing of this onerous part a notable advance on anything she has done previously, and Janina Faye would hardly be bettered as the slobberingly helpless child who presents to the never-say-die teacher a mind that seems hermetically sealed off from communication. She is tough she has common sense, perseverance, and a single-minded determination to achieve the impossible and she is not troubled by any sense of personal dignity. An adolescent Irish girl - Annie Sullivan, of Baltimore - who is made her governess, has herself been cured of blindness after nine serious operations. He has to show the child as little better than a wild animal and to make the point that her worst enemies are her parents who indulge their natural pity at her expense. In a swift succession of small scenes scattered about the stage he hardly ever puts a foot wrong. William Gibson's reporting feat has been made possible only by his inspired selection of the facts. It describes how a child born blind, mute and deaf is brought by what seems a miracle of patience in the teacher to the point at which education may begin. "This is dramatic reporting at its very best.
But the last performance will not be for a very long time indeed." The Daily Express
The Miracle Worker will not be remembered for a week after the last performance. As the animal growing into a human being, Janina Pave reproduces with great and touching effect what she has been taught. She does not do the real character justice but she does William Gibson's tough, cocky, whippet-thin with determination.
#James keller the miracle worker professional
Mr Gibson, in fact, is a professional an absolute master of doing precisely what he is able to do. Mr Gibson makes us cry when he wants us to, laugh when he wants us to, sweat when he wants us to. For it is THEATRE - lurid, barnstorming, sentimental, meticulously-worked, hand-wrought, built-to-last, amazingly effective, theatre. So we go down to the third level, and on that - where, make no mistake, the author fully intends it to be - The Miracle Worker works its own small miracle. So they were, perhaps, in the incredible story, and drama is selection, but here the selection is throughout too sharp, too cunning. Too many of the situations are cliches, too many of the lines, the characters, the scene-building, the curtain lines and stage pictures. Secondly, one might treat it seriously as a play, a drama, which speaks the tongue that Shakespeare spoke. There is in the story, of course, but the play does not even begin to go deeply enough into the almost incredible will that Annie Sullivan must have had: there is no suggestion that here was one of the most remarkable women of all time. I have a nasty feeling that the air elsewhere is thick this morning with 'the triumphant affirmation of the human spirit,' but there is no such thing here. "There are three levels at which one can consider The Miracle Worker, and on two of them, it is hardly worth five minutes consideration. Directed by Peter Coe with designs by Sean Kenny. The cast featured Anna Massey as 'Annie Sullivan', Janina Faye as 'Helen Keller', John Robinson as 'Captain Keller', Dilys Hamlett as 'Kate Keller', Derek Fowlds as 'James Keller' with David Waller and Ann Wilton. Transferred, Closed 28 October 1961 at the Wyndham's Theatre Opened 9 March 1961, Closed at the Royalty Theatre (now Peacock Theatre) The Miracle Worker: 1st London West End Revival 1994 The Miracle Worker: London Revival (Westminster Theatre) 1988 The Miracle Worker: Original London West End Production 1961 A play that is at times deeply moving, at times wonderfully funny and at all times a tingle with theatrical excitement. The epic life story of Helen Keller, struck deaf, dumb and blind in her infancy, and Annie Sullivan who fought against all odds to achieve the miracle of teaching Helen language and understanding. Play by William Gibson adapted from his 1957 television play of the same name which was based on Helen Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life.