We chatted to Alan about starring in Jerome Kilty’s Deare Liar, now playing at the Jermyn Street Theatre until the 7th March.
Hi Alan, how does it feel to be returning to the Jermyn Street Theatre?
It’s an absolute honour to return to Jermyn Street, which in my opinion has only gone from strength to strength over the years. It’s perhaps one of the most intimate venues I’ve ever played in and I love the relationship with the audience there – playing to the audience and responding to the audience. It just feels like a wonderfully exposing way to tell a story and particularly the story of George Bernard Shaw and Mrs Patrick Campbell and their incredible affair.
What made you want to be part of ‘Dear Liar’?
I had two main reasons for absolutely wanting to take on this project.
The first was playing the man himself, George Bernard Shaw; such a theatrical titan and an Irish titan. Although it’s been incredibly daunting to try and put on his mantle, I realised quickly that it’s not an impersonation of him but getting inside the character of the man and playing the human Shaw.
The second reason was the letter format, which just intrigued me. The play is made up of
the actual letters, back and forth, between George Bernard Shaw and Mrs Patrick Campbell – originally adapted by playwright Jerome Kilty. The adaptation by Jerome Kilty – brought to life by our director Stella Powell-Jones – puts the letters into a format where it plays out like a conversation, even though there are letters that may have been written weeks or even sometimes years apart, has been fascinating and scary and a wonderful challenge.
How has it been working on the production so far?
I’m not going to lie – when we got into the rehearsal room, the first and possibly greatest
challenge was just the learning of the piece. We had a relatively short rehearsal period of
three weeks and as the play is made up of letters, there are quite a lot of monologues. Also there’s just two of us, myself and the wonderful Rachel Pickup, who is playing Mrs Pat brilliantly. So it was getting to grips with the learning, which just involved lots of work really. You just have to get on with it and sit down and take it a paragraph at a time and then go back after the paragraph you’ve done and then keep going back… At one point it feels like you’re not going to make it but then it’s suddenly all fallen into place. The rest of the rehearsal period has been a great journey of discovery – how we can physically stage these letters, how we can convey the ups and downs of their epic affair over decades to an audience and make it as enthralling and enticing as possible? Hopefully we have managed that.
What can you tell us about your character George Bernard Shaw?
George Bernard Shaw, as mentioned, is obviously a titan of theatre and a titan of Ireland. He was a playwright who lived from 1856 right the way through to 1950, which was an
incredibly long, varied and fruitful life. I think we have this impression of him – from all the images of him with a big white bushy beard – as being this quite docile, avuncular soul. But really he’s much more interesting than that, he could be incredibly playful and spiky. Words that came up a lot were ‘twinkly’, ‘naughty’ and ‘angry’. He described himself as belonging to the public, he was like the public’s jester, and that got him into bother sometimes. He was quite the radical. He was very, very anti-war at a time where that really made you a pariah of society. But he stood up for what he believed in, argued it passionately and wrote about it. Most people, I guess, will know him actually from the adaptation of one of his works, a work that is very central to our play, Pygmalion. Pygmalion is a play that was then later turned into the musical My Fair Lady.
An incredible man, a long life, a radical, a socialist, a vegetarian, a man of the people. He
was everything and it’s just been a joy to rediscover him.
What can audiences expect from ‘Dear Liar’?
I hope that we’ll capture the audience’s heart with this incredible epic literary affair that
took place for nearly half a century. They fell in love, they fell out of love, they fell apart and all the way through were these wonderful letters – from both parties by the way.
Sometimes Mrs Pat is quite self-deprecating about her own writing but it’s also beautiful, as beautiful as Shaw’s. I would love audiences to see this affair, probably an affair that most don’t really know about (I certainly didn’t). I’d love audiences to fall in love with these characters as I have done.
We are open and we run until Saturday 7th March at Jermyn Street Theatre and we would love to see you.
By Emma Clarendon
To book tickets visit: https://www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/dear-liar/