A SHOW OF TRUTHS
The Lorax’s theme has never been more relevant as governments around the world continue to struggle with climate change,
Simon Paisley Day had to take the lead role in The Lorax. His wife insisted.
“I pursued the role because my wife (Susy) told me I had to. She’s a conservation biologist and she is actually half-American,” Paisley Day said in an interview with the Star.
“She was born in America so she grew up with The Lorax and she said, ‘Oh my God, you have to be in The Lorax, it’s going to be an incredibly important thing and very good for our kids to see you in it,’ ” added Paisley Day, who plays the Once-ler, whose callous disregard for the environment has catastrophic consequences.
The Lorax, based on the beloved 1971 Dr. Seuss book, had its premiere in late 2015 at London’s Old Vic Theatre, where it just finished a second six-week run before coming to the Royal Alexandra Theatre, where it runs until Jan. 21.
Paisley Day, a father of two, said his son Eo, who saw the show two years ago, had an unexpectedly bad reaction to it.
“It was a bit traumatic for my boy — he was only 5 when he first saw the show — to come and see me for the first time in the theatre playing the ultimate baddie who cuts down all these trees,” Paisley Day recalled.
The play was adapted by Scottish playwright/director David Greig, who has given the Once-ler a bigger part than in the book, where he’s portrayed as a pair of long, green, gloved hands.
On stage Once-ler has a “backstory” that partly explains why he chops down the forest of Truffula trees to make the versatile and much soughtafter “thneed” garments.
“It sort of gives me mitigating circumstances for why I turn out to be such a rotter,” Paisley Day said.
“But he, the Once-ler, makes good in the end. He regrets what he’s done and he passes on the seed of hope to the kid. So at the end of the play, which seems quite desolate, there is hope for the future.”
The Lorax in the play is actually a puppet operated by three actors — two of them puppeteers — but Paisley Day said it is so well-executed it’s not difficult to imagine it as a real character.
“Acting with this funny, little orange puppet with bulgy eyes and a big moustache is a bit of a challenge because his face doesn’t move very much, but he’s so brilliantly animated . . . that I’m just there and I believe in him.
“I never doubt the truth of what we’re doing.”
The theme of the play, he noted, could not be more relevant as governments around the world struggle to deal with climate change, with the notable exception of the Trump administration.
“With everything that’s going on south of your border in Trump’s America, I think they’re all about ruthless ‘biggering’ and the whole green lobby is really in danger. He (Trump) is rolling back years of protection of natural resources,” Paisley Day said.
“It’s a lovely and very good time to be doing a thing that perhaps naively but generously and openheartedly says, ‘Come on, can’t we all work together and achieve something that is good for this planet? Don’t we love this planet?’ ”
And while Paisley Day said the play has enough colour, music and puppetry to appeal to younger audiences, there’s something for adults in the witty rhymes of Dr. Seuss.
“I think the cleverness about this material is that there is stuff for the grown-ups and stuff for the kids. There are witticisms in the verse that you can hear the grown-ups getting, as well as all the enchanting stuff that younger people will (enjoy).”
Paisley Day is glad to be back in Toronto six years after performing alongside Canadians Paul Gross and Kim Cattrall in Noel Coward’s Private Lives, though it’s “already cold enough for me,” he said.
“Somewhat optimistically, I bought a second-hand bike the other day from somewhere up on Dundas St. But someone told it’s going to be minus 9 (degrees C) so I may leave that at home,” he said.
“We’ll be here for the really cold stuff. I’ve got long johns. I brought Welly boots with me, but I might have to get some liners or something.”
“(My wife) said, ‘Oh my God, you have to be in The Lorax, it’s going to be an incredibly important thing.’ ” SIMON PAISLEY DAY