Gamble doesn’t think such roles should now become the exclusive province of disabled actors, but does say it’s “good to let us have our time in the sun … I love to work. So if I can have the opportunity to play these characters, I’m going to absolutely fight for that.”
Although Ryan’s company, Sport for Jove, has presented the history cycle before, this time the plays have been cut and spliced differently, and employ a smaller ensemble with an older average age, so the actors have more experience with the language.
“Once you get people like Peter Carroll and John Gaden on board,” Ryan says, “then others start flocking to it because they’re so loved and cherished.” The cast also includes Sean O’Shea as Richard II, Gareth Davies (Henry IV), Steve Rodgers (Falstaff), Katrina Retallick and Christopher Stollery, and everyone entered the eight-week rehearsal period with lines memorised.
“That old myth that actors who know the text will get caught in a pattern is just rubbish,” Ryan insists. “The more familiar you are with Shakespeare, the more you’ve rolled it around in your mouth, the more elastic and liquid it will become on the floor, and it’s got to be a second language to you.”
Across these plays, he sees parallels with the current cult of showy political leaders, observing that Shakespeare put all his monarchs on a journey towards self-awareness as just humans – journeys that can be extremely confronting. “We wait,” he says, “for the Musks of the world to have their moment to look in the mirror and go, ‘Who am beneath the performance?’”
The marathon production is broken into 80-minute segments, with a two-hour dinner break for those who choose to see it all on the one day. Asked about favourite plays, Gamble unsurprisingly picks Richard III, while Ryan enthuses about the different worlds of each, before opting for Henry IV Part One. “I think of it as everything Shakespeare could ever have wanted to do,” he says. “It’s comic, tragic, historical, political, it’s about the inner journey, and it has some remarkable poetry.”
It also has the mighty Falstaff, among Shakespeare’s greatest creations. When Ryan rang Rodgers to offer him the role, the latter was obviously quite moved, and it transpired that, having played Falstaff decades ago, he’d always longed to have another crack.
“He made his password Falstaff55,” Ryan recounts, “and always dreamt that maybe when he was 55 he’d get to play Falstaff. The day I rang him was the day before his 55th birthday!”
The Player Kings: Seymour Centre, March 26-April 5.