Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Peacock Tynanwas an English theatre critic and writer. Making his initial impact as a critic at The Observer, he praised Osborne's Look Back in Anger, and encouraged the emerging wave of British theatrical talent. In 1963, Tynan was appointed as the new National Theatre Company's literary manager...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth2 April 1927
feelings doubt intuition
When a society has doubts about its future, it tends to produce spokesmen whose main appeal is to the emotions, who argue from intuitions, and whose claim to be truth-bearers rests solely on intense personal feeling.
unique doubt cherish
The unique thing about Margaret Rutherford is that she can act with her chin alone. Among its many moods I especially cherish the chin commanding, the chin in doubt, and the chin at bay.
doubt wish looks
I doubt if I could love anyone who did not wish to see Look Back in Anger.
coward exactly fifty mean sort youngest
Even the youngest of us will know, in fifty years' time, exactly what we mean by 'a very Noel Coward sort of person'.
dramatist instincts
A dramatist is a congenital eavesdropper with the instincts of a Peeping Tom.
forty might pan peter slightly wholly
Forty years ago, he was Slightly in Peter Pan, and you might say that he has been wholly in Peter Pan ever since.
men print critics
Western man, especially the Western critic, still find it very had to go into print and say: "I recommend you to go and see this because it gave me an erection."
vulnerable gregarious gifted
Everyone is vulnerable who is at once gifted and gregarious.
years car wish
Does the critic wish to influence the kind of film that costs more than £250,000? It is as if he were to send a postcard to General Motors explaining that he would like them to make a raft next year, or a helicopter, instead of a car.
men artist cry
The man who reacts to the universe with a cry of impotent anguish is acceptable as an artist only if he can persuade us that he has sanely considered the other possible reactions and found them inadequate.
play ends felt
When you've seen all of Ionesco's plays, I felt at the end, you've seen one of them.
believe would-be needs
I hope I never need to believe in God. It would be an awful confession of failure.
country political censorship
Any country that has sexual censorship will eventually have political censorship.
hatred lasts i-can
A useful word previously unknown to me: 'ergophobia', meaning 'fear or hatred of work'. At last I can define myself in one word.