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PATRICK STEWART
At the PSN Gathering, The Apollo Theatre, London
Saturday 19 March 2005
Members of the Patrick Stewart Network met at the Apollo Theatre on Saturday March 19th for a chat with Patrick Stewart.
Patrick chatted with us for one hour. He told us what he had been doing over the last year; his angioplasty surgery last August, including how much fitter he had been feeling since the procedure, the voiceover work for animated movies Steamboy, Bambi 2 and commercials including Chip And Pin in the UK. He also expressed his joy at being appointed Chancellor of Huddersfield University- teaching the drama group and visiting high schools in the local area.
Patrick was very excited to share his plans for the future with us. After A Life In The Theatre ends on April 30th, he has four investigative tv movies to film in Manchester for Granada tv. Following that, he is reprising his role as Professor Xavier in X- Men 3. His main project for 2006 will keep him in the theatre for 15 months, but he couldn’t reveal any more at present.
Patrick went onto to describe how much he was enjoying the play but admitted at first he had difficulty remembering the sequence of scenes at one point during the play, having to ask Joshua for a prompt.
He seems to be enjoying everything about being back in London.
The Play
I attended the performance of A Life In The Theatre the evening before the gathering. The play is a series of short scenes chronically the life of two actors; older and experienced Robert
(Patrick), and youthful John (Joshua Jackson). The play highlights the comic and poignant moments of their life together in the theatre, exploring their relationship.
Patrick’s performance was excellent. His character goes through a transformation from passing on advice to John to watching him grow and become the more confident. I was amazed by the speediness of the costume changes off stage, as well as the impressive scenery, with the “dressing room” rolling on and off stage at will. The scenes I enjoyed most were when Robert tried to observe John rehearsing without being seen, as he begins to realise John is becoming the stronger of the pair. Also, the scene where Robert and John are acting out an operation and Robert has forgotten the lines and tries to convince John he is right. John tries in vane to resurrect the scene but ends up giving up.
I enjoyed the play, it made me laugh in several parts and would recommend anyone going to see it!
