Nigel Havers tells Jane McGowan about revisiting a role he first played in 1982
I just love this play, I love the character,” says Nigel Havers, talking about his upcoming role as Algernon Moncrieff in the UK tour of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
It is a part he first played at the National in 1982 alongside Martin Jarvis, Zoe Wanamaker and Dame Judi Dench as the inimitable Lady Bracknell. But isn’t he now, at 63, a little too old to play the 20-something toff-about-town?
Well, that’s the clever bit. This production, which also sees Jarvis re-creating the role of Jack, is set amid the world of the Bunbury Company of Players and is a play within a play giving the audience a glimpse of the lives of this amateur bunch of actors who are once again putting on Wilde’s most celebrated comedy.
“Martin and I really wanted to do the play again – it only took 30 years to get round to it,” he laughs. “But then we were too old to play the parts so we came up with this to get round it,” he adds. “And it’s worked. The audience love it. Not only do they get the play, one of the finest ever written, they also get another around it.”
Havers is quick to point out that they haven’t “destroyed Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece”, and the story of Victorian hypocrisy masked as a farce about two sets of young lovers and of course, a handbag, remains intact; they are merely “taking the mickey out of ourselves”.
The UK tour is Havers’ first for some time and although he can commute from his central London home for the Richmond dates, he is looking forward to getting back out on the road.
“Actually, it’s quite relaxing being away from home,” he confesses. “You haven’t got all the worries and responsibilities… and I am too old to stay in digs so I stay in the best hotels I can find.”
This is hardly surprising from an actor who has made a career out of playing those in the higher echelons on society. Havers is rightly proud of the fact that he hasn’t been out of work since 1970, and has appeared in everything from Chariots of Fire to the “brilliantly written” Coronation Street.
While playing Algernon in Richmond by night, by day he will be filming the new series of BBC4 comedy Brian Pern – A Life in Rock, reprising his role as 70s prog-rock keyboard player Tony Pebblé. But as with many actors, it is live theatre that holds the real thrill.
“It’s the purest form of what we do,” he says. “It’s the audience that dictates how the night goes and they are the most important component. That’s what we do it for.”
The Importance of Being Earnest is at Richmond Theatre from September 10-12
