`Another Time' author in love with artist's life

British playwright Ronald Harwood does not simply write for thetheater. He is an enthusiast of the medium - a man with a boundlessappetite for every aspect of the stage.

He began his career as an actor. Born in Cape Town, SouthAfrica in 1934, he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy ofDramatic Art, and performed from 1953-60. Along the way, he alsoserved an actor. His experiences as an assistant to Donald Wolfitwere the inspiration for his 1980 play, "The Dresser." He laterwrote the screenplay for the 1983 film version of that play, whichstarred Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay.

Harwood also has written several books about actors, including abiography of Wolfit, and portraits of John Gielgud and Alec Guinness.

And he has been a chronicler of theater history, too. In1984, he wrote and presented a 13-part program on the subject for theBBC.

These days, the playwright is making a rare foray into directingas he stages his 1989 drama, "Another Time." The play, firstpresented in London, where it was directed by Elijah Moshinsky, isthe opening show at Steppenwolf's new home.

Recently, before settling down to chat about his play, Harwoodled his interviewer on an impromptu tour of Steppenwolf's largerehearsal studio, enumerating its virtues with such pride that hesounded as if he had been with the company since its earliest days inHighland Park.

"They have built such a wonderful auditorium here," he said."The theater really is a place for auditors - for listeners - andthis space has been wonderfully designed for the spoken word."

Harwood, who is directing his friend Finney in the localpremiere of his play, makes no bones about the fact that "AnotherTime" is "largely autobiographical."

"The artist at the center of my play is a musician, which I amnot, although my daughter, who is studying composition at Juilliard,was a prodigy," he said. "Otherwise, though, the play is about me,and about my parents' marriage, and about the nature of living inexile. And it's about using political stances to camouflage privateemotions."

Harwood began to write "Another Time" 20 years ago. He wasinspired in part by Laurence Olivier's towering production of EugeneO'Neill's devastating family portrait, "Long Day's Journey IntoNight" and also by a need to write about his father, "for whom I hada great fondness, and who died when I was 15."

"But after writing about 10 pages of the script, I realized Icouldn't finish it while my mother was still alive," he said. "Shedied about five years ago, and only then did I pick it up again."

Harwood was the son of Jewish immigrants who settled in Englandlater made their way to South Africa. The family name was Horwitz,but the playwright changed it to "Harwood."

"I left South Africa in 1951 for reasons of ambition, notpolitics," said Harwood. "But being born there, you can never befree of it. And in fact, the very first thing I ever wrote was anovel, Articles of Faith, inspired by the Sharpeville massacre in1960, when blacks were gunned down at a mass demonstration."

At this time, Harwood, after seeing brilliant stage performancesby Peter O'Toole, Tom Courtenay and Finney, realized he was "not agood enough actor" and began to switch careers.

One of the principal themes in "Another Time" is the mysteriousnature of talent and how it can be shaped or deformed by familyrelations.

"I don't really know what the source of artistic genius is," hesaid. "But I do know that some people who are born with a `gift,'lack `talent,' which is the ability to develop and enrich it."

Harwood is enjoying his work with the Steppenwolf cast. "Theyare wonderful actors, but very different from their Britishcounterparts," he said. "While British actors naturally dig into thetext and discover its meaning, American actors are much more used toaction and demonstration. I have told them on a number of occasionsthat `I ban would-be playwrights from rehearsals.' But this cast isextraordinarily dedicated and hard-working, and they have none of thearrogance you find in English theater. Really, I think Americanactors have an inferiority complex."

Meanwhile, he has completed a new play, "Reflected Glory,"scheduled for a January, 1992, premiere in London, with Finney againplaying a leading role.

"It's the story of two brothers from Manchester," he said. "Oneof them owns a restaurant and has quite a public profile. The otheris a playwright and director with a small experimental theatercompany who has just written a play called `The Brothers' in whichall the family secrets are revealed. And the action involves aprivate family gathering at which the play is performed as a test ofacceptability.

"It's really about the betrayal of family, and the cruelty andruthlessness of playwrights. It's a comedy that in some ways isabout the fun of being Jewish."