|
A Sevenoaks-educated Shakespeare star |
|
|
|
|
Page 5 of 7 
For the RSC, using an ensemble rather than scratch casts of actors
signed up for single plays marked a deliberate return to the company’s
early roots. “Over the length of time, keeping the plays bubbling over
does allow a depth of inquiry. You actually get a chance to put into
practice what you discover as you literally grow years older as a
person. And as a group, the depth of instinctive trust and the length
of time you spend together means that you can try stuff out in the full
confidence that the person next to you will accept what you are doing,
even if you haven’t discussed it beforehand. That is because we’ve been
together so long. So in that sense, it’s been fantastic. But it hasn’t
felt like two years, because we’ve been constantly on the go. We have
never stagnated.”
Now the Shakespeare marathon is over, I wonder what he is going to
do next. “Literally I have no idea. Some things have come in that just
haven’t been as exciting as Henry V, so I have taken a deep breath and
said no to them. So I will just wait and try to find something as
exciting.” In the longer term he’s keen to attempt parts in Chekhov and
Ibsen. “Chekhov, after Shakespeare, is my favourite playwright. I have
never thought of myself as being good as Konstantin in The Seagull and
there aren’t too many other young parts. I look forward to being a
little older and then having a real blast at Chekhov and Ibsen and
things like that.”
But he’s certainly not planning a break from Shakespeare. “You
never say never.” So I ask what he would say if someone offered him the
chance to play Hamlet. “Yes, I would do it like that! You have to.”
|
|
Last Updated ( Monday, 07 July 2008 )
|
