Posted by Violet Dutchbogger on Facebook, here
Here it is in black and white – reference to Richard Armitage’s appearance in The Hobbit early on, and some information that I don’t recall ever seeing, i.e. his amateur roles ot a theater stint in Hungary.
Armitage Agonistes 
I didn’t know about Orpheus, Perry. I’ve seen a couple of entertaining performances of this operetta – really funny – but, interestingly, Bacchus is a speaking role, iirc, so Richard never got to sing. Shame.
LikeLike
I saw that when I looked it up on IMDB. Seems like a very small role, but I don’t know as I have not seen it. I didn’t know he did anything that early overseas, except the circus.
LikeLike
Yes, I had to look it up on IMDb too, Perry, because I didn’t remember Bacchus. My father-in-law took me to see it in London years ago and I enjoyed it so much that I made sure I caught it again when it went on tour of the UK. Here’s a fun French production featuring the ‘can-can’ (watch to the very end) where the sexy, bearded Jupiter looks a lot like RA: a much better part for him, LOL, but not when he was so young!
LikeLike
Flautist! – Versatile musician.
LikeLike
Yes. He’s mentioned that before. Easier to carry around than a cello.
LikeLike
The theater stint is already referenced on Richard Armitage Online and it is simply the formal title of the circus production he was involved in: http://richardarmitageonline.com/richard-armitage-biography.html Richard Armitage Online also gives a 1999 newspaper reference to the Hobbit / Alex Theatre.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I guess it’s true that everything old is new again. Gives me the impetus to spend time on the site, which I haven’t done in ages.
LikeLike
I absolutely think there is still potentially stuff to be uncovered (his interview with TAC suggested that old tv commercials might be one place to look) but the obvious places have all been combed through fairly thoroughly. Many of the early fans were academics / researchers of some kind and they were pretty aggressive in looking for theater materials. I asked Annette about it once and she said that some fans helped out by going to theatre archives.
re: spending time on the site: every time I go back there I find things I’d forgotten. It makes me wish he’d do more UK radio interviews, too, because some of those early ones were really interesting and revealing. Of course, he also has his defenses up higher these days.
LikeLike
I’m guessing that Annette at least had this program, because that photo is included on her site. She and many of the early fans did extensive research on theater programs looking for stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Coventry Telegraph article that she references, though, because if she had had a paper copy she would have posted a copy of it when the link expired (that was her normal practice). I’m guessing that the photo made it from RAO to RichardArmitageNet.com, but the article didn’t as Ali doesn’t have it there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just looking through the bio I think there are many works that a lot of newer (twitter) fans may not know about – but then, maybe they’re not interested. I’m definitely going to spend some time re-reading old interviews – should be interesting comparing him then to now. I’ve never had the knowledge at my fingertips as you and others have – I may recall he said something about this or that – but no idea where to find it without starting at the beginning.
LikeLike
I’m professionally trained to think this way, fwiw. All of the sites have chronology as their basic organizing principle, which puts me at a huge advantage. It’s unfortunate — given how much time Richard Armitage Central has put into transcribing things — that they are available only as pdfs and not searchable, but I assume that they did that for copyright reasons.
LikeLike
Pingback: richard armitage + dance + “the circus”: a thought exercise on the self and biography | Me + Richard Armitage
Great photo. What a young charmer!
LikeLike