The Times Playlist Magazine, December 5, 2009

My character, Alceste, is sympathetic, I think -- his belief system is admirable. But then again the way in which he conveys his ideas is often outright rude. And we've joined him at a time where he's unhinged by a desire for this woman, Jennifer (Keira Knightley), so it's made him more irascible still. But it's not use just acting angry all night; hopefully it'll be more interesting than that!

We're using Martin Crimp's version from 1996, parts of which have been updated for this production -- which bits those are will be deliciously obvious I think, such as the reference to "shit-rich banking cronies in the City".

Originally, in 1666, Alceste was a man of virtues set against the Parisian salons. Everyone was kissing everyone's asses. Now it's transposed to a modern world where nothing's changed, really. This Alceste is a playwright, Jennifer is an American film actress, there are agents, voice coaches, journalists. Alceste lambasts that world but he is very much of that world, that's the paradox.

In terms of learning the lines, the rhymes are a blessing and a curse. Can you improvise a rhyme if you lose your way? Actually my first job was a Molière, School For Wives, with Ian McDiarmid. I dried twice. The words had gone, so I tried to bluff my way, just making sure I rhymed the end of each line. I'll never forget the sight of Ian, so hot in his costume that steam was coming off his face, convulsing when he realised what I was doing. I'll be trying very hard to avoid that here.

Interviewed by Dominic Maxwell

The Misanthrope

by Benedict Nightingale, The Times Playlist Magazine, December 5, 2009

Many would regard Molière's tale of the intelligent, decent but comically grouchy truth-teller who can't resist exposing and alienating the fools, hypocrites and phoneys all around him as the great dramatist's masterpiece. Years ago a wonderful modern translation by Tony Harrison brought Alec McCowen and Diana Rigg to the National. In 1996, Martin Crimp's even more topical adaptation took Ken Stott and Elizabeth McGovern to the Young Vic, and it's this version, also much admired in its time, which Damian Lewis and Keira Knightley are using. Knightley, in a high-profile West End debut (see page 6), plays a Hollywood film star, so expect, among the witty rhymes, knowing nods to Knightley's own position.

Comedy Theatre, London SW1 (theambassadors.com 0870 0606637), til March 13.

The Top Ten Film Stars In The West End

As Keira makes her stage debut, Benedict Nightingale recalls how ten other superstars fared.

by Benedict Nightingale, The Times Playlist Magazine, December 5, 2009

Back in the 1980s Peter Hall said that a play would have trouble succeeding in the West End without a star, preferably a big film star. More and more have appeared in London theatres in recent years, feeling that they have much to gain and little to lose. If they succeed in the world's theatrical capital, they will show their courage and range. If they flop ... well, is a Hollywood studio boss going to fret over a glitch on the other side of the world?

Now we have Keira Knightley's London stage debut, playing Molière's most attractive heroine in The Misanthrope. She says she is "terrified but excited", but jokes that "it's not the bloody Keira Knightley show". It continues a trend that the head of the Ambassador Theatre Group thinks will intensify. Howard Panter believes the fashion for animated movies will mean less work for even famous Hollywood actors and could impel some towards the London stage. "But not if they're cast in an opportunist way," he cautions. "The public is quick to spot that -- and will stay away." Our list, which has no room for Glenn Close (excellent), Macaulay Culkin (OK), Joan Collins (um) and several others, comprises ten star debuts that caused big ripples in our theatrical pond.

1 Nicole Kidman: Pure theatrical Viagra, as a salivating critic claimed? Maybe, but Kidman did much more than strip off in David Hare's adaptation of La Ronde, The Blue Room, demonstrating her skill and versatility by playing a sensuous au pair, a power-mad diva and three other women caught in a chain of love.

2 Dustin Hoffman: "He can do a scene ten different ways, he's almost too inventive," said Peter Hall, directing Hoffman in The Merchant of Venice in 1989. The London critics agreed, praising his Shylock for the resentment seething beneath the bonhomie he showed the world.

3 Kevin Spacey: Maybe theatreland's greatest import, Spacey was such a success as the smooth-talking salesman in The Iceman Cometh in 1998 that he returned to become artistic supremo of the Old Vic, giving a series of fine performances, including Inherit the Wind, as a bonus.

4 Christian Slater: The Hollywood bad boy's 2004 Edinburgh debut as the rebel patient in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a bit lacklustre, but he went on to play the role in the West End, impressing with his glee, impishness and the power of his battle with horrible Nurse Ratched.

5 Orlando Bloom: Hard to emulate the great Brian Cox, who created the role in 1969, but the portrayal by Keira Knightley's Pirates ... co-star Bloom as the upwardly mobile, inwardly agonised miner's son in David Storey's In Celebration (2007) radiated the quiet pain the playwright wanted.

6 Daniel Radcliffe: In 2007, the nation's voyeurs were agog to discover if Harry Potter would take off more than his trademark specs. Well, he did -- and then some -- but also brought aggression and pain to Peter Shaffer's Equus, along with plenty else that the demanding role of the teenage horse-lover and horse-mutilator demanded.

7 Madonna: Critics found Madge pretty colourless in David Williamson's Up for Grabs in 2002: surprising, since she played an art dealer whose colourful tricks included having sex with a dot-com millionairess while her genitally-challenged husband looked on wistfully.

8 Kathleen Turner: She shed her petticoat as the predatory Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate in 2000, but her performance was notable for its suave confidence. She returned in 2008 to give a memorably ferocious performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

9 Matt Damon: Some found him too wholesome for the role of a rich kid who becomes a drug dealer, but the critical consensus of his debut London performance in Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth in 2002 was that he caught both the cockiness and the disabling ennui.

10 Ewan McGregor: Fresh from Trainspotting, McGregor successfully sulked and brooded as a rebellious adolescent in David Halliwell's Little Malcolm in 1998, and went on to play a strong Guy Masterson in Guys and Dolls but also an Iago in Othello lacking in bile.

Playlist

Going out, staying in -- the best of the week.

The Times Playlist Magazine, December 5, 2009

Stage: Keira nightly

You can see Miss Knightley six evenings a week as she takes to the stage on Wednesday with Damian Lewis in a modern production of Molière's wonderfully cynical comedy The Misanthrope. Page 6 & 16