The Ruling Class
Статья о новом спектакле Джеймса + пара фоток.


James McAvoy said he’s going to ‘the edge’ with his next stage role. He’s playing God.

The X-Men star isn’t strictly portraying the Almighty. Rather, he’s an English Earl who believes he’s the Lord... among other things. McAvoy will star in The Ruling Class, the first revival of Peter Barnes’s play since it was staged in Nottingham and at the Piccadilly Theatre in the late Sixties.

Peter O’Toole owned the rights for a while, and played the fictional 14th Earl of Gurney in a 1972 film that has since become a cult classic.


‘It’s so on the edge,’ McAvoy said admiringly of the black comedy, which has a real Sixties madcap flavour. Both he and Jamie Lloyd, who will direct the show in January, called it one of the riskiest pieces of writing they had read. But McAvoy observed that as a performer and a storyteller, it’s where he wants to be. ‘Taking risks,’ he said. читать дальше

He speculated that it’s also much more interesting for a theatre audience to see something ‘right on the edge of failure’. ‘There’s something I like about making something where people come out shaking their heads, in either a positive or a negative way. Something dangerous.’

I saw the movie years ago, but I’ve only just read the play text and I found it riveting.

The 13th Earl of Gurney dies in what McAvoy described as ‘kinky circumstances’ involving a white tutu and a three-cornered cocked hat. The 14th Earl (McAvoy’ role) is heir to the Gurney estate and arrives wearing a Franciscan monk’s tunic of the Capuchin order. That’s just one of the many people he thinks he is. I won’t spoil it for you by revealing the others.

‘It’s about people at the top, thinking they’re God, and thinking that their power isn’t in any way limited,’ the actor said.

The play, which won the London Evening Standard’s best drama award in 1969, was seen as an attack on the upper classes, Parliament, and the Church of England. It mixes low comedy of the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields variety, with high comedy of the Bard and Ben Jonson brand.

‘It’s a metaphysical, social and political satire — in short, a shock-fest,’ McAvoy said, gleefully.

The Ruling Class will close the second season of Trafalgar Transformed at the Trafalgar Theatre in Whitehall. McAvoy starred in the troupe’s inaugural production, Macbeth, also directed by Lloyd (who produced the show with Howard Panter and Adam Speers of the Ambassador Theatre Group).

Performances will begin at the Trafalgar on January 16, following on from the hit East Is East.

The Transformed seasons have become famous for their low ticket prices on Mondays, and for bringing new audiences into the West End.

After The Ruling Class ends its run on April 11, McAvoy will go on to shoot X-Men: Apocalypse for Fox.

Director Jamie Lloyd described The Ruling Class as an ‘inherently political play’, hence perfect fare for the lead-up to the general election. ‘Its big target is the people running our country, so it’s a most appropriate time to revive it,’ Lloyd said.
©