|
||||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
| FEATURES | BY JANE WRIGHT |
 Left to right: Oliver Ford Davies, Nigel Planer, Cressida Whyte, Douglas Henshall |
Jane Wright tries to understand how all of this fits into the new Hampstead Theatre DARWIN in Malibu’, the philosophic comedy which opened the new season of plays at Hampstead Theatre last night (Wednesday) after a 12-week summer ‘break’, has a title which demands some explanation. But here are the complete cast, three very well-known actors and one newcomer, gathered in a rehearsal room at the playhouse in Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, to try and relate how the groundbreaking Victorian scientist who first postulated the Bible-busting theory of evolution ended up in California. Oliver Ford Davies, who won an Olivier best actor award in ‘Racing Demon’ by Hampstead playwright David Hare, then went on to star as King Lear at Islington’s Almeida Theatre two years ago, begins helpfully: “I’m the real Charles Darwin, but in 2004. So clearly I’m dead.” “We all are,” adds Nigel Planer, who played hapless cabinet minister George in Alistair Beaton’s hit political satire ‘Feelgood’ at Hampstead, then the West End, in 2001. Oliver continues: “And I may be in a parallel universe, which is actually Malibu.” Now Douglas Henshall, star of Tom Stoppard’s 2002 National Theatre trilogy ‘The Coast of Utopia’ and the 1999 Camden Town-set movie ‘This Year’s Love’, joins in. “I’m the scientist Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s champion and bulldog, who coined the term agnostic, but is hidebound by his own fundamentalist religious beliefs.” Nigel takes over: “And I’m Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford in 1887. So I’m no freaked-out, acid-taking, zen Darwin. I’m a creationist.” Oliver tries again: “The writer Crispin Whittell’s idea is that Darwin has continued to evolve into thinking his theory of the origin of species may be factually true, but a deeper truth might lie in the stories of the Old Testament.” He adds: “That’s the idea of the play. To work out where we are, where we have come from and what we are after we’re dead.” But what about the laughs? “Oh, it’s definitely a comedy,” promises Oliver. “But,” adds Douglas, “you have to have a premise first.” Newcomer Cressida Whyte, who plays Darwin’s much younger – and platonic – Californian room-mate says, never mind the premise, what about all the rehearsal time Nigel and Dougie have spent larking about? And Douglas confesses: “With all this stuff about the Bible and the origin of species, sometimes you just have to talk about farting.” In any case, he doesn’t much like rehearsals. He explains: “They make me feel more and more insecure. I just want to get on stage and start enjoying myself. I want the instant gratification of an audience.” But Oliver, a former university lecturer in history, who ran away to the theatre “because I saw the next 40 years stretching out in front of me, and you’ve only got one life,” disagrees. He says: “I needed rehearsals to shed the idea I was playing Charles Darwin, the most important scientist of the last 500 years, who became an icon. Because this role isn’t iconic.” Nigel chips in: “But the real Darwin is now pictured on every £10 note.” Oliver continues: “And in America, where creationism is rampant, Darwin is an enemy icon.” Cressida is the only member of this London premiere cast who was in the original, Birmingham production of the play. But while it’s her first stint at Hampstead, Oliver as well as Nigel already has a track record here. Oliver recalls: “I first performed at the old Hampstead Theatre in 1971 in Noel Coward’s play ‘Tonight at 8.30’. We then transferred to the Fortune theatre in the West End, which was close enough to the Savoy for Noel Coward himself to come and see us. Afterwards, he talked to the actors for three quarters of an hour and was really down-to-earth, saying ‘some of my plays have dated terribly’. I admired him for that.” Nigel doesn’t believe his previous Hampstead role in ‘Feelgood’, and now as a bishop in ‘Darwin in Malibu’, are the antithesis of the part which made him famous, brainless hippy student Neil in the groundbreaking alternative 1980s TV sitcom ‘The Young Ones’, which also starred Adrian Edmundson and Rik Mayall. Nigel admits, despite only 12 episodes being made 20 years ago: “It does stick in people’s minds. But Neil was also an establishment figure, a middle class university student with very posh parents who called Felicity Kendall ‘sweetly pretty’. Neil would probably have grown into the parts I’m playing now.” His colleagues all chorus together: “In fact, he’s the current bishop of Oxford.” Nigel also “gave birth” to another comedic alter-ego, pretentious actor Nicholas Craig, at Hampstead in 1986. Nicholas has given periodic spoof acting masterclasses since, whereas Oliver has given real ones at the National Theatre. Oliver reflects modestly: “Masterclass is a terrible title. I prefer to call them workshops.” But Nigel won’t stop teasing. He says the late Primrose Hill writer Kingsley Amis said, “if he could sum up what’s gone wrong with English society since the Second World War in one word, it would be workshop”. How do the pair feel the new, £16 million Hampstead Theatre compares with the previous, more modest, Avenue Road model? Nigel, who did some fundraising for the new building in ‘Feelgood’, says: “I miss the old bar, which had more of a theatre ‘feel’, and the posters of past productions in the foyer. But once you’re inside the auditorium, it’s a fantastic achievement.” Oliver continues: “Like all fringe shows, the audience wants to be here more.” Hampstead Theatre virgin Douglas adds: “I’ve never played in the West End. Large theatres are just a big black space and a rustle of sweet papers, but in small ones, you get to see the audience. “It takes time to create character in any new building. But the old Hampstead Theatre was once just a sparkly new bike-shed. If people say this one is too sparkly new and lacking in atmosphere, we’re doing our best to chip off a few edges.” |
|