The American
He was also mightily impressed by the Esplanade – Theatre on the Bay building in Singapore, which he says has “the best acoustic of any theatre I’ve ever been in and it seats 2000. It was amazing”. He adds “Playing in a variety of theatres on tour is always a great challenge, we all needed to go up a few gears now and again”. The tour bonded the company together and “now that we are back in London the locals are off living their own lives which is a bit of a shame”. The company for both plays includes Sinead Cusack (Irish theatre royalty), Rebecca Hall (English theatre royalty) and Ethan Hawke (movie heart-throb royalty) as well as New York theatre regulars Josh Hamilton and Richard Easton and Brits Paul Jesson and Selina Cadell. We touch on the inevitable question of differences between US and British actors and he moans “I’m always asked this but really there isn’t any difference when you get down to it. The writers determine the mode of the work. At the early rehearsals we sniffed around each other a bit wondering about this but then, we jointly realised that it’s about how much experience you have of doing classical work. That’s the only difference”. Is the training different?
“No, drama training is a funny old business anyway and you can’t generalise about the difference between the US and the UK”. Like many British actors his first taste of Broadway (where he was Tony nominated for Jumpers) was intoxicating. “It is heady, but it is hard work. “I haven’t done much commercial theatre” he goes on “ I’ve been very fortunate in this country to be rather cosseted in the subsidised theatre and BAM, although not subsidised, is quite similar and it suits me”. In The Cherry Orchard he is cast, rather surprisingly, as Lophakin, the serf turned wealthy business man who ends up owning the orchard after being rebuffed by the Grande Dame Ranyevskaya, whose condescension prevents her from accepting his offer of help. “When Sam asked me I said, are you sure? Surely you want me to play Gayev” a much less Alpha male part. Beale has comically characterised the roles he plays as “fuck off parts” and “I’m sorry parts”. Over his acclaimed career on the London stage, it’s the latter which have predominated. He’s excelled in the great lonely roles such as Vanya, Konstantin, George (in Jumpers), Hamlet. The director David Leveaux once said he “turned lack
Above: Josh Hamilton, Richard Easton, Ethan Hawke; Sinead Cusack, Rebecca Hall, Simon Russell Beale Photos: Nick Heavican [left photo], Ellis Parrinder [right]
of self esteem into an art form”. Of late, though, the alpha males are beginning to emerge, for example Andrew Undershaft in Major Barbara,which he did successfully at the National Theatre last year. This evolution hasn’t been easy – “It was very frightening at first”. He described a comical moment when rehearsing a highly confrontational scene with another very un-alpha male colleague, when both kept giving ground causing the exasperated director to exclaim “Come on – these are two stags fighting”…which didn’t really help, he says! As for Leontes, the King consumed by jealousy in A Winters Tale, and another alpha male, Beale says “he’s a good man gone wrong” and describes how in this production they play up the relationship with the son. He says the last great scene requires a delicacy, which is very un-alpha male and is one of the best in Shakespeare. You can enjoy both alpha males and the rest of what looks like an astonishing company at The Old Vic until 15 August. H
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