Cult play ART gets an Eastbourne revival
Aden Gillett found himself in the curious situation of going into the revival of the play ART completely blind.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. I'd love
00:06you to speak to Aidan Gillett in a fabulous looking dressing room. And you are just launching
00:12into a tour with the play Art, which is heading for Eastbourne shortly. Now, that dressing
00:21room. Why have they put you there? It looks brilliant.
00:25Yeah, it's the three dressing rooms here. Yeah, this is the one that's most like a Turkish.
00:35Yeah, you'd expect a bit of a harem to be in here. It's got a bit of a harem. No, not
00:42none that I can find. Maybe they cleared out one when they made room for me.
00:47But anyway, Art for you is such an intriguing piece because you came into the play, which
00:51is 30 years old this year, I've just discovered. You came into the play completely blind, didn't
00:57you? Just trusting, suggesting you do it. Yeah, one of the producers just insisted that
01:05I do it. And I couldn't find enough. I just said yes.
01:11Is that good for an actor to come in with absolutely no preconceptions?
01:19Well, it's quite rare. There are very few actors as stupid as I am. So I think it's
01:25the only time I've done that. But, you know, I was confident. He knows me pretty well.
01:30I was confident that he wouldn't sell me a wrong one.
01:34I think he absolutely hasn't because it's such an interesting play that really does
01:38leave audiences chatting, discussing on the way home, doesn't it?
01:42I think it does. I think it does. Yeah. I mean, there's a lovely moment when it's very
01:46early in the play where, I hope it's not spoiling it to say, it is about a white painting.
01:52And the white painting is not, you see that pretty quickly. But the shock is when we say
01:58200,000, that it cost 200,000. And there's this every night, oh, it's hit to the tummy
02:06of 200,000 for a white painting. And yeah, you can see that people are going to talk
02:12about that afterwards.
02:14And you're saying it's a curious thing insofar it is really genuinely funny as a play, but
02:18there's also sadness, isn't there?
02:21It is very funny. It's funnier in performance than you think it's going to be when you're
02:26rehearsing and when you read it. Yeah, I can't tell you why it is funny. We were told it
02:35would be, we guessed it would be, and then the audience are laughing and you go, well,
02:38that's just how they said it. It's funny, but I can't tell you why. The tensions between
02:44the people who, well, there's three characters and one of them has bought this painting and
02:48he thinks it's a masterpiece and the other, his two friends are completely bewildered
02:52by it. It's that kind of tension. I don't know. Anyway, but it is also quietly, quietly,
02:59quietly, very moving. Their friendships, well, they get tested and they get challenged and
03:08they ever so slightly fall apart.
03:10Absolutely. I often think the smaller the cast, often the more interesting the piece,
03:14isn't it? Because it's more intense and presumably more challenging for the actors.
03:19I think so. Yeah. I mean, Sean Walsh, who's playing the traditionally, the more obviously
03:26comic role of Ivan. This is only Sean's second play ever. I mean, he's well known for being
03:33a comedian, brilliant comedian. But it's almost, it's shocking how good he is, the bastard in this.
03:41I've been schlepping away for 40 years and he swans in on his second show and is a hundred
03:50times better than me. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I've got the proper
03:59dressing room, the bordello dressing room.
04:01Fantastic. Well, really lovely to speak to you. I'll leave you to find your harem and
04:07look forward to seeing the show in Eastbourne. Thank you.
04:09I hope you enjoy it. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks very much for talking to me. Bye bye.