Jonathan Miller, Artist, Comedian and Physician to Discuss After-Life of Plays

CONTACT: Philip Montgomery
PHONE: (713) 831-4792
E-MAIL: pmontgom@rice.edu

JONATHAN MILLER, ARTIST, COMEDIAN AND PHYSICIAN TO DISCUSS AFTER-LIFE
OF PLAYS

Founder and star of the comedy troupe “Beyond the
Fringe,” director of operas, and the physician responsible for award-winning BBC
productions, Jonathan Miller will present a lecture at Rice University titled
“The After-Life of Plays.”

The event will be held at 5 p.m. on Oct. 6 in the Stude Concert Hall in Alice
Pratt Brown Hall. The talk is sponsored by the Friends of Fondren Library with
partial funding from The Brown Foundation.

His most recent book, “Subsequent Performances,” discusses the
responsibilities and rights of a director of a classic work when the passage of
time begins to impose awkward problems of re-creation and interpretation.

Miller may be best known as co-author and performer in “Beyond the Fringe,” a
television comedy show that aired from 1961 to 1964. That show inspired a
generation of future programs including “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and
“Saturday Night Live.”

After his stint in television comedy, he turned his talents to producing
Shakespeare’s plays for England’s National Theater including the “Merchant of
Venice” with Sir Lawrence Olivier and Joan Plowright. His nonShakespearean
productions include Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night” with Jack
Lemmon.

He is also an accomplished director and producer of numerous operas. In 1986,
he directed a highly acclaimed “Tosca” at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, which
subsequently transferred to the English National Opera and which was later
revived at Houston Grand Opera. In 1991, he produced Janacek’s “Katya Kabanova”
for the New York Metropolitan Opera.

Medicine and science have also attracted Miller, who earned a doctor of
medicine at University College in London in 1959. He developed the BBC-TV series
on the history of medicine called “The Body in Question.” He also wrote two
best-selling books: “The Human Body” and “The Facts of Life.”

Miller is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy and an Albert Medalist for
the Royal Society of the Arts.

For more information, call the Friends of Fondren at (713) 285-5157.

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