Simon Russell Beale on his theatre fears Louise Flind
In lockdown, Simon Russell Beale misses acting, longs for London – and is frightened for the future of theatre.
How are you coping with lockdown? I’m all right – to be honest, I’m a bit frightened.
Before I went to New York (to do The Lehman Trilogy), I sold my flat in Pimlico and bought a house in the country in Wiltshire near my family and started all the builder stuff.
Unusually I was earning a lot of money in the theatre but, after four shows, I came back. I’ve always spent a lot of time on my own but I miss going down to London, I miss going on the bus and the thing I’m frightened about is theatre.
I think probably it’s exacerbated by the amount of stuff I do badly on my iphone in the garden, recording something for Radio 4, and there’s a sense that it’s all been cobbled together.
Funnily enough, I met somebody in Waitrose just after I got back – lovely lady. She asked what I was doing here and I said, ‘I’ve just moved here.’
We talked about Broadway. I said, ‘I know you, but I can’t put a name to your face. And she said, ‘I’m the arts editor of the Sunday Times … let me have a think.’
And, a couple of days later, she said, ‘Would you like to do an article and a recommendation every week of a poem?’ It’s a godsend – it keeps me mentally alive and also earns a bit of money. How much did you miss acting in 2020? Did you miss stage more than screen? I’m more a stage actor and I missed it all, the intellectual excitement and the companionship. I missed my two brothers in The Lehman Trilogy – but we phoned regularly and had sad Zoom cocktails. Was it hell going back for A Christmas Carol at the Bridge Theatre between lockdowns and then being taken off again? We had such fun creating it and the audience were lovely – of course it was disappointing, but it wasn’t unexpected. What’s your favourite touring story? Hamlet in Elsinore Castle. Hamlet has a period off during Act 4 and I used to go to the loos to have a pee and then walk back through the castle with the moon and the ravens and it was my castle – I was the prince… What’s your favourite Shakespeare play? Oh, you can’t ask me that. Every single one I’ve done I’ve fallen for. I think Lear is the greatest play every written. Playing Hamlet changed my life, playing Beatrice and Benedict was glorious with Zoë [Wanamaker], and I enjoyed playing Timon. Where did you film Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time? Mostly in London and a couple of scenes in Venice. Where did you film The Hollow Crown? Ealing Studios for the tavern, a medieval village in Wales and Gloucester Cathedral. What’s your favourite theatre? All the National Theatres, and the ancient Greek theatre at Epidaurus in the Peloponnese. What are your favourite filming locations? Gloucester Cathedral for the Sacred Music BBC programmes. One of the great privileges was to see places by yourself – I had the National Gallery to myself once.
Ever tempted by Hollywood? Oh, I’m tempted… Do you work on a plane/train – learn lines? I learn my lines in a pub. I can point out pubs all the way through London where I’ve learnt particular parts. Is there anything you can’t leave home without? My scratched ipod which has the whole Wagner Ring cycle and the Beethoven symphonies. Is there something you really miss? London – and I’m not a natural Londoner. I wasn’t born there; I wasn’t brought up there. I’m a latecomer. Earliest childhood holiday memories? Posted in Germany, we’d jump in our tiny caravan – four children – in Hanover or Münster and drive all the way down to Naples for two weeks on the beach and a week crawling back. We saw Vesuvius, Pompeii, Rome, Venice, Florence, Salzburg. I was 13, 14, 15, 16 – my first white-flesh peach, bread in the morning… How come you were born in British Malaya? My dad was a junior doctor in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and he married Mum who was also a doctor. When she was pregnant with me, they flew to Penang. Did you have a wandering army childhood? I don’t remember Penang or Hong Kong, which was our next post and where the twins were born, but I remember Libya at age five or six – the camels and the big amphitheatre. But clearest is Singapore.
Have you made friends when you’ve been away? I’ve got some friends from The Tempest and Much Ado. Top travelling tip? I used to drink on aeroplanes!
When lockdown ends, Simon Russell Beale is due to star in Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman at the Bridge Theatre, London