Автор: CMcB

Tickets for Druid's forthcoming production of The Playboy Of The Western World are already selling like the proverbial hot cakes and part of the reason for the keen public interest in the show is surely the presence of movie heart-throb Cillian Murphy in the lead role of Christy Mahon.
Murphy's recent successes in films like 28 Days Later... and Intermission has (sic) seen Hollywood come knocking on his door while his blue-eyed good looks have set female hearts aflutter from Tourmakeady to Timbuktu. Despite his growing profile in the world of cinema, Murphy remains strongly committed to the theatre; he recently did a production of The Seagull with Fiona Shaw and, two weeks into Playboy's rehearsals, he's relishing working on Synge's masterpiece, as he revealed in an interview in the Druid offices; "It's going well so far though you're always a bit terrified at the start. But there's a brilliant cast and its (sic) always interesting working with Garry," he states in a soft-spoken Cork lilt.
This is Murphy's third time working with Garry Hynes, having previously appeared in her productions of The Country Boy and Juno and the Paycock and he speaks highly of the Druid director; "I love her. When I started off, very green, with no experience, in Disco Pigs [his 1996 stage debut] she was very encouraging. There was no snobbery or inflated sense of her own name that I was in awe of back then. As a director she's so intelligent and incisive yet it's collaborative. She's confident enough in her own ability to be able to take on an actor's suggestions. Her vision and sense of space and sense of time and knowledge of Synge is second to none. They're also very enjoyable rehearsals, they're not too intense, we have a good old laugh." "I love the environment of Druid, I love that rehearsal space. It's always a pleasure working with her."
Part of the greatness of The Playboy is that it works on several different levels. In one way it can be viewed as a play about acting; Christy Mahon thrills the villagers with his account of murdering his father and then increasingly plays up to their image of him as a desperado. I ask Cillian whether that is part of the character's appeal for an actor. "Absolutely. The complexity of the character is really coming to the fore now for me. Christy begins to believe his own myth. The people need him for their own selves to be this person they imagine him to be and he needs them. It's a double dependency, they need each other. It's very, very interesting and relevant in every way on a personal level."
The play also offers a potent blend of comedy, violence, romance and extravagantly poetic language which carries its own challenge for a production. "All those elements sit equally in the play. Even in the first few pages of dialogue the mention of violence is huge, but it's such a well-structured play all these things sit well together and are reconcilable. The challenge as a performer is to make each one work, not to play them at the wrong time, the play turns so quickly between humour, tragedy, violence, farce. And all the action occurs within 24 hours so you have to be on the line the whole time. Christy also has peaks and troughs, Synge builds him up then drops him down. In the end though he's fully himself, so the play's about his journey to becoming a man."
I enquire whether he's doing any background reading as part of his preparation for the role. "I think it's more advisable to go with your own instinct and that of the director rather than be shackled by other interpretations. I'm reading a lot about Synge himself but that's for my own interest and I've read all his other plays but in terms of critiques on The Playboy I wouldn't be interested. This is an iconic role, there's been such wonderful interpretations down the years but I feel it'd be foolish to look at other performances. You can only go with your own instincts."
Druid will be staging all of Synge's plays between now and the end of 2005 though it remains to be seen whether Murphy will feature in any of the other productions; "I don't know yet, it's a question of availability. I'd love to be involved we'll just have to see how things transpire."
Murphy can be seen in two films on current release, Anthony Minghella's American Civil War epic, Cold Mountain and the Vermeer bio-pic Girl With a Pearl Earring. One film we won't be seeing however is the Mafia movie Red Light Runners he was shooting with Harvey Keitel and Michael Madsen; "That fell apart unfortunately, we shot three weeks and the money disappeared and everyone fecked off!"
His next big movie will be Christian Bale's Batman (sic), due out next year, in which Murphy plays one of the caped crusader's adversaries. Though his career is very much in the ascendant and with increasing numbers of Internet fan-sites pointing up his growing celebrity, he remains unfazed by his newfound star status. "It's not a hassle, people are pretty cool. You just have to be careful what you're doing when you're drunk!" he laughs.
Jesting aside, his star status should be even further enhanced by The Playboy. Snap up those tickets while they're still available!