The potency of cheap
music is something Martin Duncan is more than well-versed in. The
last time the veteran director of theatre and opera was last in
Edinburgh was in 2007 with a production of Dale Wasserman, Joe
Darrion and Mitch Leigh's lesser-spotted 1965 musical, Man of La
Mancha, featuring the now classic standard, The Impossible Dream. Now
Duncan returns to the Royal Lyceum Theatre with a new look at Noel
Coward's honeymoon-set rom-com, Private Lives, in which one of
Coward's most popular songs, Some Day I'll Find You, makes an
appearance.
During his time as co
artistic director of Chichester Festival Theatre between 2002 and
2005, Duncan directed the likes of Gilbert and Sullivan's The
Gondoliers and Cole Porter's Out Of This World, and won a Best
Musical award for How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.
Elsewhere, Duncan directed Sondheim at 80 for the BBC Proms, as well
as touring his production of The Rocky Horror Show to Munich and
Milan.
Alongside work on
numerous operas across the globe, Duncan directed and co-wrote
Matthew Bourne's The Nutcracker for Opera North at the Edinburgh
International Festival. In even poppier terrain, Duncan was an
associate director on Performance, the 1991 tour by that most archly
theatrical of bands, Pet Shop Boys. As a composer himself, Duncan has
written for theatres such as the Royal Court and the Citizens, and
has written libretti for two short operas. Duncan has also sustained
a long musical partnership with actor Brian Protheroe, who had a 1974
chart hit with Pinball, in which Duncan makes a lyrical cameo.
Duncan is no gadabout,
however, and beyond his musical adventures has directed plays by
Gogol, Brecht and Beckett during his time running Nottingham
Playhouse in the 1990s. Having also appeared in several of Coward's
plays while still an actor, Duncan understands the light and shade of
their author more than most. Indeed, for all Coward's perceived
frothiness, it is somewhat surprising to hear Duncan make parallels
between Private Lives and another classic play an altogether
different reputation..
“It's like Waiting
For Godot,” Duncan says of the similarities between Coward's play
and Samuel Beckett's era-defining piece of existential vaudeville.
“Someone said it's like theatre of the absurd, because nothing
happens. It's just people talking. Of course, people come together,
people split up and there's a big fight scene, but actually it's just
a lot of talk. I've never compared Coward to Beckett before, but
Private Lives really is an absurdist play that exists in the limbo of
this little cosseted world, and people talk. Most of Coward's plays
are about relationships, and are about banter and chat and analysing
things, but the words are very good.”
Private Lives focuses
on Elyot and Amanda, a divorced couple who, while on honeymoon with
their new spouses, Sybil and Victor, discover they are in adjacent
hotel rooms. There is clearly some unfinished business between Elyot
and Amanda, who, despite the hostilities that ensue, discover genuine
affection for each other once more between the acerbic barbs they
exchange.
Coward wrote Private
Lives when he was just thirty, and in the play's original production
played Elyot himself opposite Gertrude Lawrence as Amanda, while a
young Laurence Olivier played Victor. The production opened in
Edinburgh, at the Kings Theatre, before embarking on a national tour
prior to transferring to the Phoenix Theatre in London.
Where many productions
of Private Lives have seen Elyot and Amanda played by more senior
performers, in terms of casting, Duncan has looked to Coward's own
youth when he originally appeared in the play to give it a sharper
and sexier appeal.
“I've seen older
actors doing it,” Duncan says, “and you think, well, aren't they
old enough to know better about these relationships they're careering
in and out of? Whereas when they're thirty it makes so much more
sense. They're still full of life and fun, and they're still sexy,
and it's suddenly much more exciting having these two sexy, vibrant
people rather than someone who's over the hill.”
As an actor for
twenty-five years, Duncan appeared in one of Coward's Tonight at 8.30
plays, in which he also played the piano. He has also appeared in
productions of Hay Fever, played egomaniacal actor Garry Essendine in
Present Laughter. Duncan also wrote songs for a play called
Cowardice, which starred Ian McKellan, Janet Suzman and Nigel
Davenport in a piece about a brother and sister who made-believe they
were Coward and Lawrence. Duncan penned a pastiche of a Coward song
for McKellan to sing.
“I've always been a
fan of Coward's,” Duncan says, “and have a history with his work,
but until now I've never directed any of his plays. Since leaving
Chichester I've only directed operas, so this is the first actual
play I've directed for seven years. People said to me when I was
younger that I would be a natural to do Coward parts, and I don't
know whether that was the case, but I seem to have done quite a lot
of them.
“I was telling the
guys in Private Lives about when I was doing Garry Essendine, and
how, night after night, it was like doing a steeplechase. You'd see
the hurdle coming towards you, and you knew that if you leap at the
right time, you'll get over it and get a big laugh, but if you just
stumble and make a glitch, then you won't. It's a technique.
Delivering Coward's lines is a technical thing, and yet they've got
to look spontaneous. You have to not make it so flippant that you're
not interested in or believe in the character.”
This sense of truth
goes some way to explaining Coward's enduring appeal.
“People are looking
for something funny,” says Duncan, “but they also want something
that's clever, and so much of what passes for comedy these days isn't
clever. People say Private Lives is a frothy play, but it speaks an
awful lot of truth about relationships. I'm certainly not doing a
dark version, but there are these little moments of introspection.
It's not just about fun and froth. There's a sadness and a lost
feeling that's about people struggling to find both themselves and
each other. That's why Coward's plays have survived. If they were
just about froth without the truth, they'd have disappeared years
ago.”
Private Lives, Royal
Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, February 14-March 8
Martin Duncan – A
life in theatre
Martin Duncan was born
in London, and originally trained as a stage manager before becoming
an actor for twenty years.
As director and
co-writer with the National Theatre of Brent, in 1987 Duncan brought
The Greatest Story Ever Told to Edinburgh. This was followed by
several works for Channel 4 and BBC TV and radio.
In 1990, Duncan
directed his first opera for Opera North, which began a long career
which has included work with Glyndebourne Festival, English Touring
Opera, Scottish Opera, Edinburgh International Festival, BBC Proms at
the Royal Albert Hall, as well as all over Europe.
In 1991, Duncan was
associate director of Pet Shop Boys Performance tour.
Between 1994 and 1999
Duncan was artistic director of Nottingham Playhouse, where many of
his productions toured the world.
Between 2002 and 2005,
Duncan was co artistic director of Chichester Festival Theatre.
Duncan has also worked
as choreographer, writer and composer, and directed and co-wrote the
scenario for Matthew Bourne's Opera North production of The
Nutcracker, which received its world premiere at Edinburgh
International Festival.
The Herald, February 4th 2014
ends
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