Andrew McFarlane declares the writing of Chekhov had an irresistible gravitational pull that made it easy for him to sign on to Black Swan Theatre’s production of ‘The Seagull’.
“I thought I’d ever done any Chekhov,” the actor shares as we catch up for a coffee near the State Theatre Centre, “Then I remember that I had, I’ve had such a long period of employment that I’d forgotten that I did a Chekhov play before, probably in my first year out of drama school around 1974.”
For his first brush with Chekhov appearing in the play ‘Ivanov’ McFarlane played a young Doctor, now in ‘The Seagull’ he’s playing an older Doctor. Given that Chekhov himself studied medicine, McFarlane said it’s not surprising the Doctors keep appearing in his plays.
“Chekhov has an interesting slant on Doctors, he looks at human frailties and much as their strengths and lovability.”
“It’s difficult stuff because it appears to be so light and so truthful, yet if you don’t handle it the right way it just turns into a bit of boring nothingness. The characters – it’s their inner life that has all the energy and all the motivational force in the play. The inner life is something very difficult to express.
“There are words there, but in Chekhov, the words are probably the least interesting thing about the characters. It’s what we’re not saying, or what they are not saying that makes them interesting.”
McFarlane identifies Chekhov as one of the giants of theatre, noting that the Russian writer modernised theatre. The author was also interested in inner truths, and his work links with the directing style of Konstantin Stanislavsky whose theories on acting formed the central concepts of method acting, McFarlane demonstrates how you can draw a line linking Chekhov to the acting style of Robert De Niro.
Since he first appeared on our television screens in ‘The Sullivans’ McFarlane has worked constantly including leading roles in ‘Patrol Boat’ ‘The Flying Doctors’ and a healthy theatre career. Recently he’s been an in demand on television appearing in ‘Janet King’, ‘Underbelly’ and soon he’ll appear in ‘Devil’s Playground’ the miniseries which is the sequel to the 1976 Australian film ‘The Devil’s Playground’.
McFarlane said he has found some the darker characters he has played recently intriguing to play. ‘It’s great for actors to get to tackle those sorts of characters, those rather dark and twisted people, that’s what an actor loves exploring any life and the hardest one to play are the people who are nice and straight forward. You always want something to be multi-faceted.”
Andrew McFarlane stars alongside Greta Scacchi in ‘The Seagull’ at the State Theatre Centre from August 9 to 31. Find all the details at www.bsstc.com.au
Graeme Watson
