THEATRE
‘ v DRAA
You gotta
have Faith
Mark Fisher cruises through town with Adam Faith, star of a stage
revival ofAlfie.
‘Somebody came up to me in the street the other day and he said “Cor blimey. you‘re er. . .you‘re, er. . . What Do You Want If You Don‘t Want Money‘.’ . . . no. you‘re. er. Budgie . . .the coffee advert. . .‘ He went through everything except Love Hurts and my name. He said. “What’s your name?” and I said. “Cliff Richard,“ and he thought for a while and he said. “No. come off it!"
Then he got it.‘
LISTINGS
: THEATRE 5f ‘
It‘s a Monday afternoon. I have a hangover and ; I‘m sitting in the back of a stretch-limo with Adam .
Faith. Outside in the Edinburgh rush-hour, drivers strain at the smoked-glass windows to try
celeb who is happy to be spotted. ‘I love being recognised.‘ he says. ‘lt‘s never bothered me. It always slightly surprises me when I get recognised.
even after all these years.’
It‘s impossible not to like Adam Faith. This is
PREVIEW
Adam Faith: “Allie is like a drug'
_ . one; I mean. he didn‘t have to go up to the King‘s and spot the celeb Within. Surprisingly. this is one 5
Theatre box office staff to thank them for selling
3 tickets for his star-vehicle. Alfie. before he left the
interview number six and Radio Forth is next. yet
he‘s bubbling away with the kind ofwide-eyed enthusiasm. good-natured sense of humour and
unstuck-up modesty — this is a man who refuses to watch himselfon telly — that suggests he‘s only just discovered he's reasonably famous. comfortably
offand doing a very enjoyable job. Ifthis is an actorly show of bonhomie. it‘s a stunningly good
‘Alfie is the most horrendous chauvinist sexist person you’d ever wish to meet.’
building. When I learn later that he has a sideline giving financial advice to the moneyed set. a few of my illusions are shattered. but I‘m still sold on his natural PR.
‘Alfie is like a drug.‘ he says. claiming rather preposterously but with total conviction that Richard Naughton‘s play about a misogynist 60s
. ..,,;V_LI3,ABARET 52 DANCE 52
chancer is the 20th century‘s Hamlet. ‘First of all. you’re never off stage which for any actor is the biggest reason for taking a part. To come out and do theatre in the provinces is also a very nice life. I have a routine. I have a bit of breakfast. go for a run, come back. play a couple of hours‘ tennis. go and have lunch somwhere in the country. find a
nice little restaurant. come back to the hotel. lie l and watch black and white movies in the
afternoon, fall asleep for an hour. drift down to the theatre an hour-and-a-half before. get made-up.
go out on stage, round of applause. all that
laughter and tragedy of the play. have a drink afterwards with people coming back and saying they liked the play or they didn't like the play.
have a bit ofdinner. go to bed and start again the next day. It’s a lovely lifc.‘
Faith has been itching to play Alfie since he did a low-key production with Alan The Commitments Parker in the mid-80s. He‘s also had a life-long ambition to work with ex-Edinburgh Festival supremo Frank Dunlop. and when the two of them realised they were both free in between Faith shooting series two and three of comedy-drama Love Hurts and Dunlop directing operas in Europe. they took the chance to work out a sixteen-week British tour. ‘It is a highly powerful
: play.’ says Faith. whoexpects Dunlop to produce a
faithful period version. ‘Alfie is the most horrendous chauvinist. sexist person you‘d ever wish to meet. But it’s not a sexist play. You‘re seeing a morality tale about a sexist man who gets nothing out ofwomen. It was written as a play and that’s it‘s natural home. Becasue of the film. people come to see something that they feel is familiar and they‘re surprised that it‘s not exactly what they expected. It‘s nice bringing that element ofsurprise. It’s like seeing a painting on the wall and scratching away at it and finding a Monet behind it — you think. cor that‘s good. I‘ve found a classic behind this painting.‘
Alfie, King’s Theatre. Edinburgh. Mon 9—501 14 Nov. i
Maiden vusrts
lt’s suddenly the season for the big English companies to venture north as, within the space of two weeks, Glasgow plays host to the National Theatre (see over), The Royal Shakespeare Company and The Royal Court. The latter pair are playing at the Theatre Royal, the RSC with The
Comedy of Errors and the Court with the
DlivierAward-wlnning Death and the Maiden.
Starring Dearbhla Molloy (Michael Palin’s wife in GBH), Death and the Maiden is a chilling account of how a newly-democratic country comes to
i terms with a legacy of dictatorial i crimes against the people. Written by
Death and the Maiden
Chilean national, Ariel Doriman, who lived in exile from the Pinochet regime for many years, this terrifying thriller is about a woman who comes face to face with her rapist and torturer of fifteen years earlier. The woman, still uncertain about whether she has correctly identified him, takes the man hostage and puts him on trial in her beach hut. The play’s success owes much to its universality; as Doriman has said, the woman ‘is clearly speaking for more than torture victims — she speaks for many women who have been silent’, and in setting up a parallel between sexual and political anguish, Doriman implicates the audience in the same moral dilemmas. Doriman’s theme is the spiritual destruction of a nation so corrupted and humiliated that it comes to rely on the
i oppression oi dictators. It’s a tough E play that gives scope for powerful 3 performances and refuses to let the audience off the hook.
The following week, a considerably lighter note is struck with the arrival of Ian Judge’s production of A Comedy of
Errors, starring Desmond Barrit and ; Estelle Kohler. The production was hailed by the London critics for releasing the piay’s comic potential -— not least in the way that both sets of twins are played by the same actors - in a swinging 60$ pop-art interpretation that draws on everything from the Keystone Cops to the Ziegtield Follies. (Mark Fisher)
Death and the Maiden, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Mon 9—Sat 14 Nov.
Comedy of Errors, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tue 17—Sat 21 Nov.