The Stage

The fire in Darvill’s belly

Published Friday 24 June 2011 at 10:30 by Scott Matthewman

Best known as Rory Williams in Doctor Who, Arthur Darvill is swapping science fiction for Elizabethan drama, as he takes on a leading role in Doctor Faustus at Shakespeare’s Globe. He tells Scott Matthewman why he is excited to play a villain, but worried he might burn the theatre down

“I’m allowed to talk about this. I keep thinking, will this spoil it for everyone?” exclaims Arthur Darvill. “I keep forgetting, saying, ‘No, no, we can’t talk about it’ - but we can, of course. It’s a play everyone knows.”

Two years of playing Rory Williams in BBC series Doctor Who have made Darvill accustomed to thinking of his work solely in terms of spoilers, it seems. Now, though, he has returned to London from the science fiction show’s Cardiff home to star as Mephistopheles in a new production of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus by Shakespeare’s Globe.

Playing a demonic character was a conscious choice after Rory’s wholesome, heroic, faintly comedic air. He says: “I really enjoy playing Rory, but I was adamant that I wanted to do some theatre. I didn’t particularly want to do a comedy -

I wanted to do something really serious. And I’ve loved classical theatre since I was younger, so when this came up it was just something I couldn’t possibly turn down. I wanted something where I could learn a lot. I did a play last year [Marine Parade by Simon Stephens and Mark Eitzel] for a few weeks in Brighton, which was brilliant, but it just wasn’t long enough. I was desperate to get back and stretch these acting muscles.

“It’s quite a funny play, but I think Mephistopheles and his relationship to Faustus are quite dark. It’s been really fascinating working with a character who isn’t of this world but is trying to be, so that he can get something from someone.”

We are talking while the cast is midway through rehearsals, which started with some education for the actors on the play’s context. “What’s so great about working at this place is the whole research team who are here studying, doing MAs in classical theatre and the history of it all. It was brilliant, actually -

on the first or second day, they came in and gave us a big, proper lecture on the historical relevance of the play, the depiction of devils in literature throughout history and what Marlowe’s world was like at the time he was writing. It made the play come alive and feel really relevant.”

In what Darvill describes as “quite a punk rock version” of Marlowe’s play, director Matthew Dunster has combined elements of the 1604 version and the longer 1616 quarto. “What Matthew has done is a hybrid of the two, taking out a lot of the stuff that feels like it’s not as relevant. It just makes the story clearer. He’s done a brilliant job of editing it down, just making it a really slick play.”

While this is Darvill’s first time at the Globe as an actor, his work as a composer has previously featured at the venue. In 2008, the theatre hosted The Frontline, its first contemporary work, written by Che Walker and featuring Darvill’s songs. The production was also directed by Dunster, and it was through that connection that the actor was approached to audition for Faustus.

“I’ve seen a lot of the stuff that he’s done, and was quite desperate to work with him,” says Darvill. “I think what he does is unique. I was so excited just hearing that he was doing this play, and then to be asked to do it is even more exciting.”

Excitement gave way to trepidation as rehearsals started, however. “I’ve had a few weeks of going, ‘Oh my goodness, what am I doing?’ And then the confidence started to come in. You forget that’s a completely natural part of the rehearsal process.”

The cast has been getting acclimatised to the practical effects that the production is using to bring Marlowe’s supernatural tale to life. “We’re working with a puppeteer and a magician, which is just brilliant. In fact, I’ve got a magic call this afternoon, to work out how to set things on fire and how to make horns disappear. Coming in to do a play like this is so different from any other play I’ve worked on. There’ll be fire everywhere. Real fire in the Globe - and a lot of the fire is my responsibility. I’m terrified of being the next person to burn the Globe down.

“We have giant puppets that are going to take over the whole space and small puppets that are devils. It’s hilarious. There are people walking around on stilts all morning trying not to fall over. What Matthew’s done brilliantly is to bring all those elements in immediately. I think if those things were just added on, it’d feel like they weren’t serving the story. But everything is geared towards telling the story in the most concise, interesting, entertaining, brilliant way.

“It’s quite lucky for me because I’m just playing Mephistopheles. There are so many other people who are playing numerous parts. They can turn up as a monk, a demon goat, a fiery devil. There’s going to be a lot of running around. I spoke to the costume department and they said that, for the 16 of us in the cast, there are over 110 costumes. I’ve only got two.”

Away from the Globe, it is difficult to broach the subject of Darvill’s future plans without running into problems with Doctor Who spoilers. Such is the secrecy around future storylines that the actor can’t discuss whether or not he will be returning to Cardiff. One newspaper interview started parsing the tenses in which Darvill talked about his role in Doctor Who to try to determine whether he was done with the show. Darvill finds the situation hilarious, saying all he has to do to fuel more speculation is “just keep my mouth shut”.

One thing he is committed to, and which he is able to talk about, is resuming his collaboration with Walker. As well as The Frontline, Darvill worked on converting Walker’s 1998 play Been So Long into a full musical. Their next project will be a version of The Bacchae for English Touring Theatre, which he says “will not be a full musical”.

“Che’s already written a really good draft of the play, and I’ve just got to find the time to put my head down and write some music for it. I don’t think it’s going to be as full on as Been So Long in terms of music.

“It’s been quite hard over the past year because we haven’t really been able to get together. So Che’s been doing a lot of work on the play on his own without me there. But now I’m back in London, it’s much easier for us to get together and put our heads together.”

As for Doctor Who, Darvill can at least confirm that Rory will be back when the series returns in the autumn with episodes that have already been shot. But for the time being, he is concentrating on the daunting prospect of performing in the Globe’s unique space. “I was speaking to someone the other day and they said that, because everyone’s at ground level looking up, if you go out with the right feeling, it is like everyone’s holding the stage up. Everyone’s there to support you - which I thought was a really beautiful image.

“While it can be quite daunting walking out there for the first time, everyone wants to be entertained.”

• Doctor Faustus is running at Shakespeare’s Globe, London until October 2