The Dresser is a successful 1980 West End and Broadway play by Ronald Harwood, which tells the story of an aging actor's personal assistant, who struggles to keep his charge's life together.
It was adapted as a 1983 film, based on a screenplay by Harwood. The film was directed by Peter Yates and produced by Yates with Ronald Harwood. The cinematography was by Kelvin Pike. The film version of The Dresser stars Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Zena Walker, Eileen Atkins, Michael Gough and Edward Fox. Finney and Courtenay were both nominated for Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards and Golden Globe Awards for their performances, with Courtenay winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama in a tie with Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies.Synopsis
The Dresser opens with a performance of King Lear at a regional theatre in England during the last days of World War II. In the title role is an ageing, once-famous Shakespearean actor identified to us only as "Sir" (Albert Finney). He is of the old, bombastic school of British acting, full of grand gestures and fine oratory. As the curtain comes down on the last act, and as the actors line up for their curtain call, Sir lectures them on the mistakes they've made during the performance, showing us that he is the leader of this travelling band of actors bringing Shakespeare to the provinces during wartime.
Actors