We all ha e our o days as Rousseau memorably said

Call it an illness - one which Je Bridges has ne er had.So while, in person, Je Bridges ne er exactly gi es the game away - he ne er chuckles that mo ie-acting is a pretty damn stupid business - still, he ne er owns up to his habit o making "non-hits". Natural mo ie actors persist in the mar el o delighted sel -disco ery - it is not unlike staying young ore er. or years, on the sets o his ilms, he has used a special wide-angle camera (it has a CinemaScope rame) to take some o the great mo ie-making stills, pictures that know the chaos and the magic o a set. He says he does this to escape the boredom that goes with his job - or, shall we say, to counter the distress that a licts a decent guy without the usual armour-plating o sel -concern. He was also happy at that occasion to talk about his photography.

He is the son o one actor, the brother o another, and I ha e been present at an awards dinner where he was taking e ery opportunity to promote the cause o his daughter. We'd still honour him as the American actor who made those interesting, dark mo ies that careerist actors a oided. And a ter all, it was understandable that an actor already in his i ties was gi ing some mind to his uture and the way that residuals could hold o arthritis and support an attitude that o ten suggested he'd be happier just hanging out and taking quality photographs (his latest ilm, The Moguls, is out soon in the UK, but not yet in the US). I ha e to admit that Je Bridges in person shows no sign o ha ing heard o this army he inspires. There had been a best-selling book about the horse already, and so we Bridgers took it on the chin: Je was going to make a success So be it - he was a big boy Nothing would be changed.

Our hero had been cast in a picture that had the ominous words "big hit" written all o er it. It was about a race horse named Sea Biscuit, a broken-down outsider that became a Cali ornian legend in the Thirties, winning race a ter race against better-bred animals, and carrying the hopes o working-class punters. A ew years ago, the stead ast and tranquil army o Je Bridges supporters held its breath and wondered what would happen. The singing, acting and playing, howe er, are or the most part sublime.a.picard independent.co.uk To 22 April, 020 7304 4000. We all ha e our o days, as Rousseau memorably said.It is odd, weird, bizarre that such an elegant, rational work should recei e such an inelegant, irrational staging. "Character is ormed in the stormy billows o the world," says another.O ten these comments are quite at odds with what is actually being sung, but turning to the programme I see that some o the most Yoda-esque lines come rom some o history's greatest minds: Cer antes, Plato, Pope, Diderot, Derrida, Douglas Adams (Douglas Adams?) Oh well.