Vibrant dancer, singer and actor – a leading light of the Lindsay Kemp Company and striking presence in films by Derek Jarman
Jack Birkett, who has died aged 75, was a performer with the Lindsay Kemp Company, whose stylised theatrical language permitted him to blend ferocity with camp comedy, tragedy with menace, and lyricism with grotesqueness. The company's emotionally intense fusion of dance, theatre, mime and spectacle took Jack around the world on a wave of popularity from the 1960s to the 1980s.
In 1966 Jack began to lose his sight. Through painstaking determination, he mentally charted many stages and backstages and despite the cuts and bruises from mishaps, he refused to ever be tentative in his roles. After he had become entirely blind, he grew more extreme in his performances and his persona. His change of name to The Incredible Orlando mirrored this transformation.
Jack was born into a working-class family in Leeds.
Jack Birkett, who has died aged 75, was a performer with the Lindsay Kemp Company, whose stylised theatrical language permitted him to blend ferocity with camp comedy, tragedy with menace, and lyricism with grotesqueness. The company's emotionally intense fusion of dance, theatre, mime and spectacle took Jack around the world on a wave of popularity from the 1960s to the 1980s.
In 1966 Jack began to lose his sight. Through painstaking determination, he mentally charted many stages and backstages and despite the cuts and bruises from mishaps, he refused to ever be tentative in his roles. After he had become entirely blind, he grew more extreme in his performances and his persona. His change of name to The Incredible Orlando mirrored this transformation.
Jack was born into a working-class family in Leeds.
- 5/28/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
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