Performer Of The Week
James Patrick Stuart (VALENTIN, GH)
■ James Patrick Stuart delivered an impassioned, impactful spin on that soap classic — the bedside monologue — when Valentin’s beloved Anna underwent surgery to remove a bullet his own father had cruelly and vindictively plugged into her.
After a long, sleepless night, a dazed Valentin got the wonderful news that Anna’s operation was a success. He staggered into her recovery room, where the sight of her still form and the intrusive beeps of the machines she was hooked to pierced his stoicism. Unable to stop his voice from breaking as he pleaded with her, “Wherever you are, come back to me.” His body shook as he tried to fight off his tears.
Feeling the flutter of her fingertips against his arm, his head snapped up in hopeful wonderment. His eyes widened, glistening with grateful tears, at the sight of hers, open and staring back at him. “Well, hello,” he choked out, his voice thick with emotion. “Welcome back.” Stuart played Valentin as afraid even to blink, not wanting to miss a moment of the miracle before him. His tenderness was eclipsed by self-recrimination when she praised him for saving her life. He was immediately and decisively dismissive, matter-of-fact as he held himself accountable for his father’s actions. Stuart listened attentively as Anna — in a magnificent turn by Finola Hughes — spoke of how faces of her loved ones had flashed before her eyes after being shot, her obvious anguish cutting him like a knife. Even though Valentin’s relief at Anna’s survival was palpable, the actor took care to maintain the crushing weight of Valentin’s guilt and shame, both over putting Anna in harm’s way and in capitulating to the madman that sired him by handing over the Ice Princess necklace. When she tried to soothe and reassure him, he could barely bring himself to meet her gaze. He didn’t need dialogue to communicate, either to Anna or to the audience, that he felt he’d failed her.
It was a nuanced, non-showy performance that felt richly rooted in Stuart’s grasp on his character — a man deeply in love with Anna, but deeply uncertain that he deserves to be loved by her.