Comedy on the high seas with ex EastEnder
Rough Crossing is the play as musical theatre star and former EastEnder John Partridge dips his feet in Tom Stoppard’s highseas comedy.
The piece is at Chichester Festival Theatre from February 11-16, the tale of famous but desperate playwrights – one of them John – stuck on an ocean liner headed for New York, feverishly trying to rehearse their latest show before reaching land.
For John, the big attraction is that it is Tom Stoppard: “If you are familiar with Tom Stoppard’s work, you will know that he is the ultimate wordsmith. He honestly is. The words in this play are the stars of the show, but also it is a very, very funny play.
“It is not one that has been done very often. The last time it was done, I think, was at the National in 1984, but if you follow Stoppard, you will know that it is a gem. I don’t know why it hasn’t been done, but it requires big vision to put it on, being set on a ship.
Best known to TV audiences as Christian Clarke in EastEnders, John is also one of musical theatre’s most prolific leading men with credits including as A Chorus Line, Chicago and La Cage Aux Folles.
He is ready for another big role, this time in a play: “There is flamboyance to the character (Tu-rai). He is a playwright from the 30s, but I am the mastermind. It is my job to pull this disaster together and keep us on track.
“But the great thing is that we have a wonderful director in Rachel Kavanaugh. She has done a lot of Stoppard. I have not done any Stoppard before being involved in this, and so I read some and reading them made me feel incredibly stupid. But Rachel is so fantastic at steering this ship. Part of it is a play within a play, and the thing with Stoppard is that you have to really pay attention. You have really got to focus in. It has been an education for me, this rehearsal period. I definitely feel that if I make this crossing, I will come out a much better actor at the end of it. You have got to focus on the words because there is meaning on meaning on meaning on meaning and you have got to put it across.
“I have really enjoyed that, and Rachel has been very gracious in being able to speak to actors like me in a language I understand. We all come from different backgrounds. But also it is so funny. I am not a laughout-loud type person. I am more a smiling-on-the-inside type person, but we have laughed lots with this. It is ridiculous and funny and sweet, and there is also a kind of Monty Python-ness to the nonsense, the nonsensical, eccentric behaviour. But really, it is very, very funny.”