A Performance Worth the Wait Theblackswan-Queensland Theatrecompanyco- Productionofthecleanhouse, Whichopensinperthonapril27
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THE AUSTRALIAN, TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010 www.theaustralian.com.au ARTS 15 Brooke cleans up BROOKESatchwellhasbeen announcedasalast-minute replacementforPiaMirandain A performance worth the wait theBlackSwan-Queensland TheatreCompanyco- productionofTheCleanHouse, whichopensinPerthonApril27. Ian McKellen brings Mirandapulledoutfollowing Beckett’s classic play thebirthofherfirstchildin March,sayingtheworkloadof to our shores rehearsalsandatwo-cityseason wastoodifficultsosoonafterher JANE CORNWELL daughter’sarrival.The whimsicalromanticcomedy IAN McKellen grabs his bushy aboutaBraziliancleaning beard with both hands and yanks womanwhowouldratherbea his cheeks sideways. ‘‘Can you im- comedianwillbedirectedby agine,’’ he says in his stentorian BlackSwan’sartisticdirector voice, ‘‘living with this thing for KateCherry,withactorsSarah over 250 performances? To look McNeill,CarolBurns,Hugh in the mirror every morning and ParkerandVivienneGarrett. see it there on your face? It makes TheQueenslandseasonbegins one feel old.’’ He slumps in his June28. armchair, crumpling the jacket of his dark blue suit. ‘‘I mean, I am Out in the open old,’’ adds the pre-eminent classi- cal actor, 70. ‘‘I just don’t particu- THERE has been plenty of talk larly want to look any older.’’ about landscape painting during The facial hair won’t be coming the past week after Sam Leach off for a while yet; at least not until admitted he copied a painting of Waiting for Godot, in which an Italian scene for his Wynne McKellen plays co-lead Estragon, Prize-winning work, Proposal finishes its forthcoming tour of for a Landscaped Cosmos. That Australia and New Zealand. painting borrowed heavily from When McKellen first broached Adam Pynacker’s 1660 oil Boat- the idea of performing Samuel men Moored on the Shore of an Beckett’s renowned 1953 play Italian Lake, underscoring the about, well, everything and noth- realities of contemporary land- ing — an idea he took to his for- scape painting. But while most mer lover, theatre director Sean painters continue to work in Mathias — he could hardly have their studios, it seems painting anticipated its phenomenal suc- en plein air hasn’t gone out of cess. Celebrated as the must-see fashion just yet. Yesterday NSW theatrical event of the season Arts Minister Virginia Judge an- when it opened at the Theatre nounced that 214 entries had Royal Haymarket in 2009 (with been received by the NSW Par- McKellen’s fellow X-Man Patrick liament Plein Air Painting Prize, Stewart as Vladimir), Waiting for almost twice last year’s number. Godotbrokebox-officerecordsfor Now in its third year, the prize is both the theatre and the play. Its open to Australian artists fo- run was extended. A national tour cused on a subject ‘‘found in sold out. NSW’’, and created en plein air. The production went back into The $20,000 winner will be an- the Haymarket in January (with nounced on May 19. Shakespearian actor Roger Rees replacing Stewart) and ran until Neighbours cameo earlier this month. Reviews were glowing. ‘‘McKellen’s droll, wry AUSTRALIAN soap opera Estragon is even funnier than last Ian McKellen plays Estragon in one of the most popular and praised productions of Samuel Beckett’s two-act masterpiece Waiting for Godot Neighbours, consistently more year,’’ wrote The Times. ‘‘Masterly popular in Britain than in its McKellen glitters in Waiting for homeland, is giving British view- Godot revival,’’ said the Evening from a role in the British TV dra- wards. ‘‘It was more like climbing ‘It’s a play about the Computers address me as Siri Mc- Which of course it is,’’ he adds, and other things, and Godot has ers the chance to audition for a Standard. The existentialist play’s ma series Minder to playwriting Everest and going, ‘Ah look! Kellen. I answer to all.’’ puffingupwithGandalf-likegran- become more accessible as a re- cameo role. The show, which two vaudevillian tramps wait end- and directing in London, New There’s the top!’ ’’ struggle of old age’ The recipient of a Tony Award deur in his seat. ‘‘In my dreams I sult. It’s no wonder comedians launched the careers of Kylie lessly for the mysterious Godot, York and his second home of Cape ‘‘We’re both obsessives,’’ offers IAN McKELLEN and two Oscar nominations, Mc- am sudoku.’’ love doing this play,’’ he continues. Minogue, Jason Donovan and diverting themselves by bickering, Town in South Africa. Mathias from the sofa. Kellen’s long career as a bravura Mathias rolls his eyes good- ‘‘Barry Humphries, who I’ll be Guy Pearce, is celebrating its moaning and clowning around — ‘‘I dream about it of course,’’ he So does the fact that they are stage actor — he played King Lear naturedly. ‘‘Well, I’m staying lunching with when I’m there, was 25th anniversary this year and is and popular demand for this adds with a sigh. ‘‘Even when I’m ex-partners — the two men were sists Beckett came to see it and and Sorin in The Seagull, back to awake worrying about whether in the first Australian production offering female British fans the accessible ‘‘Godot with a differ- shopping or hoovering, random together for 10 years after meeting that we shook hands in the pub back, in the Royal Shakespeare the Godot set’’ — a crumbling in the 1950s. Mel Gibson did a chance to appear as a character ence’’ has kept the antics going. lines from the play will just pop as actors at the 1978 Edinburgh afterwards,’’ says McKellen. ‘‘But I Company productions that visited theatre-within-a-theatre design Godot, too, I think. for a month. Aspiring actresses ‘‘Maybe it will go on for ever into my head. But this is a play that Fringe Festival — help or hinder think I would remember if I did’’). Melbourne in 2007 — has been by Stephen Brimson Lewis — ‘‘will ‘‘But we both feel that age is an can download the audition and I’ll never be rid of this bloody merits continual work. It is actu- their working relationship? Mathias has since directed his somewhat eclipsed in recent years make it to Melbourne in time for important factor. I don’t know script, then upload their audition beard,’’ quips McKellen, lighting a ally extremely funny. Beckett was ‘‘It helps,’’ the director says ex in a supporting role in the 1997 by his big screen triumphs as the opening.’’ how this play works with young tapes to YouTube. A panel will cigarette. ‘‘Still, why shouldn’t it? right to call it a tragi-comedy; firmly. ‘‘it makes communication film version of Bent and on stage in Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings We imagine Beckett’s lone tree, actors. Vladimir and Estragon pick the top five, with the top two You should never throw away there is so much emotion that easier, more intimate. But then I Dance of Death, Chekhov’s Uncle trilogy and Magneto in the X-Men where Estragon and Vladimir have aches and pains and prob- decided by public vote. They will your hits. When you have a big keeps bursting through.’’ prefer being on intimate terms Vanya and Alan Bennett’s Talking series. Today the exaggerated meet to wait for Godot, poking its lemswithshort-termmemoryand fly to Melbourne, where the success it is so tempting to think McKellen nods. ‘‘I would hate it with my cast. Many directors Heads. For Christmas 2004 and gravitas of both characters leaks, way out the top of the ship that set the like. This is a play about old show is filmed, before producers that your next project will be if Australian audiences thought don’t.’’ McKellen speaks back over 2005 he directed Aladdin at the with tongue firmly in cheek, into sail for Australia three months men. It’s a play about the struggle make the final decision. successful but that is not, in my they were simply getting the tag his shoulder as he takes his Old Vic with McKellen as the out- our conversation. ago. ‘‘The set intentionally has a of old age against the fading of the experience, the case.’’ end of our long run,’’ he says. ‘‘I am ashtray into the kitchen: ‘‘I don’t rageous pantomime dame Widow ‘‘I live on my own,’’ says McKel- trapped, apocalyptic feel; it could light.’’ Hall refurbishment Mathias — in whose art- very much looking forward to per- work with Sean because he is a Twankey, prompting the media to len of his long-time home in be Haiti or New Orleans or any- McKellen strokes his beard. bedecked Oxford St apartment forming in Australia again. It was good friend,’’ he booms. ‘‘I work divulge the nickname that had Limehouse next to the Thames where post-disaster. This is a play ‘‘It’s a play,’’ he says, ‘‘that illumi- THE Victorian government has the interview is taking place — re- when we were in Sydney doing with him because he is a wonder- been known to the gay commu- River in London’s East End. ‘‘Each that is very aware of its theatri- nates life.’’ released plans for the $128.5 mil- clines on a designer sofa in green Strindberg [he played the Captain ful director.’’ nity ever since the actor was night, to help me wind down after cality, that acknowledges it is lion refurbishment of Hamer jeans and a T-shirt emblazoned in the Mathias-directed Dance of It was Mathias who encour- knighted in 1991: Serena. the play, I sit up in bed playing actually a play.’’ Waiting for Godot is at the Hall that will open the 30-year- with comic book superheroes, and Death in 2004] that I felt we had aged McKellen to take the role of ‘‘ ‘Serena’ was wittily coined by sudoku. Then when I go to sleep I ‘‘It set a precedent when it came Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, May old building to embrace the Yar- smiles.