Features
The man for all seasons
A Man For All Seasons has developed into a love affair for director
Paul Shelley.
The brother of actor Francis Matthews, who has made
his name in classical theatre, talks to Steve Pratt about bringing
a month-long version of the work to York's Theatre Royal
ACTOR Paul Shelley fell in love when
he appeared on the London stage in
a revival of A Man For All Seasons
three or four years ago. Not with a
person but the play - Robert Bolt's
historical drama charting the clash
between the state, in the formidable shape of
King Henry V, and the individual, namely Sir
Thomas More, who put conscience before
approval of the monarch's behaviour.
"I knew the film already and fell in love with
the play and thought I'd like to direct it," he
recalls.
So he contacted Damian Cruden, artistic
director of York Theatre Royal, where Shelley
starred as Elyot in Noel Coward's Private Lives
some years ago. The result was an invitation to
direct A Man For All Seasons in York, with
pantomime baddie regular David Leonard
starring as More.
"It's a brilliant play about the individual man
versus the state. The writer does the work for
you. It's just beautifully written and my work
now with the actors is to let the words do it for
them," he says during a break in rehearsals.
He loved playing Norfolk in the West End and
on tour in a production that starred Martin
Shaw as More. "Giving actors a play they enjoy
doing is half the battle," he says.
"I knew I would do a different production from
the one I was in. We all have our own attitude to
things. I've been in the business so long, have
met good directors and bad directors, and
thought I would like to do a different production.
I can see other things to liberate the play."
One difference to the London staging in which
he appeared is the way the Common Man, the
narrator of the piece, is introduced. The York
Common Man comes out of the audience in
modern dress to join the historically-garbed
actors on stage. The setting and the acting
space, are very different too.
Shelley has directed before, including
Chekhov's The Seagull and more recently a
Shaw double bill of one-act plays, but is known
mostly as an actor. He's just finished playing
Duncan in Macbeth at Chichester, London and
New York.
He played Antony in Antony And Cleopatra
and Julius Caesar in the same season at
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Three Tom
Stoppard plays - The Real Thing, Arcadia and
Oscar Wilde in The Invention Of Love - are
among his West End work.
"I'm an actor who's directing and am
confident as a director. I know I have something
to say and something to give," he says.
Leonard was one of the casting suggestions
that Shelley seized on. He's never acted with or
directed him before. Some of the actors he has
worked with previously.
"The main thing is they seem so happy and
are having fun - and if we don't have fun, we
should go home. Yes, of course, it's got to be
good, but you have to enjoy the process or you're
not going to transmit that enjoyment," he says.
"When you have such a wonderful play, you
have no excuse not to have fun. It's not only
tragic, but witty. Like all great writers, he knows
you have to get people laughing and then they're
on your side."
ONE member of the cast is family, Damien
Matthews, who is the son of Shelley's
actor brother Francis Matthews. The two
spent nine months on stage together in London
in the chiller The Woman In Black.
He's playing Henry VIII. At first Shelley
thought he was too young to be king, but is
actually round about Henry's age at the time of
the play. In one way Shelley is coming home.
He's a Yorkshireman, born in Leeds although
the rest of the family come from York. He still
has an aunt, May, now 94, living in York and who
came to see him in Private Lives.
Older brother Francis went into acting, but
Shelley didn't want to follow in his footsteps. "I
thought it was daft, so I went to university, got
into the drama society and then trained properly
as an actor," he recalls.
He says he's always been regarded as a
classical actor, something that his CV bears out.
One of his more unusual Shakespeare roles was
Antony in an all-male production. Globe artistic
director Mark Rylance was his Cleopatra and
yes, they had to snog. "I loved it, I didn't have
any problems with it at all. He was wonderful,"
he says.
"The Globe is such a wonderful, amazing
space to work in despite the helicopters and
head and you can see the audience clearer than
they can see you."
He used to visit the Theatre Royal as a child
after the family moved to Leeds because he still
had aunts and uncles living in York.
Not that he's had much time during rehearsals
to revisit old haunts. "The thing is to conserve
your energy because every decision is yours.
You're in the rehearsal room from dawn to
dusk," he says.
* A Man For All Seasons: York Theatre Royal
from Saturday until June 28. Box Office: 01904-
623568 or online at
www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
10:35am Thursday 5th June 2008
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