Guy Masterson's renowned Scrooge performance is coming to the Playhouse. He lets Leftlion in on how Richard Burton helped him along the way...
What's different about this production compared to others?
Guy: Firstly, it's a solo version. I'm known for doing stripped down authentic productions of classic texts such as Animal Farm and Under Milk Wood, and I stick closely to Dicken’s original text. It's wonderful to hear that language in full flow as he would have told it, using the original performance text.
I don't do the typical dress-up as Scrooge thing with the bobble hat and the dressing gown. Mine is a very visceral production. I wear a pair of jeans and have this fantastically billowing old shabby raincoat, which becomes all these other things. And it's very edgy. This Scrooge is very real and hard, so his transformation is therefore all the more powerful. It's not sickly sweet in any way. There's no saccharin. It's hard-hitting Victorian London, the way Dickens meant the story to be told. When you put that into the context of the Cratchit family on 15 bob a week to feed a family of seven, and the shabby suit he had to wear, all darned up and brushed to look seasonable. Everybody's doing their best to have a good day. It really brings home the haves and the have nots. Then you delve into Scrooge's past. Why was he like this? He's been brutalized by the choice he made to give up Belle in order to not be poor. So, it really takes the audience on a Victorian journey. It's not dressed up as fun or Christmassy.
And you're the only cast member?
Guy: Yes, I was inspired by the great Stephen Berkoff. I believe that acting was more than from the neck up, you know, filming and just voice. I realized I could do a lot more. When I did my first solo performance of Under Milk Wood, there were 69 different characters. And I become each of those characters in the split second they appear. And because the Scrooge characters are so well delineated by Dickens, it's just a change of body, change of voice, and then you see the character, and that's how the story is told.
What drew you to this particular tale?
Guy: Well, I had never read, seen and probably actively avoided Christmas Carol. If the Muppets Christmas Carol came on TV, I'd probably turn the channel over. Never got involved with it. Then, I was asked to do a reading at the beautiful, newly renovated Fitzrovia Chapel in London in 2016. And I just thought, as I was reading this piece, how absolutely brilliant and poignant it really is. I find myself drawn to great social stories. So, I've been doing Scrooge ever since. I absolutely love the effect it has on audiences, because my performance style is very different to what they expect.
How so?
Guy: It's surprising, because it draws you right into those characters and it spits you out at the end, and you've had that experience. I'm phenomenally lucky it's been so well received.
Has anything really changed?
As well as a story of one man's redemption, is there a political or social aspect about the society that they were living in?
Guy: Absolutely, and has anything really changed? You know, there are so many little references. “And will you, Ebenezer Scrooge, decide what men shall live and what men shall die? It may be in the sight of heaven that you are more worthless and less fit to live than many like this poor man's child.” So, Scrooge is forced to face up to a morality check and realize that his overwhelming need not to be the poor child he grew up as, has closed him off to the beauty of life.
Other than Scrooge, is there any character that you enjoy playing?
Guy: Oh, I enjoy playing all the ghosts. Jacob Marley is great, because he’s there warning Scrooge. And, of course, the Cratchit family. I just adore playing those children outside the bakers. 'We smelled the goose and these two young crackers danced about the dinner table and exalted master Peter Cratchit to the skies'. It’s just wonderful language.
Are you a lover of Christmas?
Guy: Since I've been doing Christmas Carol more, actually. I do look forward to it. And I only do it for two months of the year. Look, I've been doing Under Milk Wood for 30 years, and I worship that piece of work. I'm very privileged to do it as a solo piece. I was introduced to that piece, by Richard Burton.
Wasn't Richard Burton your uncle?
Guy: Yes, I was studying biochemistry at Cardiff University, and desperately unhappy. The only thing keeping me there was this girl that I was in love with. A hopeless love. And Richard not only helped me close the deal with her, if you like, but also exposed me to Dylan Thomas. He reminded me that actually what I was good at school was English, and that's what I should have studied instead of being pushed into the sciences.
He woke me up and reminded me of the beauty of my family, all artists and musicians. Uncle Richard said to me, what were you thinking?
So, I drove Richard Burton to Switzerland in a Mini Cooper
Could you share any memories of your uncle Richard Burton?
Guy: All that happened when I was 19 and he came back to stay with his older sister, my grandmother, to recover from this pinched nerve in his neck. And on the third day, we were watching Wimbledon, just him and I. And a Mini Cooper turned up, bizarrely. He’d bought it. But he couldn't drive it because he had this problem with his neck. So, he asked me to and so I'm driving him around in this Mini Cooper. Then he asked me to drive it to his home in Switzerland. My mother complained as I had just passed my test. Richard said, It's alright, Marion, he's not going alone. I'm going with him. So, I drove Richard Burton to Switzerland in a Mini Cooper, and just to add a little spice to that, he invited Helen, the girl who I was in love with, along with us. We spent five days in Paris and five days in in Geneva. Wherever we went, we were mobbed. And in those days, there was no internet, so when you saw a superstar, it was like, is that really him? Then, I need to find a way to get near them, and have a beer mat signed. Richard never paid for anything, you know. No one would accept his money. I said to him, you're incredibly rich, why don't you pay. And Richard Burton replied, they won't take my money. I don't want to insult them.
It was a very strange and extraordinary, transformative experience for me. And then he bloody died on us. Uncle Richard died in 1984 of a brain haemorrhage. Absolutely broke my heart. It was like losing my father again. I had this famous, brilliant theatre uncle. But I had no thoughts about being an actor and then he bloody popped off with this brain haemorrhage. And my girlfriend was an actress, and she said, maybe it's time for you to have a go. I went along to one of her acting classes and did this audition monologue. I basically did an impersonation of Uncle Richard's recording of Hamlet. And I was offered a place in this acting class.
And, Dylan Thomas, Richard introduced me to that. And I decided I’d do Under Milk Wood as a solo performance, purely as an experiment. And it worked and changed my world. So, I can thank Richard Burton for making me experiment in solo performance and imbuing me with this love of great literature.
Guy Masterson's Christmas Carol plays at the Nottingham Playhouse on Tuesday November 19th 2024.
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