Frocks away! Suchet gets a makeover
David SUCHET missed dressing up to play Hercule Poirot on iTv, so he plans to don a few flowing gowns ... as Lady Bracknell. The award-winning star will play Oscar Wilde’s hilarious and terrifying creation in the playwright’s comic gem The importance Of Being Earnest in the West End in June 2015.
Suchet told me: ‘ i couldn’t resist trading in my moustache for her heels; and murder and mystery for laughter.’
in an email he added that after playing ‘an extraordinary character like Hercule Poirot in wonderful stories for so long, i always knew it would be a challenge to find another character as extraordinary to play. i also wanted comedy. Lady Bracknell is both.’
indeed she is. i’ve seen Maggie Smith and Judi dench play her to perfection. i’ve also seen Brian Bedford play her in New York in a production that travelled from the Stratford Festival in Ontario.
Not so long ago, Stephen Fry fancied doing a Bracknell, but that’s still at the handbag stage.
The production with Suchet will be directed by adrian Noble, a former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He last worked with Suchet when he was an assistant director at the RSC, back in 1980. Suchet played Bolingbroke to alan Howard’s Richard ii.
Noble said i t was a ‘great gender-blind’ idea from producer Kim Poster to cast Suchet.
‘david’s playing the role as written,’ he told me. ‘He will be Lady Bracknell. He won’t be playing her in a camp way. That’s not my plan nor david’s plan at all.’
He noted there had been many recent successes of gender-blind casting, citing the example of the spellbinding production of Julius Caesar at the donmar, where an all-female cast was directed by Phyllida Lloyd.
Noble, who’s also helping Kate Bush to prepare for her upcoming concerts, predicts a lot more of this kind of thing. ‘it works both ways and allows classic plays to be looked at in a different way.’
The importance Of Being Earnest has a preview start date of June 24, but the theatre won’t be named for a while.
Kim Poster will produce the show with Nica Burns, chief executive of Nimax, which runs several houses in the West End.