Jack Birkett

Jack Birkett (11 June 1934 – 10 May 2010) was a British dancer, mime artist, actor and singer, best known for his work on stage as a member of Lindsay Kemp's theatre company, and in the films of Derek Jarman. He was often billed as Orlando or The Incredible Orlando. Most of his best-known work was done when he was totally blind.

Birkett was born in Leeds, England. His mother came from a Romani family, his father left home when he was six. He attended Coldcotes School in Gipton until the age of 14, developing a passion for ballet. He worked as an art model for David Hockney and others before finding work at the Grand Theatre in Leeds in 1950 as a stage hand and lighting technician. Soon afterwards, he moved to London, working as a dancer and singer in touring shows and musicals, including the UK tour of Oklahoma! in 1952.

In 1956, Birkett met Lindsay Kemp, when they were both doing ballet classes with Marie Rambert at the Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate. According to Kemp,

Both Kemp and Birkett were flamboyant homosexuals. Kemp later wrote:

He made his West End theatre debut in Bye Bye Birdie in 1961, and also worked with Kemp's company from the early 1960s, taking part in the first Lindsay Kemp Dance Mime Company performances in 1965 that culminated in Illuminations. When working with Kemp in Italy in 1966, he began to lose his sight, attempting a variety of cures ranging from surgery to bee-stings. He nevertheless became entirely blind, but responded by growing more extreme in his performances and his persona. He played the part of Blackbird in Kemp's production of Flowers, based on Jean Genet's Our Lady of the Flowers, which briefly transferred from London to Broadway in 1974, and he continued to tour worldwide with Kemp until the late 1980s.

Described as "a muscular blind man with a completely shaven head", in performances of Turquoise Pantomime:

Birkett also made a number of TV and film appearances, notably in the work of Derek Jarman. These included portrayals of Borgia Ginz in Jarman's Jubilee (1978), Caliban in Jarman's version of The Tempest (1979) and Thersites in Jonathan Miller's Troilus and Cressida (1981)—part of the BBC Television Shakespeare series, in which Birkett delivered his lines in the manner of a drag queen. He also played the Pope in Jarman's Caravaggio (1986), and Pontius in The Garden (1990). He also appeared in the Spanish films El vent de l'illa (1988) and El niño de la luna (1989).

Birkett later retired from performing, living in Barcelona and finally in London. He studied shiatsu.[citation needed ] He was supported by long-time partner Nyako Nakar, a Spanish writer and artist. He died in London in 2010 at the age of 75.