Actress Sigourney Weaver makes West End debut in The Tempest
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Sigourney Weaver admitted that she had experienced “moments of terror because the theatre is so much bigger than any place I’ve ever worked”.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON – Oscar-nominated Hollywood star Sigourney Weaver has made her West End debut as the magician Prospero in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and said she was glad she had taken on the role.
The 75-year-old actress, known for films including the Alien series (1979 to 2024) and Avatar franchise (2009 to present), admitted she had experienced “moments of terror because the theatre is so much bigger than any place I’ve ever worked”.
She and other members of the cast and production spoke to reporters after press night at Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Dec 19.
British director Jamie Lloyd, who grew up watching Weaver on the big screen, said he “never dreamed she’d say yes”.
“Something about this project, this building, this play, this role instantly attracted Sigourney to the project,” said Lloyd, whose recent credits with his theatre company, The Jamie Lloyd Company, include Sunset Boulevard and Romeo And Juliet.
The play centres on a female Prospero, who, after being exiled by her brother, is now a sorcerer living on a magical island with her daughter Miranda (Mara Huf), enslaved islander Caliban (Forbes Masson) and a spirit called Ariel (Mason Alexander Park).
While Prospero is often played by a male actor, sometimes the character is portrayed as a woman, and Weaver felt a woman taking on the role made much more sense.
“In the old days they would rip this woman away from her position and her life and put her on this island,” she said. “It’s so powerful.”
She added that so many women today have “much to express about what isn’t fair”.
American-German actor Mara Huf, who is also making her West End debut, said she enjoyed creating a new, tougher version of her character Miranda. “She’s played so often as very innocent and naive to the world. But I think there’s so much more to her than that.”
After Prospero whips up a storm, the story that unfolds mixes romance, revenge and forgiveness.
“There’s something kind of like amazingly, boundlessly hopeful about this idea that from a shipwreck, from chaos and confusion can come great sanity, clarity and hope for the future as opposed to kind of dwelling on the problems of the past,” Lloyd said.
The Tempest is playing at Theatre Royal Drury Lane until Feb 1. REUTERS
