D'Artagnan cuts a fine figure as swords flash at Stratford
By Henry Mietkiewicz
July 28, 1988
STRATFORD - Geraint Wyn Davies has all he could ever want at the Stratford Festival, except a chandelier.
He can't quibble with his roles as the swashbuckling D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers which opens tonight, beatnik Hortensio in the modernized Taming Of The Shrew or the straight-arrow Earl of Richmond in Richard III.
Ah, but a chandelier! That would have been heaven.
"When I got the part in The Three Musketeers," says the 31-year-old Wyn Davies with a self-effacing laugh, "I thought to myself, 'At last! With all the swordplay and heroics, I'll finally get to do something I've always wanted and that's to swing off a chandelier.'
"But it never happened. The problem is that because of the way the lighting grid is set up at the Festival Theatre, there's just no way to hang a chandelier. So there it went.
"And now, when people ask me what I think of the part" - he sighs and lets his face drop into exaggerated mock-glumness - "I say, 'Oh, I don't know. But they cut the chandelier!'." 'A zoo'
Still, there are many consolations. "The fencing is wild," says Wyn Davies, perking up. "It's just a zoo out there. We've got Jean-Pierre Fournier as our fight director and he's enlisted the help of (Stratford stage-fighting veteran) Paddy Crean, who's wonderful, as well.
"So you leap out onto that beautiful stage and it's a joy. There are times when we have 16 or 18 guys at the same time on that little piece of wood, jumping on ladders and doing all sorts of things. So we've got to be sure our moves are absolutely precise and perfectly safe."
Wyn Davies, back for his second Stratford season, is also delighted with the variety of roles offered to him this year.
"I was at the Shaw Festival from 1979 to 1984 and found it a terribly exciting place to to be. But I did a lot of Bernard Shaw and Noel Coward and it can be tough to break out of that. I'm still technically a member of the Shaw company and I'd certainly like to work there again some time.
Great fun
"But coming to Stratford has meant taking such a different approach to my roles. Hortensio has been great fun, because he's a sort of cross between Benny Hill and Pee-wee Herman, as played by Michael Caine.
"Then, of course, D'Artagnan is a character that any kid wants to be - and not just because of the swashbuckling. He's this one kernel of good who has his eyes opened to Paris and the world of evil, which he's never seen before.
"He meets this incredible trio of guys and Milady, and then he's taken down into the world of espionage and betrayal and deceit. And he's changed by the end of it, because it's a real journey. Our assistant director says D'Artagnan's a lot like Oedipus, except that he gets to see throughout the whole play.
"The Three Musketeers does happen to be a little more Saturday-morning-go-get-'em kind of entertainment than Richard III or Murder In The Cathedral. But if we camped it up too much, we'd lose the romance and naivete.
"It's tough to come onstage and say, 'Yes, well, you'll die for it!' and all that stuff. It's very comic-bookish, but it's also very heroic because we're talking about honor here. So we're working on keeping it as straight as possible."
Post-Stratford plans are still up in the air, but Wyn Davies is hoping for another chance to work with Patrick Macnee, his co-star in last fall's hit production of Sleuth at Toronto's New Century Theatre.
"We're trying to get something else going together, maybe even a script we can do with (Sleuth director) John Wood, because the three of us got along very well.
"I've always liked the feeling of a commercial venture like Sleuth. We need more of them and even if we can only do small shows of superior quality, that's great, too.
"One of the things I heard most often after Sleuth was that people who had never been to a play before came to that one, enjoyed it, and wanted to go out and see another.
"And that's important. We have to get people physically into the building to try to share something together. The more times people can get together in a room and hear that dialogue, the healthier theatre is - not just in Toronto, but in places like Shaw and Stratford, too."