Ifans makes it three in a row at the Old Vic
Rhys Ifans can’t stay away from the Old Vic. he will play a ruthless music producer in a new psychodrama at the theatre, revolving around a hit record and who gets the money from it.
It will be Ifans’s third consecutive Old Vic appearance, following his performance as the fool in King Lear (opposite Glenda Jackson in the title role) and his present run as Ebenezer scrooge in a Christmas Carol.
for his hat-trick, Ifans will play Bernard in Mood Music, a new work by Joe Penhall, directed by Roger Michell from april 21.
The playwright was delighted about Ifans signing on. ‘The band’s back together!’ he quipped, in reference to the 2004 film Enduring Love which he wrote, Michell directed and Ifans appeared in.
In fact, Ifans and Michell had a reunion of their own to celebrate: it’s nearly 20 years since Michell directed the Welsh-born actor in notting hill.
Penhall describes Mood Music as a contemporary play set in a recording studio about ‘two musicians and their lawyers and their psychotherapists’.
Bernard is a music star turned high-profile producer. ‘ he’s too young to be Phil spector and too old to be Mark Ronson,’ he explains.
The author of award-winning drama Blue/Orange, the Mindhunter series on netflix and the Kinks musical sunny afternoon adds that Bernard is in a battle with a 21- year- old singersongwriter called Cat.
‘he claims he should have the credit for a hit song — and therefore all the royalties — and so does she. The problem is that Bernard has made so much money for record companies, he’s allowed to do anything.
‘It’s about creative exploitation and the way powerful people use — and abuse — less powerful people,’ Penhall says, adding that super-powerful people in the creative industries often have personality disorders — although he is wary of the play being associated with current predatory abuse stories: ‘It’s not directly about that at all.’
Michell will resume casting the other roles next month. Rehearsals start in March.