The feeling of being in London is unmatched. The excitement can double when one catches up with the city’s theatre hub which has a positive warm vibe, irrespective of the winter temperatures. The sheer variety of plays – Lion King, The Mousetrap, Waitress, Tina, Noises off – fills you with a deep sense of awe. But my joy knew no bounds when I got one of the best dress circle seats for the long-running houseful Sir Ian McKellen show at the Harold Pinter Theatre near Leicester Square. The show’s name was enough to set the expectations: Ian McKellen on Stage — With Tolkein, Shakespeare, Others and You! It was nothing but good luck to watch a legend in person, and that too in a one-man play that was curated to celebrate his eightieth birthday. I couldn’t have asked for more.
Even as I entered the theatre hall, the tone was set by the Ian McKellen merchandise, posters and signage. “The money from your ticket is helping to transform lives,” read the declaration. The theatre had listed ten-odd charities which were being supported through a portion of the box office collection. The charities were companies and outfits working towards sustaining theatre and other arts for niche audiences – Mousetrap Theatre Projects, Kings Head Theatre Move, Royal Welsh College, English Touring Theatre, Ramps on the Moon, U Can Productions, Streetwise Opera etc. It was welcoming to see that the revenue generated by the Ian McKellen show was going to deserving initiatives. In fact, the star of the evening was himself involved in collecting money from the audience for various causes. I came to know from the repeat audience that Sir McKellen will stand at the foyer exit, after the play, to receive small-big-moderate sums for the causes that he cares for. Therefore, I was excited to get a face-to-face with one of the most acclaimed stage-television-film actors of our times.
But at this point, I begin with the beginning. McKellen stepped on to the stage from the aisle, almost as if he spontaneously decided to talk to a large gathering about his life, career, highs, lows, a childhood backdropped against the World War II, and every other private-public aspect that can be possibly shared. He took us through his working class roots in Lancashire and Wigan where he introduced us to parents who took him for a play at age three. Though devout practitioners of Protestant Christian faith, the father (engineer-preacher) encouraged his son’s liking for the arts in Bolton school, Manchester. McKellen lost his parents in the formative years. His sister was a considerable influence, as she too acted-directed in Shakespeare plays. We see a young McKellen’s growth as an open-minded theatre-inclined person who later goes to Cambridge on a scholarship to study English literature and then, in 1961, adopts theatre as a vocation.
The play doesn’t indulge in mechanical mentions of awards, honours, knighthood and accolades that the actor has won over the years, which are many in number. In fact McKellen is chatty to the core, which makes the show entertaining with peppy anecdotes. For instance, he shares his first erection while watching the King’s Rhapsody. Another memorable aside is his anger and embarrassment over his name being perpetually misspelt. He shares the various wrong ways in which McKellen is rendered, which is surprising because he is a national treasure and a popular global icon associated with various Hollywood hits.
The lanky 80-year-young performer treats the audience to short snippets of his popular roles. He starts the show with his Gandalf from the Lord Of The Rings. With his sword firmly in place, he calls a member of the audience to come to the stage and handle its heft. Later, he becomes the pantomime dame Widow Twankey who hurls sweet candy at the audience. Then he breaks into a Hamlet, later does a Romeo, and also Jaques (As You Like it) who convinces us that ‘all the world is a stage.’
The McKellen show lives up to the title. It is as much about the thespian as it is about others around him — family, mentors, directors, co actors and lifelong friends. It is about the actor’s coming to terms with his homosexuality and the defining time when he came out of the closet. Despite being so deeply personal, never is the narrative self-soaked, credit for which is due to the actor himself and his director Sean Mathias too, who also happens to be McKellen’s former partner. With just a few props—an armchair, a trunk, a hat, a stack of Shakespeare plays, the show delineates a vast cultural landscape. The protagonist sits on a box with stickers from different venues to which he has travelled last year — it looks like a fairytale magical set, and yet low-maintenance.
The latter half of the show is an ode to the Bard. He invites the audience to call out names of their favourite Shakespeare plays. All members of the audience respond with enthusiasm. While one shouts Measure for Measure, the other squeals Pericles, one follows with Merchant of Venice, another asks for a Macbeth soliloquy. Each request is accomodated and with each title comes an Ian McKellen story or a memory. Can there be a better way to honour the Bard and bring home the lucidity of his verse and prose. And who could have been a better advocate and ambassador for Shakespeare than a sensitive performer-British public intellectual like Sir McKellen!
As I came out of the theatre, of course after putting my contribution into the great actor’s yellow collection bucket, I was wondering if the show will ever come to India. Second, which Indian actor can sculpt a similar show? There are many great Indian powerhouse talents whose lives have been grand. We have no dearth of artists who work in different genres and lend themselves to stage, television and cinema. It will be rewarding to see one great life unfold on stage, much like Sir Ian McKellen’s does!
The Thought Haversack 