REGAL LADY REDGRAVE ACTING ON HER OWN

Rachel Kempson, 74, stood in daughter Lynn Redgrave’s Topanga Canyon kitchen during a recent holiday from London, wringing her hands over a lengthy trip she was about to take to Africa.

“Oh my, if I should have to have all those ghastly shots, I shall get sick and shan’t be able to go,” she fretted, while her daughter and son-in-law, John Clarke, reassured her that everything would turn out just fine. Meanwhile, granddaughter Annabelle was tugging at her grandma’s skirt.

“I wish I didn’t have to go alone,” Kempson, a.k.a. Lady Redgrave said one more time. The wife of renowned actor Sir Michael Redgrave cast one more beseeching look at her family.

Her momentary hesitation seemed completely at odds with the Kempson many Americans have seen of late on “The Jewel in the Crown.” As the regal Lady Manners, who takes charge of her late niece’s half-English, half-Indian daughter, she makes an indelible impression as a strong-willed woman clashing with the upper-crust society around her.

In fact, there is much of Lady Manners in Lady Redgrave who, as the least visible of the acting Redgraves, possesses a style that is direct, matter-of-fact and quite good-humored.

As she prepared to depart for Nairobi and a small role in director Sydney Pollack’s film version of “Out of Africa,” she worried not only about going alone, but about the person she would be separated from--her husband of 49 years who is in the final stages of his battle with Parkinson’s disease.

“Aside from the fact that I want to act--I . . . must act--(this illness) is one of the most terrible things to have happened to one of the greatest actors and now, with round-the-clock nurses, the costs are astronomical.”

Her obvious pleasure in the resurgence of her acting career was tinged with sorrow. Her eyes filled with tears as she quietly acknowledged that they “might” see their 50th wedding anniversary together later this year.

“It’s really quite difficult to discuss,” she finally admitted, turning to less emotionally taxing subjects.

Lady Redgrave possesses an exquisite peaches-and-cream complexion and easily could pass for a woman at least a decade or two younger. In reality, her acting career began before her husband’s and her roster of roles far surpasses the combined working efforts of daughters Lynn and Vanessa.

Lady Redgrave, who continues to act under her stage name--Rachel Kempson--has appeared in more than 75 plays since her first appearance, in April, 1933, at Stratford-on-Avon’s Memorial Theatre as Hero in “Much Ado About Nothing.” In addition to portraying virtually every female character created by Shakespeare, she has appeared in major works by such playwrights as George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, Henrik Ibsen and Arthur Miller in theaters from Leningrad to London and from Denmark to Dublin.

Of her current “Out of Africa” role, Kempson knew little. In fact, though familiar with such stage greats as Dame Sybil Thorndike, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud and the late Tyron Guthrie, she was unfamiliar with the work of director Pollack (“Tootsie,” “Absence of Malice”) and knew neither Meryl Streep nor Robert Redford, who co-star in the film.

“He (Pollack) seemed awfully nice,” she said in her mellifluously proper English tones. “We only met briefly, and he said, ‘We want you,’ which I couldn’t understand. I thought it was very nice, but . . . why? Maybe because of ‘Jewel’?” She smiled wonderingly, almost like a young girl.

For all her stature, Kempson consistently seems self-deprecatory when discussing her acting ability.

“I always found it difficult. I haven’t the confidence,” she said straightforwardly. “Michael has always been such a marvelous actor that I thought I could never be anything like him. Anyway,” she added, “he comes from an acting family.” (Interestingly enough, since she signed on for “Africa,” Pollack has significantly enlarged her role.)

Her trepidation about her Kenya trip, however, had nothing to do with her acting or with a fear of exotic locations (“Jewel” was filmed in India), but rather with the fact that she didn’t really know anyone on the set.

“The reason I wanted to be in ‘Jewel,’ aside from the fact that it was such a wonderful part,” she confided, “was being with (Dame) Peggy (Ashcroft), who is one of my dearest friends.”

Daughter Lynn once again comforted her mother: “I’m sure the people there (in Nairobi) will be just wonderful.”

The warmth and affection between the two were apparent.

“Well, Lynn is my youngest and, in a way, my most beloved,” she said.

Of her other, more controversial daughter she noted: “Vanessa is a darling, but you know, I never see her. . . .

“Corin (her son) is always ‘WRP-ing’ (the Workers Revolutionary Party is a leftist British political group),” she said, laughing, “so I don’t see him very much either.

“With Vanessa and Corin, we just don’t talk politics,” Lady Redgrave explained. “Although my father (who was headmaster of the Royal Naval Academy) was quite socialist-minded, I just don’t give a damn about politics.”

Lady Redgrave recalled that when Vanessa was still in school, “Russia invaded Hungary and she immediately wanted to go off to Hungary. Michael said she was too young, being only 17, so she went around with a collection box collecting money for the cause.”

Was Vanessa, then, more her father’s daughter?

“Well, possibly,” she replied, pondering the point. “During the war, Michael joined up with something called the People’s Convention, which was pretty ridiculous,” she commented wryly. “He used to go to the meetings, and I wanted to say to him, ‘You can’t belong to this thing; they talk a lot of rubbish!’ Well, he did for a while, and was banned by the BBC before he gave it up. Michael was left-wing.”

Lady Redgrave remains extremely open-minded about her daughter’s politics. “I think it’s wonderful that Vanessa is the actress that she is. I wish she didn’t give all this precious money away to a party that will never get anywhere . . . but that’s her affair. You have to be true to yourself and believe in what you believe in.”

Daughter Lynn’s rather unconventional roles in “Georgy Girl” (as mistress to James Mason) and as a brothel madam in “The Happy Hooker” provoked nothing but laughter and delight from Lady Redgrave, whose attitudes are surprisingly modern.

“Oh, those (movies) were fun!” she enthused, then added with exasperation: “I mean, all this business about virginity--if people tried it out, they wouldn’t make as many mistakes!”

With that, the proper English lady gathered up her skirts and her daughter and set off for a screening of “A Passage to India” before her own passage began.