Last week I was mulling over the various roles I have played in my storied career so far and started thinking about the roles I dream of playing or playing again. I have put together a small list of roles I want to play before my days on the stage are over and those that I wish to revisit.
1. Benedick from ‘Much Ado About Nothing’.
For long time readers of ‘Theatre From My Head’ this should not really come as much surprise as this very character is one whom I have recorded myself playing and was available from my short lived pod casts. Benedick is a middle aged soldier who is afraid of his own loneliness and his feelings and when he faces the woman he loves decides to ridicule and joke with her which eventually leads to them falling out. In ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ this relationship is rekindled and the spark between him and Beatrice is very much still there. The one part of this character that excites me is that he changes so quickly in one scene he is mocking love and his friend Claudio for falling for a girl when suddenly, whilst he is hiding, he overhears gossip about how Beatrice is madly in love with him which causes him to suddenly declare how much he will love her (he says he will be ‘Horribly in love with her’) and that it matters not how he has always scorned her advances and women in general. This is a man who wants to be loved and love in return without it weakening him. Benedick’s speech in Act II is one of my audition monologues and one of my favourite pieces of the Bard’s prose.
2. Man from ‘Monologue’ by Harold Pinter
Again this one is no surprise as this does still feature on the headtheatre page in pod cast form which you can listen to here. It is a performed reading, I didn’t learn the monologue and it was just a sight reading piece but I believe the power of this script still shines through. Originally a television play for the BBC it ran at approx 43 minutes long, my version runs to about 16 minutes I believe, and when reading it comes across as a very dry piece. I like to think that the real point of this piece is that the words the man doesn’t say tell us a lot more about the story than his telling ever could. I have adored this play since I was 16 and have always wanted to play the role in its entirety because it is the piece that made me impressed with Pinter’s work. I discovered Pinter in High School through the play ‘The Dumb Waiter’ but until I read this and played the part, not in full, for an audition techniques module I didn’t understand the power of Pinter’s writing.
3. Thenardier from ‘Les Miserables’
During my first year of Drama School, in fact I believe it was the first term; three of us (Kara, Michael and I) went to audition for the musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ which was being put on by a local society. I remember being just terrible, actually it was well beyond terrible, for the dance part of the audition but with an adolescent dose of confidence believed I would breeze through on the singing and acting parts of the audition. I knew I was going to play Herod, I really wanted to play Judas but that’s more a ‘in my dreams’ role, I could just feel it because I knew I would blow anyone else out of the water with my characterisation and singing ability when I sang that great song ‘Master of the House’. I was perfect for Herod and nobody else was going to play it, it would be impossible to even contemplate. They started up the piano and... I came in too early, I think it was after two bars, they gave me another chance and I came in too late. I never did get to do my acting piece and never heard from that society ever again, it must be the only production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ thats ever gone without a King Herod. Now I love Thenardier because here is a character that is a grotesque, he is far from likeable, has no moral compass yet somehow he gets you to enjoy his presence on the stage. The biggest reason I want to play this is for the number ‘Dogs eat the Dogs’ which is the most perfect example of those characters in the world who take advantage of other peoples misfortunes. To play him in the West End would be perhaps my biggest dream of all as I have loved ‘Les Mis’ for years and this time… I promise to come in on time and sing it magnificently. So Sir Cameron Mackintosh are you looking for a new Thenardier once Matt Lucas has finished his run? Because I am your man!
That’s my first three choices when it comes to my dream roles. I will add more at a later date but for the moment those are the ones I am dreaming of.
Coincidentally if anyone wants to hire me for any of these three roles... or anything else then please email me... or if you have any comments to make then please feel free to leave them below.
Xtofer
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