Full Monty and Game of Thrones star in Chichester musical debut

SussexWorld

Mark Addy – known to an international screen audience for The Full Monty and Game of Thrones – is taking to the stage in his first-ever musical… in a place he was told he visited as a child.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Huge pleasure

00:06to speak to Mark Addy this afternoon, instantly familiar from Game of Thrones and the Full

00:12Monty, but the exciting thing for us in Chichester, you are returning to Chichester, which you

00:17visited as a child and haven't been back since, returning to Chichester to open the Minerva

00:22season in the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry. The musical, and that's crucial, isn't

00:27it's a musical. You've not done a musical before, but here you are.

00:32No, this is my first musical, and it is an incredible piece, it's brand new, based on the terrific

00:44book by Rachel Joyce, and it's about a man who goes on an unlikely journey, and his life

00:57is changed by the people he meets and the experiences he has on a kind of 500-mile walk, which he's

01:08ill-prepared for, but he's doing it out of a sense of duty to a friend that he's lost touch

01:20with, who is experiencing end-of-life care, and he wants to get there in order to thank her for

01:32saving him many, many years ago. She did him a favour, and he never got to say thank you.

01:39Interesting description of the piece, you've got to set out old, grey, and tired, but the

01:45point is, you are also, as you set out, closed off, aren't you? Rather shut off by trauma.

01:51Absolutely, yeah. There's been a, the Fry family have a sad history, as you find out as the show

02:04goes on, and have been living with the trauma of events of 20 years ago, and through, through this

02:19journey, Harold is kind of forced to face up to some of the, the, the events that happened that he's

02:27perhaps put in the back of his mind, and not really addressed, and I think lead towards a, a hopeful

02:38outcome for, for Harold and his wife by the end of this journey. And once you've done it, you might

02:45allow yourself to watch the film, you're not going to now, but you weren't going to read the book until

02:50you got to know the play, but you have started on the book, and are loving it. I've started on the

02:55book, and it's a fantastic book. Yes, I'll, I'll leave the film until after we've, after

02:59we've finished the show, but, but yeah, it's, it's just, it's a beautiful story. It's very

03:06British. It's about real people and real issues, and it's about love and loss, and a kind of redemption

03:16as well. It's, it, and it's got the most incredible, uh, songs written, uh, by Passenger, um, his, his

03:25recording name's Passenger. Mike has written these songs that are just one after another, uh, just

03:32beautiful, heart-rending, uh, numbers. So it's, uh, it's, I mean, book a ticket quick.

03:40It sounds a lovely prospect. Mark, really lovely to speak to you. Thank you for your time,

03:45and looking forward to seeing it hugely. Thank you. Cheers, Phil. Thank you.

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