Matt Smith is rehearsing for an unusual new production of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People directed by Thomas Ostermeier.

He pivots from talk about the play to House of the Dragon. He has glowing words for Freddie Fox who portrays Gwayne Hightower in HotD Season 2.

“What grabbed me about Stockmann is the idea of playing someone who’s on the right side, saying the right thing and fighting for the truth, but who is ultimately like a star turning into a black hole, enveloping himself in his own ego and velocity and opinions. And then, for people to be able to put up their hand and say: I think you’re like this, and the world out there is like that… They’ll actually be able to talk to him.” Won’t that be terrifying? Such jeopardy, it seems, is half of the point. “I hope people do ask questions. It’s such a volatile time. You only need look around to see all the steam coming out of people’s ears, and the theatre has always been a space historically, almost like a church, where a person can go: look, I feel like this. I’m genuinely interested to know where the audience feels the morality of the play lies.” Why do actors with TV or film careers return to the theatre? Week one is doubtless thrilling, but what about week seven? And the pay, my dears! “That’s a good question,” says Smith. “I was talking about this, as one does, to the wonderful actor Freddie Fox, who is not only astoundingly beautiful but also a creature of the theatre, and he said: ‘Well, darling, you know, it’s where one sharpens one’s tool.’” We hoot at the innuendo, and then he says: “But he’s right, of course. What you say about it being repetitive, that’s one way of looking at it. But Lindsay Duncan, another wonderful actor I did a play with, said to me it’s about being consistent and developing, and that… robustness.” The challenge is what he relishes – that and, in this instance, a change of pace from the Games of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, the second series of which he shot last year (Smith plays Prince Daemon, in a wig that makes him look, as I said when I reviewed it, like he’s on tour with Sigue Sigue Sputnik).

BTW: As for what "Sigue Sigue Sputnik" is, I did a search and found this image.

Not sure if George R.R. Martin was a fan of them in the 1980s. 😛

Blowing The Whistle

AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE Duke of York’s Theatre, London, Thursday 22nd February 2024 Henrik Ibsen’s play from 1882 is brought kicking and swearing into the 21st century in this new adaptation by Florian Borchmeyer and director Thomas Ostermeier.  What’s wrong, you might think, with a straight translation from the original Norwegian performed in late Victorian attire, and leaving us to draw our…

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Schwesterlein [My Little Sister] (Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique Reymond - 2020)

My Little Sister (Schwesterlein) (2020) Véronique Reymond and Stéphanie Chuat

June 18th 2023

Thomas Ostermeier's adaptation of Richard iii has changed me.

2023 Shakespeare in the Park Hamlet is either going to be decent or a hot mess. I’m definitely seeing it either way

The article of Matt for The Observer regarding his play and also talking about his late dad and how he came from a football player to an actor.

Matt Smith returning to the West End Stage to star in the first English-language production of German director Thomas Ostermeier's version of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People !

Many productions opt for a physical staging of Act III, Scene 4, when Hamlet accosts his mother in her bedchamber. Hawke’s Hamlet grabs his mother in a black robe, then presses her against a set of closet doors. Gibson’s deranged Hamlet also fights and clutches at Gertrude, as did Andrew Scott’s in the 2017 London production by Robert Icke. Thomas Ostermeier’s wild “Hamlet” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last year emphasized Gertrude’s sexuality to an extreme, having her slink and shimmy as though overwhelmed with sexual energy. The text implies that a woman too free with her affections digs her own grave.

That includes, of course, Hamlet’s eternally damned love interest, Ophelia (memorialized on my right forearm with a skull and pansy). I used to dismiss her as a frail female stereotype, and have craved a production or adaptation that could give this character agency — any kind of agency — within the space of her grieving, her madness and her death.

Woyzeck by Georg Büchner at Festival d‘Avignon

Set design by Jan Pappelbaum

Director Thomas Ostermeier

Schwesterlein [My Little Sister] (Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique Reymond - 2020)

Me and my friend just bought tickets to see Thomas Ostermeier's King Lear in january!

Echo: Theatre-News.com Thomas Ostermeier’s production of Ibsen’s An Enemy Of The People extends - #EnemyPlayLDN @EnemyPlayLDN #AnEnemyofthePeople http://dlvr.it/T38fvr