Gifted Giles will clock on for TWO roles in shake-up of Miller classic
THE multi-talented Giles Terera, who won a top Olivier award for his performance as Aaron Burr, the vice president who shot Alexander Hamilton in the hip-hop musical of the same name is moving on to a different beat.
He has joined American director Rachel Chavkin’s Old Vic production of Arthur Miller’s play The American Clock, set during the Great Depression.
The playwright worked on several versions of the play about Moe Baum, a once wealthy businessman, and his family, who lost their fortune in the Wall Street Crash.
Terera will play one version of Baum (there will be three), as well as the part of Arthur Robertson, a savvy tycoon who survives the downfall and acts as narrator.
The London-born actor told me Chavkin had been given permission to ‘pull the play around’ and shake it up. Chavkin
said: ‘At the centre of the play is an American family, modelled on Miller’s own white Jewish family’. She continued: ‘In thinking about the play in the light of 21st century America, it felt important to be expansive with “the face” of this American family.’
She said her production would feature three incarnations: ‘A white Jewish family, a southeast
Asian family and a black family. The cultural background changes, but the challenges of keeping food on the table and maintaining family bonds amid stress are shared.’
Composer Justin Ellington and sound designer Darron West will create a contemporary score, based on the period music Miller wrote into the script of a production at the National Theatre (which I saw).
Terera said he was keen to work with Chavkin and at the Old Vic, both for the first time.
The actor said the narrator questions why ‘people behaved the way they did, and what caused it. He’s always asking: “Could this happen again?”
‘It does speak very much to now,’ he added.
The large company includes Clare Burt, Josie Walker, John Marquez, Golda Rosheuvel, Fred Haig and Jyuddah Jaymes. The play starts previewing on February 4.