Why Simon signed up for a run on the bank!
SiMON Russell Beale is reuniting with director Sam Mendes to appear in an epic drama that chronicles the rise and fall of one of the world’s leading banks.
The award-winning actor, who can be seen from today giving a powerful portrait of sadistic Soviet security chief Lavrenti Beria in Armando iannucci’s dark satire The Death Of Stalin, will be part of an ‘ensemble of virtuoso actors’ recruited to play various roles in the British premiere of The Lehman Trilogy.
it’s the story of three cattlefarming brothers from Bavaria who settled in Alabama and launched what was to become, for over a century, one of America’s leading banking houses.
Beale (pictured) confirmed to me that he will portray Henry, the eldest Lehman brother who was the first to leave Europe, in 1850, to make a new life in America. To start with, the siblings sold cotton, before branching out into coffee, sugar and petrol, and banking.
The Lehman Trilogy, by Stefano Massini and originally staged in Milan, was spotted by Mendes two years ago; and he and his partners at Neal Street Productions arranged for playwright Ben Power to adapt it into English.
Beale took part in a plain read-through of the script and the work was quickly embraced (as i revealed last month) by the National Theatre. They will partner with Neal Street to develop the three plays, to be shown across one night.
AFuRTHER reading will be held in the next few weeks. Rehearsals are scheduled to start in mid May. And the production will run in the NT’s Lyttelton auditorium from next July.
Beale observed that as the Lehman family grew, they became power brokers in New York and beyond: helping to fund railways, cinema chains (including onetime celebrated Hollywood studio RKO) and all manner of other ventures.
They became symbols of u.S. success. ‘it’s quite romantic about the American Dream,’ the actor said. ‘These three boys from Bavaria came over with nothing!’
Caro Newling, a partner in Neal Street Productions with Mendes and Pippa Harris, said no other casting had been done yet; but told me Mendes and the National were seeking ‘an ensemble of virtuoso actors’. Beale and Mendes have been collaborating for more than two decades, working together at the Donmar, the National, the Old Vic, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Beale is a huge name in the theatre world, but his appearances on the cinema screen are rare.
Even though his performance in The Death Of Stalin is one of the year’s best, he barely registers on the poster. But Beale’s acting is the hottest in the movie. He’d like to do more film work — but admitted he often feels ‘scared’ when it comes to motion pictures. ‘The technique of film acting is a great mystery to me. i don’t know how they do it.’
He said he enjoyed filming with Michael Palin, Steve Buscemi, Andrea Riseborough, Jason isaacs and the rest of the Stalin cast. ‘They were a good bunch — some of us are still in touch.’
in the meantime, he’s in the cast of iTV’s Vanity Fair, alongside Olivia Cooke and Suranne Jones.
A busy Mendes will take Jez Butterworth’s acclaimed play The Ferryman to Broadway (most likely Autumn 2018) as long as producers can find a theatre.