Dance of Death (New York)
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| Dance of Death
December 13, 2001 Grand old wizard of odd by Sean Macaulay With his performance as the wise old wizard Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, Ian McKellen is easing into the Alec Guinness/Obi Wan phase of his film career; the knighted thespian lending the right touch of restrained dignity to the duties of wrinkled, gnomic mentor. The past ten years have seen McKellen hone his own style of charged minimalism that makes for the best screen acting. Even as the evil Magneto in the recent hit X-Men, he was ripe - a melancholy, wheelchair-bound supervillain with a silly plan for world domination - but not overripe. As a young actor on the stage McKellen made his reputation with bold interpretations and extravagant gestures. Arm-waving was a key part of his repertoire along with a booming voice. He took the flat vowels of Wigan, where he grew up, and turned them into a mighty instrument that could reach the back stalls. A relentless drama teacher had forced him to deliver the "Cry God for Harry, England and Saint George" speech from Henry V until it could be heard behind the auditorium's double-glazed doors. "No good if they can't hear the words," he said. After Cambridge and eight years in rep, McKellen made his mark in 1969 with a brace of legendary performances in the title roles of Richard II and Edward II. The latter production in Edinburgh involved McKellen French-kissing another actor on the stage. It was a bold move that prompted a visit from the police. "The officers sat with their knees wide open, until Edward's painful death, when in sympathy they crossed their legs tight. At the end of the show, they started the standing ovation - and that's the last we heard of any censorship," McKellen said. Being of the generation that hid homosexuality, McKellen had gone into acting in the hope of meeting "more queers". It was a hope fulfilled and he began to live openly as a gay man in the 1960s. It became public only in 1988 during a radio interview, when fellow guest Peregrine Worsthorne's insistence on referring to gays as "them" prompted McKellen to announce, "I am one of them." In many ways he has not looked back since. He has found a purpose in activism and a new lease of self-acceptance which has resulted in richer, more confident performances. "Self-confidence is everything to an actor," he said. He admits he was never able to cry on stage until he came out, which offers a fascinating insight into the starchiness of those craven Romeos who remain closeted. McKellen, like Elton John, makes a great poster boy for simply dropping the lavender curtain and getting on with being yourself. Of the 20-plus film roles he's played since coming out, only three have been gay. It could be argued that those closeted actors who play romantic or action heroes stand to lose the largest audiences, while on film McKellen is only a character lead at best. Hollywood likes him to play creepy old Nazis, as in Apt Pupil, or Death with a scythe, as in Last Action Hero. But closeted stars who dish up quotes about girlfriends or even arrange marriages and adopt children remain a tedious hypocrisy. Coming out certainly didn't stop McKellen getting a knighthood. When Derek Jarman carped about McKellen's accolade in 1991, a slew of liberal luminaries leapt to McKellen's defence, calling him "a public figure of remarkable honesty and dignity". "Whether I like it or not," he said, "public life has its responsibilities. Gay people who lead openly gay lives in private but then lie or equivocate in public are supporting the widely held assumption that homosexuality - theirs as well as everybody else's -is something to be ashamed of." He is the Establishment iconoclast in many ways. Outspoken and a co-founder of Stonewall, the gay rights group, he is also on the board of the Royal National Theatre Company. His former partner, director Sean Mathias, says: "He won't let people enjoy the status quo, and enjoy the peace and quiet that goes with that." But gay activist Peter Tatchell regards McKellen as "the non-threatening face of gay politics". Many have commented on his "dangerous" quality on stage, but this never quite accords with the shy, fey, pensive, melancholic charmer who greets most visitors. At 62, he remains softly handsome and bright-eyed. Occasionally grand, but still modest by veteran luvvie standards, he more than compensates by being an avuncular rock for many young actors, generous with his time and help. Wags joked that the reason Hollywood stayed in the closet was not the fear of unemployment but the fear of having to discuss the subject as much as Sir Ian. And his activism has at times threatened to supersede his performances. But in his one-man show, A Knight Out, he recounts his experiences with charm and wit rather than any humourless militancy. Of course, he is a classic New Labour vegetarian, but his Shakespearean performances are more politically mindful than dogmatic. He co-adapted Richard III for the screen and it remains the best of the recent Shakespeare adaptations, judiciously trimmed, brilliantly costumed, far superior to Kenneth Branagh's shiny-cheeked populism. McKellen's decision to relocate the play to Britain in the 1930s was not artsy nonsense - though the production design is brilliant. It was, he felt, the last period when Britain might have accepted a Fascist regime. With the X-Men sequel and two more Tolkien instalments due, his stage appearances have decreased, but any notion that his power has diminished too has proved misguided. This year McKellen returned to Broadway in Strindberg's Dance of Death and he gave a masterclass in controlled menace playing the domestic tyrant of a husband. It was a perfect McKellen performance - unctuous yet threatening, pathetic yet intimidating, a bold, booming mix of unsettling contrasts. The New York Times offered suitably ripe praise: "Watching Mr McKellen's captain shooting sparks in the dark mouth of mortality is about as thrilling as theatre gets." A life in pictures Alfred the Great (1969) Still yet to play the king
Copyright 2003 Times Newspapers Ltd. |
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