Damian’s Buffalo starts stampede to the stage . . .
Damian Lewis is returning to the London stage in a play that he hails as a ‘tragic tale for our times’. The actor will star in David mamet’s blistering classic american Buffalo in the spring.
‘i wanted to get back to the stage, but i didn’t want to do it unless it was a great play,’ the actor, whose last West End outing was in The misanthrope opposite Keira Knightley five years ago, told me yesterday.
american Buffalo certainly fits that bill. mamet’s 1975 drama’s about three ineffective petty hustlers attempting to diddle a man out of a rare US coin. The men view their low-grade criminality purely as business, with a bit of violence attached.
Damian, who won awards for his performance as soldier nicholas Brody in TV hit Homeland and will be seen on BBC2 next month, portraying Henry Viii in the Beeb’s six-part adaptation of Wolf Hall, said he caught William H. macy as Teach (the part he will take) in a version of american Buffalo that ran at the Donmar Warehouse 14 years ago.
Lewis recalled being struck by the ‘claustrophobia of these three disenfranchised working class men’, unable to make anything of their lives.
He said the piece was funny ‘in some places’, but added that it’s also a ‘tragic tale for our times’ because ‘it’s not men,hardandcan we cafes,to unemployed,make imagine thinking:some groups dough, sitting“How of becausethein young barshell timesHe observedare tough?” that’ for the trio in mamet’s play, ‘the opportunities of life have simply passed by — or they have failed to take them’.
‘They’re scrabbling for their personal health, mental health, and pride. and i think that’s a common experience for a lot of people at the moment who are searching for ways to scratch a living.’
american Buffalo continues to resonate because it shatters the myth of the american Dream. Teach and his pals know it doesn’t exist, for them at least.
Lewis said he and matthew Byam Shaw, a partner in Playful Productions, had been batting ideas around for some time but the conversation shifted into (as he put it) ‘kick b****cks, scramble!’ mode once the actor’s availability aligned with a window of opportunity at the much indemand Wyndham’s Theatre.
‘ it’s a minor miracle that it came together so fast,’ said Lewis, who praised Byam Shaw for ‘not giving up’.
american Buffalo will begin performances at Wyndham’s for a limited ten and a half week season from april 16, but it must end on June 25.
in January and February, Lewis shoots the pilot episode of Billions, a new thriller for Showtime in which he plays a seriously rich hedge fund magnate. HE americanwhichby Then Danielis being proceedsEvans, Buff directedartis-al to o , Theatres, tic before chief returningof Sheffield to Billlions,season from filmingJuly to the December.full first The director and leading man became friends when both studied acting at the Guildhall School of music and Drama. Lewis noted that any drama student now would have been five when american Buffalo was last seen in London, back in 2000. Producer Byam Shaw said he would be arranging some affordable seats for students, but prices haven’t been set yet.