“IT DOESN’T REFLECT WELL ON ME, OF COURSE,” BLAIR WILLIAMS GRINS, “BUT I HAD LITTLE TROUBLE FINDING MY WAY INTO PLAYING EUSTACE. VILLAINS ARE FUN TO PLAY; THERE ARE ALWAYS ANGLES TO SLIP AND SLIDE AROUND, AND THIS IS A WONDERFUL ROLE IN A TERRIFIC PLAY.” The Charming Mr Williams 6 Shaw Magazine / Summer 2008 7 “MOST SHAW CHARACTERS ARE SMARTER Blair is talking about his role as Eustace Gaydon, THAN THE ACTORS PLAYING THEM; IT’S THE the husband of The Stepmother, and in the words of CHANCE FOR YOUR MIND TO MOVE QUICKLY. playwright Githa Sowerby, “a rather charming man.” He continues, “The challenge always is to find the YOU CAN’T SLOW SHAW DOWN; IT HAS TO character, not the caricature. Eustace is the guy who will DRIVE AT TOP SPEED.” always find an excuse for himself – he does talk himself into things and in the end finds a way to believe he’s doing the right thing for his wife Lois. Claire Jullien (who plays Lois Relph, the stepmother and Eustace’s wife) and I have often discussed whether Lois and Eustace were ever happy; I do think that in a way all he wants to do is reward her faith in him, but he’s incapable of succeeding.” This production of The Stepmother, directed by Jackie Maxwell, marks the first public performance of the play in the 80 years since it was written: “We all have the feeling we’re working on a new play. It’s always wonderful to work on a classic, but there are ‘ghosts’ – memories of those who have played the roles before – and it’s exciting to be able to mint the characters and be the first ‘ghosts’.” This season marks another first for Blair as he takes the role of director for the production of the The President at the Royal George. “I’m consciously grateful for the opportunity to do this here. I’ve been here for fifteen seasons over 20 years, and my comfort level is great. On top of that, the goodwill at Shaw is bottomless, and it makes it a pleasure to take on a new challenge. The piece has been percolating away in my mind for eight or nine months now, and it’s so energizing that all of these collaborative forces at The Shaw are conspiring to bring this production into being. With directing, there’s more to see – when I’m working on the script, I’m in the crow’s nest, so to speak, and it’s exciting to cast my eye around and see what kind of experience the audience is going 8 Shaw Magazine / Summer 2008 to have. I enjoy finding the cracks and filling them. The script is wonderful. Morwyn Brebner has adapted Ferenc Molnár’s script, and as she did a few years ago with Chekhov’s The Bear for Love Among the Russians, she has taken something that was pretty funny on first read and made it into something that makes you laugh right out loud. The final draft is 61 pages – we’ll have to go faster than a minute per page. I’m so lucky to have Lorne Kennedy at the centre of the whirlwind – I can’t think of anyone who could do it so well.” Ask Blair about his favourite roles and they spring forth easily: “Larry Doyle in John Bull’s Other Island, Sir Colenso Ridgeon in Doctor’s Dilemma, Rev Morrell in Candida (my first play with Jackie Maxwell), Snobby Price in Major Barbara, Aubrey (the Burglar) in Too True To Be Good.” Funny, they all seem to be Bernard Shaw characters Clockwise from top left: Blair Williams as Philip Madras with Ben – “yes, thinking of everything, those are the ones that Carlson as Major Hippisley Thomas in THE MADRAS HOUSE, 1999; as Sir Colenso Ridgeon with Severn Thompson as Jennifer Dubedat in stand out,” says Blair. “His arguments and his characters THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA, 2000; as Richard, Earl of Warwick, in SAINT are so attractive. Most Shaw characters are smarter than JOAN, 2007; as Gaston with Diana Leblanc as Mlle de Ste Euverte in THE WALTZ OF THE TORREADORS, 1990; as Snobby Price with Wendy the actors playing them; it’s the chance for your mind to Thatcher as Rummy Mitchens in MAJOR BARBARA, 1998; as Smirnoff move quickly. You can’t slow Shaw down; it has to drive at in LOVE AMONG THE RUSSIANS, 2006. top speed. I remember Jim Mezon, when he was directing John Bull’s Other Island, talked about Shaw being like jazz – and you need the freedom and flexibility of thought to play it like that. Shakespeare sits in your stomach; Shaw sits in your head. Shaw himself said that Shaw is great practice for Shakespeare. And it’s true – so much depends on the breath. With Shakespeare the rhythm of speech is linked to your heartbeat; with Shaw, the breath you need informs your character’s emotional state.” Blair has had a recent bout with Shakespeare, playing MacDuff to Benedict Campbell’s Macbeth in an acclaimed National Arts Centre production that also 9 travelled to Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre. “My other Macbeth was as Banquo with Jim Mezon playing the title role in a Christopher Newton production in Calgary. I enjoy these opportunities to play different roles, and I’d like to do more Shakespeare.” In the off-season Blair has an energetic, multi-media working life. In addition to voice work in animated series and radio drama, for several years Blair has collaborated with the internationally renowned Tafelmusik Orchestra, performing with them as narrator for several different musical programs. Blair Blair Williams with Tafelmusik in the narrative concert Chariots of Fire describes being awestruck on stage in the centre of 30 voices and 30 musicians for Tafelmusik’s program Chariots of Fire. “It’s a mystery to me how they do what they do; About Blair Williams the musicians assure me they are equally mystified by how This season Blair directs Ferenc Molnár’s The President I do what I do!” This isn’t Blair’s only musical partner – and appears as Eustace in Githa Sowerby’s The in April he performed in his hometown of North Bay with Stepmother. In ’07 he appeared in Saint Joan and the Symphony there as the narrator in two performances A Month in the Country, after Turgenev. Most recently Blair appeared in the NAC/ of Peter and the Wolf. Citadel Theatre production of Macbeth and with the internationally acclaimed chamber orchestra “IT’S NOT ‘TIL LATER, WHEN YOU’VE BEEN Tafelmusik in the narrative concert Chariots of Fire. OUT WORKING AT THE CRAFT FOR A WHILE, Other credits with Tafelmusik include King Arthur, The Grand Tour, and The Quest for Arundo Donax, THAT YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH THAT which won a Juno Award for Best Children’s EXPERIENCE MEANT.” Album of the Year. Shaw credits include: Too True To Be Good, Blair grew up in North Bay, which has a lively arts Love Among the Russians, The Constant Wife, Journey’s End (2005),The Return of the Prodigal (2002, 2001), community, and early on decided that theatre and Candida, Six Characters in Search of an Author (2001), performing was his calling. “There must be something The Doctor’s Dilemma, Still Life, The Madras House, in the water there – when I was at the National Theatre Uncle Vanya, Major Barbara, John Bull’s Other Island, School there were five of us who were from that part of the The Two Mrs Carrolls, In Good King Charles’s Golden Days, Widowers’ Houses, Counsellor-at-Law, The world.” He loved his time at NTS – “But it’s not until later, Millionairess, Press Cuttings, Mrs Warren’s Profession when you’ve been out working at the craft for a while, that (1990), The Waltz of the Toreadors, An Inspector Calls you realize how much that experience meant. Some of the (and tour), Man and Superman (1989), Geneva and best career advice I ever received was that infinite patience He Who Gets Slapped. Other theatre credits include: Banquo in is immediately rewarded. And I remember Christopher Macbeth at Theatre Calgary; Mercutio in Romeo and saying to me, ‘not everything can be done at once.’” Juliet for Shakespeareworks; Edward Voysey in The “I’ve been lucky in that a lot of what has come to Voysey Inheritance and Mike Connor in Philadelphia me has been ‘apparently’ accidental – or because I’m an Story at Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre; Mickey in Mojo for Theatrefront; Gaslight, Hay Fever and optimist. I turned down my first Equity job because I had Sherlock Holmes at Theatre Calgary; The Shooting a chance to audition for the Shaw Festival. When I got my Stage as part of Winter Fling at Buddies in Bad Times letter from Christopher inviting me to be part of the Theatre; A Christmas Carol at The Grand Theatre, company, he did say he didn’t know yet what my roles London; The Soldier Dreams with Da Da Kamera and Closer at the Canadian Stage Company, The Weir at might be. I wrote back and suggested that I might be good Geva Theatre (Rochester, New York) and Alumnae to play Valentine in You Never Can Tell that season! I had Theatre’s production of The Seagull. no concept at all that you have to climb the ladder. It His film credits include American Psycho, and didn’t take me very long to get here and realize that you Sparky’s Shoes and Lovely Boys for the Canadian Film Centre.