--Welcome back.
And we are joined by Tony nominee Tom Hollander who is starring in Tom
Stoppard's Travesties at the American Airlines theatre.
Thank you so much for joining me sir.
--Hi.
Hello.
-- I'm very excited to chat with you Congrats, first of all, on the Tony
nomination --Thank you --How does it how does it feel to be a part
of awards season?
Is it everything you expected?
--Well it's only just getting going, and I had no expectation of it, and I've didn't
really know anything about it.
So it's but discovering the excitement of it all is
a wonderful thing.
We is know we don't have such a thing in London
theater, so it's a new ... I mean we have Olivier Awards and things
but it's basically, you get nominated, you go
to the ceremony.
That's it --No this is a whole --This is a whole thing yeah.
So the thin g is it's fun.
--Are you having fun hobnobbing with your fellow nominees?
--Yes well I've only hobnobbed with them once I
thing but there's more hobnobbing to come --Yeah you're gonna see a
lot of the same faces.
Right it's been 20 years since you've been here.
--That's right.
--With us in the city.
Are you happy to be back?
-- I am course I am yeah I always wanted to come back
It's been literally 20 years to the month --I
know you're an avid cyclist are you taking part in our you know city bike
while you're here?
--I am yeah don't tell the producers
--That's right be careful --I love citi bikes
--Yeah exactly that wasn't possible.
The subway was maybe a little bit nicer 20 years ago.
I'm living in the same area which has changed out of all recognition
--It's an unenviable task to be asked to describe the plot of Travesties
but now I'm going to put you in that position --The simple
way is that it's an old man and who says hello
to the audience of the beginning of the play and says hello
welcome to an evening spent with me telling you
about my youth And then he gets it all wrong because he's
starting to lose his mind.
And right at the end, then so then because he's getting it
all wrong all sorts of strange things happen to the story and it turns into a
sort of farce, partly created by his inability to remember it correctly.
And right at the end when all that the farce resolved itself and with a
sort of comic resolution a farcical comic resolution, you then go back to the
old man in his study, with his wife Cecily, who says none of that was true.
You've mis-remembered all of it.
And that's really the play.
That's what it is.
So the misremembering is why it's called Travesties because everything that is depicted
in it is a betrayal of the truth
Or it's a version of the truth.
So that's one way of describing it.
I think another way of describing it is that it's like a work of Dadaist
art, and so it's just things jammed together that you wouldn't necessarily
put together to create amazing beautiful patterns.
Funny ridiculous, situations which are comically
satisfying --Yeah and you
mentioned Cecily in situations from The Importance of Being Earnest play a
significant role ---The other thing is he the crucial part
of his memory is that the greatest moment in his life was when he
played Algernon and The Importance of Being Earnest, and the plot of The Importance
of Being Earnest starts to control his memory.
So he's sort of remembering The Importance of Being
Earnest --There are so many references being thrown
at you throughout this show and I think I caught maybe half of them, but
once I stopped trying and I just like allowed myself to experience
it, the enjoyment factor like just shot up for me you know
--I totally think that's the best thing to do when
people let it become music, then it's, then then it works in its best way.
If you go this is this is it some sort of intelligence
test, which I I'm gonna get an exam mark at the end of right it's
not fun, But you shouldn't do that.
--Did you have to read it like with Google at the side
--I don't no my job is much easier than the audience's job because I just get
to deliver it.
I don't have to understand it.
I need to say the lines loudly.
--No but I mean you're required to do much more to be fit like you well
Henry Carr, your character we see them 20s to 60s
--Yes I get to pretend to be an old man and a young man -- But there's lots
of physical comedy, there's complicated wordplay
--None of which were involved referring to Google, --But did you have to prepare for
this differently than you've prepared for other --Just that I had to drink less
alcohol to remember the lines.
-- You know you've kind of took on this role in the
show as a challenge to yourself Do you feel like you've you've met the challenge?
--Well so of course I feel that we've had a wonderful time.
We've been well reviewed and had nominations, so
on paper we absolutely have met the challenge.
And we got to come to Broadway with it, which it's, you know hasn't been
on Broadway since 1975.
So all of those things are wonderful things.
That said, the play, when you're doing a play, it's a
challenge every night, and some nights you feel you've let it fall through your
fingers, and other nights you feel you've you've nailed it.
Neither of those things are necessarily accurate, you know, your experience
as an actor doing it is not the experience that the audience are having.
Many times actors think it's gone terribly and then the audience all
gives them a standing ovation at the end everyone knows those things
--You hadn't been on stage period for several years before you took on this role in London.
How does it feel to just be back on the stage again?
--Well it was great.
It was great.
I was I was I was very nervous that I wouldn't be able to do it anymore,
and then it would be too nerve-wracking.
I would be yeah just but it's been all right.
And, um, I got stage fright this time.
I never used to get stage fright.
I got stage fright when we started this in London the first couple of
performances.
So that's this is apparently happens to actors as you get older,
it just it gets a little bit harder and you lose the sort of mindless confidence
of youth, but you you get other stuff
--Yeah like Tony nominations~ --Yeah you get and you get you get yeah
--How does that feel --Depth of experience.
It feels wonderful.
It feels like yes
--What does that mean to you being recognized in that way?
--Well I mean you can't take these things too seriously because
you have to believe that all the work that you do that doesn't get Tony- nominated
is legitimate and is as valuable.
On the other hand, being nominated for a Tony is
of course a wonderful, feels like a wonderful endorsement.
And it makes me love New York and New Yorkers for having you
know fancied me that way.
It's it's great of course it is yeah.
--When this all comes to an end for you what do you what will you think, how has Henry
playing Henry Carr changed you what does this experience taught you about
yourself like what what will you take away from this experience?
--I don't know.
Probably that's the sort of thing that I could answer better when it's over
as in a moment it's it's I'm still doing it.
I've learnt this time to love, to feel what a privilege it is to do a
play of this complexity, that is endlessly interesting.
It's still surprising me and presenting things to me
that I hadn't seen first of all and I've done it 150 times, hundred and seventy
times.
It's still.
So that's a privilege and when it finishes I will not
live in this beautiful crazy world.
I will live in a much more ordinary world of my own making
until the next until the next interesting thing.
--Do you think you'll miss that?
-- Yeah of course I mean in a partly it'll be a relief and
partly I will of course I will always miss it.
In the same way that Henry Carr clearly always misses having been
in The Importance of Being Earnest even though he was bitching about it while
he did it and as an old man he realizes it was the greatest time he had in
his life.
--Well I hope it's been an equal experience like that for you.
I know that I will remember this performance and show so -- thank you
--Thank you so much.
Congratulations --Thanks very much.