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The voice of youth
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| Oedipal charge: Dan Stevens and Felicity Kendall |
It seems Sir Peter Hall is barely out of this, or any other, newspaper these days. When he is not promoting the Rose in Kingston, the veteran director is complaining that young thespians do not speak up enough.
"Actors now think that, if they raise their voice, they are being unrealistic," he told The Times last Tuesday. "I tell them: What you do is unreal. You're wearing someone else's clothes and speaking someone's else's words'."
The exception to the rule is 25-year-old Dan Stevens, who opens opposite Felicity Kendall in Hall's production of The Vortex at Richmond Theatre next week.
"Acting goes through phases," says the floppy-haired Cambridge graduate, whose perfect diction was showcased by his turn as Edward Ferras in the BBC's recent Sense and Sensibility.
"You only have to see plays from 20 or 30 years ago to see that. And we have been going through an ultra-realistic phase of late. But it's not something that I've even been drawn to - I like the classic style."
For such a young actor, Stevens boasts a longstanding relationship with Hall, which started when he played Macbeth opposite Hall's daughter, Rebecca, at university.
Impressed by his performance, Hall cast him as Oliver in As You Like It, which had a week-long run at the Rose in 2004 when the theatre was still a shell.
A US tour followed, which garnered Stevens an Ian Charleson Award nomination, followed by small roles in Much Ado About Nothing and last year's Hay Fever at the Haymarket. As Judi Dench, Peter Bowles and Belinda Lang worked their magic in the leads, Stevens watched and learned from the wings.
And now he is centre stage as Nicky, the hedonistic son of glamorous socialite Florence Lancaster, whose desire for younger men and refusal to grow old throws their lives into an Oedipal black hole.
Says Stevens: "I read that two of Coward's greatest scenes are based on Shakespeare - the balcony scene in Private Lives, which echoes Romeo and Juliet, and Act Three of The Vortex, which is essentially the closet scene in Hamlet."
"Certainly, I can't think of a better role for a 25-year-old actor to play. There was a tradition in Coward's time that you wrote a great part for your leading lady but Coward wrote Nicky for himself and it was understudied by John Gielgud, can you believe?
After flouncing around in Sense and Sensibility, Stevens is used to the period costumes. Now, it's just a case of fine-tuning that accent.
"Peter is very keen on finding the music of different writers," he says. "Beckett, Pinter, Coward - they all have a certain rhythm and vocal style that you have to crack. And, once you have done that, you unlock the play.
"I didn't go to drama school so I didn't have formal training in verse-speaking," he continues.
"But I couldn't think of anybody better to initiate me in those things than Peter. You could say he invented the art. At the very least, he championed it in the 20th century."
The Vortex, Richmond Theatre, The Green, February 4 to 9, 7.45pm, Wed/Sat mat 2.30pm, £14.50-£28.50, call 0870 060 6651, visit richmontheatre.net
3:08pm Thursday 31st January 2008
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