TWO KNIGHTS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!
THEATRICAL knights John Hurt and Kenneth Branagh have joined forces to play a father and son on the West End stage.
They will star in a revival of John Osborne’s powerful 1957 drama The Entertainer, about a family of music hall performers forced to live in seedy seaside digs.
‘It’s one of the great plays about Britain in decline,’ Hurt told me, a few hours after completing his role in a movie about Jackie Kennedy (starring Natalie Portman) which had been filming in Baltimore.
Hurt, who last appeared on stage in London ten years ago in Samuel Beckett’s monologue Krapp’s Last Tape, will take the part of Billy Rice who, once upon a time, was a real star of the music halls.
Now he’s forced to watch his son Archie, a less talented song and dance man, squander his career, dignity — and family — in an end-ofthe-pier hovel.
The senior Rice is the first character we see on stage. ‘It’s always a difficult job to kick a play off,’ said Hurt who, despite being an actor for close to six decades, admits he still feels fear before the curtain goes up.
‘I get nervous; frightened. I get worried about actors who don’t get nervous! I think only idiots don’t get nervous,’ the 76-year-old insisted.
But he knows his way with Osborne, having appeared alongside Nicol Williamson in the original production of Osborne’s play Inadmissible Evidence.
He also worked with Laurence Olivier, who gave life to Archie Rice. ‘I was his Fool!’ the actor exclaimed, referring to the 1983 TV movie production of King Lear in which Olivier played the title role.
He said he’s greatly looking forward to seeing what Branagh does with his Archie in The Entertainer, which Rob Ashford will direct as part of the Branagh Theatre Company’s inaugural season at the Garrick Theatre from August 20.
‘ I’m in their hands,’ Hurt declared.
There will certainly be a splendid welcome at the Garrick for Hurt.
‘He’s one of my acting heroes!’ Branagh exclaimed, adding that the ensemble is thrilled to be welcoming ‘one of the greats’.
The company also includes Greta Scacchi as Archie’s second wife Phoebe; Sophie McShera (Daisy the kitchen maid in Downton Abbey) as Jean, Billy’s granddaughter; and Jonah Hauer-King as his grandson Frank.
Branagh told me: ‘Billy Rice is a legendary performer: spry and sexy. He’s fit, fiery and ready for anything. So is John Hurt.’
Can’t wait to see them sharing a stage together.