ATN Interview with Adrian Lester
By Sophia Jackson
Published 19 November, 2009

Afridiziak Theatre News editor/founder, Sophia Jackson, was over-excited when she got an exclusive opportunity to join the cast and crew on the first day of rehearsals for the West End’s most hotly anticipated show of 2009, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The first interview is with Adrian Lester, who tells me why he’s nervous and that the issue of diversity in theatre is a lot better now than when it was when he started out 20 years ago.

Adrian Lester (Brick, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)

Afridiziak Theatre News: So, how excited are you about starring in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – the most hotly anticipated West End show of the year?
Adrian Lester: (Laughs) Very excited.

ATN: Are you sleeping?
AL: I’m managing to a bit. I’ve just finished filming Hustle (BBC television show) so I’ve just ran home, unpacked, introduced myself to the girls and come out to do this. It’s very exciting but I’m quite nervous about it as well. It’s not going to be an easy job to pull off this character and to make it work. At the end of the day it’s about the play and you’ve got to get it right.

ATN: Do you think it was risky to make the cast all black and how do you think it will translate over here, having been a phenomenal success on Broadway? Do you think we can replicate that in the West End?
AL: I think it will do really well over here. I think we need to look at the play from a different perspective from the one that we’re used to and think of another way to reinvent a classic play.

ATN: What’s it like being involved with such an amazing cast and production that’s got such a buzz around it?
AL: I go back to being nervous and excited. I think it will all pay off and it will be really good. I can’t wait to get my teeth into Brick, the character I play and messing around with that text.

ATN: Tell me about the character you play, Brick?
AL: Brick’s different as he’s unlike any lead role ever written before him. He’s someone who does not wish to engage in finding out what could make him happy. He wants to hide from it all. He wants to not feel. He’s deeply, deeply hurt and deeply upset and can be vicious and so channels that into the alcohol in a very calm studied way. He’s not like a falling down drunk. He gets drunk in order to be quiet. Brilliant. Amazing role. And he’s unique in terms of that.

ATN: Do you think the colour blind casting is something that will inspire producers in the UK?
AL: I don’t think it’s colour blind casting. It’s actually colour specific. What it offers the audience is a way into that kind of family and universal themes like this are not about colour. It’s about love and pain, regret and lies. So, because it’s a classic and is written about something that is unspoken about – that we can’t find words for, the characters can be played by anybody. It’s like Richard III being played by a woman or black man. These things can be done because the play allows that. The production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that goes on in Nigeria is not going to be played by Caucasians but the play will survive because it’s not about that.

ATN: I’m at the theatre at least once a week, and it’s often the same faces. Do you think we will get more diverse audiences coming to the West End because Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has an all black cast?
AL: Everything changes with time. When I started 20 years ago, it was a very, very, very, very different picture. They were all white. I left drama school when Apartheid was still strong and this country was just turning a blind eye to it. It was a really, really different world that I was working in. When I look around now, my God things have changed so much and I’ve been working through that period of change. So no matter how people maybe negative about prospects and all that – the world is changing. How fast it’s changing, I will argue with you but the fact of the matter is that it is changing and I’m really grateful for that. Productions like this and the Lion King get done and they help to make change. What was great is that I was at the Lion King yesterday and it was the tenth anniversary party and my daughters were sat upstairs at the party chatting to the different Nala's and the Simba's who have been doing the show over the 10 years and we were all up there. They were all mixed and I just thought ‘yeh’ this is the world that I live in. When people say to me ‘oh you have to go to America as that’s where you can make it’. I say if I was totally unemployed I would take that as an option but there’s no need to run I don’t think. I was born here, raised here, a lot of blood has been spilt to make things accessible here and I will be part of making sure that carries on and I love this.