Marcia Warren plays Davies’ estranged aunt i in the Fringe’s longest
death bed scene
[1'
unhappy person.’ he says. ‘If you do what I do. you’re just on your own in the flat most of the time. So I couldn’t spend the rest of my life doing nothing.‘
He has travelled a lot. visiting family in Australia and spending Christmas on a remote island in Indonesia (his Christmas present to himself was a ‘We Love You Osama Bin Laden‘ T-shirt). but otherwise he’s been waiting for the right thing to come along before filming the next series of Jonathan Creek in the autumn. He’s found the right thing in an award- winning Canadian play called Auntie and Me. a two- hander about a man who hears from an estranged relative (played by Marcia Warren) when she's on her deathbed, then ends up keeping her
part of
‘You might be
National deal. didn't want me to do any radio or theatre. wanted me to do mainstream television and commercials and the biggest possible theatres that I could fill. And I really nearly did have a breakdown just from fatigue in 2()()(). Now I‘ve got a different agent who's got lots of clients and he’s not reliant on me to feed his family. so that's a better deal for me. If something good comes along — I think this play's good. it might be interesting. we might get to do it outside Edinburgh — you feel like you might be part of something interesting instead of'just a big fat cheque.‘ He tells me about taking a course of psychotherapy to help him understand his ‘thoughts. feelings and emotions‘ and I wonder if he’d worried that the
company for another year. 'I told a somethlng angst that such therapy might resolve friend it was about dysfunctional interesting might actually have been the source of
families. loneliness and the inability to form proper relationships.’ he says. ‘She said with deep irony: “How are you going to relate to that?”
It’s the first theatre performance for Davies since the mid-80s when he starred in a student production of Steven Berkoff’s Decadence with classmate Jackie Clune. herself appearing this year at the Assembly Rooms in Jackie Clune is Boy C raz)‘. Ironically. that studio production at the University of Kent at Canterbury was his first real experience of making an audience laugh. He got a taste for it and within a year was making his first steps as a stand-up at Whitstable Labour Club. It's taken him this long to get back to the theatre. He’s obviously doing it for love not money.
‘My previous agent only had a few clients and they were all walking pound signs,’ he says. ‘He’d call every day, developing schemes. He cooked up the Abbey
instead of just a big fat cheque’
his creativity. ‘No.’ he says. '1 have always thought that the source of my creativity was not wanting to get a proper job. to enjoy being on stage. being good at something and needing to earn a living. Once I had enough money and the novelty had worn off. I'd go on stage and instead of just being the comic. 1 was the bloke off the telly. and it started to be less appealing.‘
It’s time to go. Davies has got an early morning flight to Monte Carlo to catch. And we've had more than enough organic beer.
On the way out. the waitress wishes him well. 'You're the first famous person we've had in two years.‘ she says.
‘1’” be back.’ he says cheerfully.
Auntie and Me, Assembly Rooms, 226 2428, 2-26 Aug, 4pm, 210—212 (5:94:11).
CANADA
Theatre
If AUNTIE AND ME has given you a taste for maple syrup and mountles, then you'll also want to check out these.
t I Caveman Inc When the I . BBC wants a North American accent, they call in Kerry Shale. "4. Here the V professional
Canadian breathes life into 15 characters working in a history theme park. Pleasance, 556 6550, until 26 Aug, 6. 70pm, £9—E10 (EB-£9).
I The Bllnd Montreal's Theatre Ubu creates this “technological phantasmagoria' based on the play by Maurice Maeterlinck. it’s a video-art installation in which the performers, playing 12 blind people without a guide, appear only on film. Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 473 2000, 24—30 Aug, 7pm and 9pm, £70.
I Weather They call it 'a one-woman show about depression that ‘ isn't depressing’. The world premiere from the Toronto company that brought us Lambton Kent last year, it combines clown, dance and music. and stars Rebecca Hope Terry as a TV weatherwoman during a vicious Canadian winter. Traverse, 228 7404, until 24 Aug, times vary, £10 (£4437. 50).
I The Blue Orphan From Edmonton's
, Catalyst Theatre. the creators of
The House of
'“' Footsie Plunket,
comes this play about a city on the brink of devastation. Musical and poetic, it describes the life- aftirming relationships that develop in the face of cataclysm. Traverse, 228 7404, 73-24 Aug, times vary, £ 7 4 (£4—E8. 50).
I Quesl- Murder From Montreal, the Good Scrap Company brings an adaptation of _, the novel by Nothomb. It‘s about Epiphany Otos, the ugliest man on earth. whose love for a sublime beauty fuels his rise to fame and fall from grace. Garage, 221 9009, 4-25 Aug, 5pm, £7 (£5).
'-5 29:2 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 49