Harvesting body parts in a near-fi future - on the Chichester stage - video Dailymotion

It's going to be emotional for the cast of Never Let Me Go when they reach Chichester Festival Theatre.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this

00:06morning to speak to Angus Emery. Now Angus, you are heading towards Chichester Festival

00:10Theatre with Never Let Me Go, which is at the venue from November the 26th to November the 30th,

00:16and you find yourself in a fabulous position of being in a play adaptation of a book,

00:21which means a huge amount to you. Tell me why this book is important to you.

00:26Well, when I was a teenager, I was interested in reading very verbose and

00:35perhaps sort of overly intellectual books.

00:39We all go through that, and my great friend Alex Shimmick, he said to me,

00:43you have to read this book, Never Let Me Go. And it was the first time I think I'd really,

00:50or that I remember encountering a book that was so beautifully, simply told,

00:54where the plot and the characters and the relationships carry you through.

00:58And it had a huge impact on me because it's profound, it's a profound story.

01:03And I'll never forget him telling me to read it. So when I found out that they were doing

01:10a stage adaptation of it, I was determined to be in it. So I wrote to Chris Hayden,

01:15the director and told him the story about how I'd first encountered the book and what it meant to

01:19me. And now I don't think he ever got the letter until after I'd auditioned. And maybe even he'd

01:26offered me the job. So it didn't do much good, but perhaps it did for me, you know.

01:32The fates were working somehow, weren't they? And how has actually being in it

01:37lived up to that expectation then?

01:39Oh, it's been beyond my expectations. I haven't done a stage play for,

01:45professional stage play, well, since drama school, since before drama school for nine years.

01:51So it's something I've been aching for. And it really is almost like, at times,

01:58it felt as if it was a different profession, you know, the challenge of being on stage and

02:04making it completely fresh and new and alive. Each performance is really, I think, the reason

02:10I wanted to pursue being an actor. So, you know, being at the Bristol Old Vic right now,

02:16performing this play, and there's so much depth to it, there's so much still to discover

02:22in the joy of it, in the extraordinary, yeah, in the epic story of it, that I just feel like

02:35we're going to keep discovering and keep growing each night and each performance will be different.

02:41And sadly, Chichester is the last date on the tour.

02:44It's going to be, what a great one to end on.

02:46Complex emotions.

02:48It will be very complex. I think we're all dreading the day that we finish. And sometimes

02:54we always have a little huddle before each show. And someone says something new

03:00before every performance, you know, to sort of get us going. And my friend Tristan,

03:08who plays Rodney and Alfie, he often says there's going to come a day where we're not doing this

03:12anymore, guys, you know, and so let's enjoy it. Let's make the most of it while it's here,

03:18you know. And so that's what we're trying to do, focus all our energies on enjoying what we have

03:22right now.

03:23Fantastic. Well, I'm very much looking forward to seeing it. Angus, lovely to speak to you.

03:27Lovely to speak to you too.