Monday March 16, 2009
All the world’s a stage
By S. INDRAMALAR
Watch Shakespeare like you’ve never watched it before, when The Bridge Project’s production arrives in Singapore next week.
WHEN acclaimed director Sam Mendes initiated The Bridge Project with the co-operation of actor Kevin Spacey (now the artistic director of the iconic and revitalised London’s Old Vic Theatre Company) and the Brooklyn Academy of Arts (BAM) in New York, his aim was simple: to initiate collaborations between British and American theatre.
The “Bridge”, after the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, metaphorically signifies a link between Anglo-American talents (stage actors as well as film actors) and also audiences across the Atlantic and beyond.
The man: Simon Russell Beale plays the lead role of King Leontes in The Winter’s Tale. Explained Mendes when the project was first launched: “The idea behind the Bridge Project was born out of a simple desire. A wish for artistes, collaborators and audiences on both sides of the Atlantic to experience one another’s work, talent and artistry in the theatre.
“Having had the pleasure of working in both New York and London, I became aware of how little exchange actually exists between these two cities of great theatrical traditions.”
Under The Bridge Project, two productions will be staged every year for three years (the project began in 2008), under Mendes’ direction. The venture kicked off with two Shakespearean classics The Tempest and Hamlet; this year, Mendes decided on a double bill of Shakespeare (The Winter’s Tale) and Anton Chekov (The Cherry Orchard).
The cast, an equal mix of British and American talent, will follow the production through its run, which began at the BAM (where each season will open), followed by a “world tour” to various venues in Europe and Asia.
This time, the lucky countries on the tour route are Singapore, New Zealand, Spain and Germany, Britain (at the Old Vic, of course) and finally, Greece where it will play at the Athens and Epidaurus Festival in late August.
But, let’s go back a little.
The first stop on the “world tour” is ... Singapore, the only Asian stop where the production of The Winter’s Tale will run from March 26 till 31. Apart from Mendes (whom most of us know more for his Hollywood films American Beauty, Jarhead, Road to Perdition and, most recently, Revolutionary Road), the production boasts a plethora of talent from Britain – renowned stage actor Simon Russell Beale (a Shakespearean actor for close to 25 years), actresses Rebecca Hall (Vicky Christina Barcelona and Frost/Nixon), and Sinead Cusack (Eastern Promises and V for Vendetta), as well as American actors Ethan Hawke (Great Expectations, Training Day), Josh Hamilton whose TV credits include Law & Order, The Practice and Absolutely Fabulous and Richard Easton, a Canadian who has done both stage (Hamlet, Henry VI) and film (Revolutionary Road, Finding Forrester).
Yes, we may be going through a recession, but catching a Shakespearean production at its best is surely an opportunity too grand to pass. Especially, says Russell Beale, a production helmed by Mendes.
“I know times are tough and people are a bit pushed (for money) but I really hope people come out to see this. Don’t come to see me ... come to see Sam because a Sam Mendes production is just wonderful,” he almost gushes in a recent telephone interview from his home in London.
He continues: “Sam has done a wonderful job on this. He really is an extraordinary creature. He is fiercely clever and he can absorb a lot of information ... for example, he can make 20 or 30 changes to the production without taking any notes down! And some of these are really minor changes, like changes to the lighting or something.
“He also understands each actor’s needs and ... I think he is even better now than when he was younger. Sam is unquestionably one of the top three Shakespearean directors ... definitely one of the top three I have had the pleasure of working with. He has absolute clarity and integrity and I think this is what he does best. I have seen his films which are great, obviously, but his Shakespeare work is really beautiful,” said Russell Beale who has worked with Mendes on about seven other stage productions including Othello (at the Royal National Theatre), Troilus and Cressida, and Richard III (At the Royal Shakespeare Company) and Chekov’s Uncle Vanya (at the Donmar Warehouse).
At 48, Russell Beale is himself a highly acclaimed stage actor and has been acknowledged as being “the greatest stage actor of his generation”. A regular at the National Theatre, his repertoire of accomplishments is awe-inspiring – from playing Mosca in Ben Jonson’s Volpone (opposite Sir Michael Gambon), George in Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers, Andrew Undershaft in George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara to playing King Arthur in Spamalot on Broadway, he seems to have done it all. And, his performance as Hamlet (in 2000 at the Royal National Theatre) has been hailed as one of the most noteworthy portrayals of the character in recent decades.
In The Winter’s Tale, Russell Beale plays the lead role of King Leontes, the Sicilian ruler who becomes convinced that his pregnant wife Hermione has betrayed him with his close friend Polixenes, the king of Bohemia. His suspicions quickly escalate into real madness, prompting him to assume that his son Mamillius is a bastard and his unborn child, the progeny of Polixenes. He orders the murder of Polixenes and imprisons Hermione.
When she delivers their daughter, Leontes commands that the infant be abandoned. Grief-stricken, Hermione and Mamillius die. Sixteen years later, Leontes’ abandoned daughter has grown into a beautiful young woman named Perdita. In a Shakespearean twist of fate, she falls in love with Polixenes’ son Florizel ... a situation which leads to an eventual reconciliation between Leontes and Polixenes and even between Leontes and Hermione (who comes alive!).
Leontes, says Russell Beale, is essentially a good man.
“Unlike Iago (in Othello) who is really horrid, I have decided to treat Leontes as a good man who has a terrible attack (of jealousy) ... for really it is a disease. Really, he has been honourable for most of his life and I was concerned that people would just see him as a mad man and I wanted to make it believable that he would be saved ... that he is worth saving (at the end). He just got himself into a terrible, terrible problem,” he says of his role.
Does he assume the traits of the characters he plays or does he leave them at the stage when he goes home every day?
“I used to think that I don’t take my character home with me but I think I do ... a little bit. When I did Chekov’s The Seagull, I was feeling really low and when I spoke to my dad he said, ‘Well, of course it gets to you. Your character commits suicide every night’.
“It is a good thing Leontes has a happy ending ... playing Iago (Othello) really depressed me because he was such a monstrosity.”
So far, Russell Beale has received only glowing reviews for his portrayal of Leontes.
The New York Times wrote: “Leontes, walks through his palace wrapped in a miasmic, jaundice-coloured glow that isolates him from those he loves even as it infects them. As played with shivery brilliance by Simon Russell Beale, Leontes is a cruel and dangerous man – fatally irrational and unjustified in his suspicions that his wife has betrayed him – and yet you keep thinking that it’s not his fault, any more than if he had caught the plague.”
Other reviews have described his Leontes as “incomparable” and Beale as an actor “who habitually can do no wrong”.
However, though he is pleased that his Leontes has been well-received, Russell Beale is not in the habit of reading reviews about himself.
“I used to read reviews but I have stopped because I think that believing good reviews and even bad ones can be bad. I am pleased though that the production has been well received.”
Although he has performed in Asia before (Japan and China), he is excited about his trip to Singapore, which he regards as a homecoming of sorts.
You see, Russell Beale was born in Penang in 1961 where he lived for a year and he also spent some of his years as a young boy in Singapore.
“My father was a doctor in the British Army and his first posting was to Penang. He was later posted to Singapore but, as I was eight at the time, I was sent to boarding school in England while my parents were in Singapore. But I used to spend my summers there. I remember it being so exciting, so glamorous having to take the long flight to Singapore, stepping out of the plane ... in those days you had to climb down the stairs onto the tarmac ... the heat hitting my face, and seeing my mum and dad waving to me.
“I remember Orchard Road, Pasir Panjang and Rochester Park and I know I have never tasted satay as the ones I tasted in Singapore! So yes, this trip will be quite a sentimental one for me.
“I have also asked if it would be possible for me to fly up to Penang for a day or so ... I know it’s only a 40-minute flight or so.”
But, regardless of whether Russell Beale makes it to Penang, theatre enthusiasts should make it a point to go to Singapore to see him. And for Shakespeare buffs, there should be no excuse.
As one of the five co-commissioners of The Bridge Project, the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) presents The Winter’s Tale in Singapore in collaboration with Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay from March 26 to 31. Showtime is at 8pm (with a 3pm matinee on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday). Prices are from S$40 to S$325. For tickets or more information, go to www.sistic.com.sg or call +65 6348 5555 for tickets.
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