If you need any proof that David Souchet is one of the country’s finest actors , then you should get a ticket for this show to see his play, performed at Leeds Playhouse as part of a national tour. It is mostly written as a conversation between the actor and his close friend, Geoffrey Wansell, broadcaster, author and journalist, whom he met in 1988 whilst they were working together in the Isles of Scilly on the film, When The Whales Came.
As you would expect, the piece focuses on the life and career of Sir David Suchet, I give him his full title here, but he only uses his knighthood status to enhance his charity work or causes associated with the theatre. It begins with his school days when he was a boarder, moving to Wellington at an early age where his English Literature teacher instilled the love of acting into him giving the encouragement and support required to make it his life’s passion.
His mother and grandmother were also no strangers to the stage, the former being a showgirl and the latter a sand dancer in the Music Hall. Both of these incredibly supportive women followed him around the country to be at all his press nights. His father was a consultant gynaecologist who took very little interest in his son’s work, even though the young David pointed out to him that they both worked in the theatre.
As well as being the actor’s story, it was also an opportunity for him to demonstrate a few of the techniques he employed in his professional life, trying to be true to the writers’ version of their characters rather than his own, and ‘become’ them. I mention this because in one episode he was approached by a psychiatrist in the bar after one performance, who told him that he was still in character and went on to prove it. He then gave him instructions on how to get back to being himself. I wondered how playing his own version of himself as a character in this work affected him. Whatever the process, it succeeded as, apart from a couple times, every rehearsed ad lib, interjection and stumble was carried out to perfection, giving the impression that they had been done off the cuff. In actual fact, this is the second time the show has toured, and has twenty venues on the itinerary, some with multiple performances, including four at Leeds Playhouse over two days. The most obvious slip of the mask of spontaneity was when they were discussing Oscar Wilde, Sir David having played Miss Faversham in The Importance of Being Earnest. The subject of Mr Wilde’s homosexuality was raised and Mr Wansell recalled that the author had been arrested and imprisoned for the, then, crime of homosexuality in a waiting room at a station on the Brighton Line. This caused faux surprise on behalf of David Souchet who went on to say that when he got to Miss Haversham’s iconic phrase, ‘A handbag!’ he had decided to play it down and concentrate on the other part of the passage which says the piece of luggage in question was discovered in a station waiting room on the Brighton Line, at which point the pretend scales dropped from his eyes.
Having said all that, the format was a much more entertaining one than had the whole two and a half hours been presented as a monologue, although, after the interval, there were several of those, when we were given a mini masterclass in the language and delivery of Shakespearean plays, using what he called his Highway Code. He then went on to deliver several soliloquies and a sonnet to prove his point. It was in this section that a part of the audience became a little restless as most of them had come to worship their hero, Hercule Poirot. It reminded me of concerts by pop music stars who want to promote previously unheard tracks from their latest album but the fans are there to hear the tunes they recognised. I think that the balance here was just about right.
So, on to the main event, during which, the format returned to a two-hander as we, and the interviewer, were made privy to the technicalities of delving into the character of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, rather than. the more flippant, comedic versions seen on film and other television programmes. he read all of the novels in which the eponymous detective appeared and gleaned every last detail, concluding that he was not a figure of fun, nor shallow, but someone who was very meticulous about every facet of his life. His clothes were specific to the occasion on which he wore them, his walk was described as a ‘mince’ in one of the novels, and the moustache perfectly trimmed and groomed every morning, becoming a thing of beauty rather than one of flamboyance.
Each revelation elicited nods and sounds of recognition from the wrapt audience who had at last come to the greatest hits section of the concert. The transformation from David Souchet to Hercule Poirot took place before our very eyes, even without his changing clothes or donning the facial hair, his favourite version of which had been framed and given to him by his make-up artist, complete with a poem composed by a cameraman who bemoaned the technical difficulties in the lighting of the ‘tache’ without casting a shadow on his top lip thus making it look as though he had two!
As you would expect, the conclusion dealt with his demise in the last of the seventy episodes, and the emotions he felt in its execution. It did end on an upbeat note, however, in that he said he was elated by performing in his first ever pantomime and by seeing the children enjoying the experience, hopefully going on to be the theatre-goers of the future.
The last of the shows in this tour is on 10th March in Cardiff but a note at the bottom of the itinerary says that additional venues are to be announced. Please go to https://davidsuchetonstage.com/ for full details.
To see what is on at Leeds Playhouse it is https://www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk/whats-on/
Photographs by Ben Symons. Sadly the press release for the tour does not include any shots of the affable Geoffrey Wansell, without whom the show would not have been so entertaining. To read about him and his career, please go to http://www.geoffreywansell.com/
Tyke It To The Limit 