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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 12 March 2019
Book casts welcome light on actress Vivien Leigh

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL lar disorder, called manic The actress who played
Associated Press depression in her day, ex- two iconic Southerners was
"Dark Star: A Biography of plains in part her failings as born Vivian Mary Hartley in
Vivien Leigh" (I.B. Tauris), by a wife and mother. It cer- Darjeeling, British India, in
Alan Strachan tainly seems to have fueled 1913, and was raised in Cal-
Playing two of the greatest her drinking, extramarital cutta. Her mother was also
female roles ever offered affairs and occasionally India-born and perhaps in
in film — Scarlett O'Hara in odd behavior, allowing a mixed-race family. Her
"Gone with the Wind" and comparisons to the faded, father, born in Scotland
Blanche DuBois in "A Street- shattered Blanche — the while his Yorkshire family
car Named Desire" — has performance that put an was visiting, had moved to
guaranteed actress Vivien Oscar next to the one for India and become wealthy
Leigh a place in popular Scarlett O'Hara. as an exchange broker. An
culture. Yet her stage work, The surprise of "Dark Star" amateur actor, he shared
often overlooked by her is that Leigh's life doesn't his pastime with his daugh-
film fans, may have been appear as sunken by sad- ter and theater became
the true showcase of her ness as it's been described her passion.
talent. elsewhere. While not down- The Hartleys sent 6-year-
Alan Strachan, a director playing the manic episodes old Vivian to England for
and a chronicler of the Brit- that damaged her career a Catholic education. Her
ish theater, gives Leigh's full — Elizabeth Taylor took over convent education con-
career a stirring reassess- the film "Elephant Walk" fol- tinued in her teens with
ment in an immensely read- lowing a Leigh breakdown schools in France, Italy and
able biography, "Dark Star." — Strachan describes the Germany. She was attend-
He argues convincingly good times, too. By his ac- ing the Royal Academy of
that there was far more to count she was a loving Dramatic Arts in London
Leigh than her mesmerizing companion, a loyal friend when she met a handsome
beauty, which could blind and a generous, amiable lawyer, Leigh Holman,
critics to the power behind colleague. His evidence whom she married in 1932.
her performances. comes from Leigh's diaries Soon a mother, she went
Strachan also pierces the and letters and those of This cover image released by I.B. Tauris shows "Dark Star: A Biog- on to seek work on the
darkness that never left relatives, friends and col- raphy of Vivien Leigh" by Alan Strachan. stage and in film under the
Leigh: mental illness. Bipo- leagues. Associated Press name Vivien Leigh.q

Devils, bandits romp at Carnival in Spanish towns

By ALVARO BARRIENTOS local Basque language.
Associated Press After sunset, covering their
ALSASUA, Spain (AP) — faces with white handker-
Dozens of devil-like figures chiefs, stuffed into sacks
dance and convulse at the full of straw, and holding a
sound of cowbells, chas- stick with an inflated ani-
ing onlookers with pitch- mal's bladder used to hit
forks in Alsasua as part of people, the Zaku Zaharrak
this northern Spanish town's characters parade for
Carnival. hours through the village
Alsasua is one of several vil- dancing and singing while
lages in this remote region a band plays music.
in the foothills of Pyrenees Meanwhile, the townsfolk
Mountains that still honor of the village of Lantz pa-
these colorful local fes- rade a giant "Miel Otxin",
tivities whose origin in un- a legendary bandit and
known. symbol of their Carnival fes-
Called "momotxorros" in the tivities. The straw filling the
Basque language, these "Miel Otxin" doll is removed
half-human and half-ani- and burnt.
mal creatures display the These traditions have been
skin of sheep on their backs celebrated for centuries,
and white long pieces of ''Txatxus'' dance during an ancient rural carnival in the small Pyrenees village of Lantz, northern days before the official
sheets stained with bright- Spain, Sunday, March 3, 2019. start of Lent, the 40-day pe-
red animal blood on the Associated Press riod when Christians around
front. the world prepare to mark
The heads are topped with ebration. for a grand finale in which the devil — and lascivious Easter, the remembrance
the horns of a bull over a In this fashion, the "mo- everyone dances in a big "sorginak," or witches. of Jesus' death. They were
basket normally used for motxorros" dance around circle. By then, they are In the nearby village of banned during the 1939-
agricultural produce, and bonfires and roam the cob- joined by other mythical Lesaka, residents dress up 1975 dictatorship of Gen.
horsehair covers the faces bled streets of this town of characters including a billy as the traditional Carnival Francisco Franco in Spain,
of anonymous revelers tak- 7,500 until everybody con- goat, known locally as an characters "Zaku Zaharrak," but have been revived
ing part in the riotous cel- verges in a central square "akerra" — representing meaning "old sack" in the since the early 1990s.q