(Rated 7/5)
My first
Restricted Review for three years and who better to welcome me – and in this
case my dear Dad too – back to the theatre than (as of 2020) Sir David Suchet.
Though I have
watched some of his Hercule Poirot performances prior to 2020, his
companionship as I consumed as many of his seventy episodes as I could find was
so much appreciated as easily one of the best entertainments during all the
covid pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and further confinements of 2021. For me and I
know for so many others including – and I think most importantly Agatha
Christie’s daughter – he IS Poirot. As his stage companion and good friend
Geoffrey Wansell stated as part of his introduction to the show every second
someone, somewhere in the world is watching David Suchet as Hercule Poirot on
their screens. How amazing is that?!
David Suchet
entered stage left - or right to us but Dad will appreciate the reference as I used
to enter stage left to the living-room on lockdown mornings to the accompanying
sound of a creaking floor board to announce my arrival – full of beaming smiles
and waving with joy to us his audience. He seemed absolutely genuinely
delighted to see us all – the theatre was almost at capacity – and thanked us
for our bravery in coming to the show all masked up of course so sadly he
couldn’t identify anyone.
Geoffrey Wansell
was a wonderful ‘guide {for} us on this journey’. It was performed initially as
a kind of interview or maybe better described as two friends chatting about
David’s life on stage and screen. It was all so completely natural you wouldn’t
think it was planned or scripted as it clearly had been with the help of
producer Liza McLean and David’s wife Sheila.
To start we were
given an exploration of David’s early life and introduced to his Grandma and
Mum – both performers themselves – and his Dad who was a clinician. His Grandma
was his key inspiration for embarking on his life as a performer. Though his supportive
companion on that journey was his Mum who attended many of his appearances on
stage. David told us how during one of his first outings he had to call out ‘‘Mother,
Mother’’ across to the offstage area. From the stalls he heard “I’m here, David”
😉. In later performances in other shows she
would announce her presence during a quiet moment in whatever his first speech
would happen to be with a little cough 😊
David also
rejoiced in first encountering his wife-to-be (at that stage more seasoned than
he in the profession) as she came down onto the stage to greet him a then
junior actor. He was smitten straight away! And they have remained together for
decades so lasting much longer than many relationships in the industry.
Poirot was naturally
the main feature popping up several times throughout the show. David informed
us as to how he would get into a character. To begin his beautifully demonstrated
masterclass he took us back to Greek theatre and the wearing of masks. A
character was at first expressed silently through body movement but then performers
progressed to using their voices to im-per-sona-te i.e. inhabit their character
per/though the sona/sound of the voice they choose to pass through the mask. As
he gradually revealed further the precise ways of vocal expression conveys
character and the meaning of the words of the writer. This brought us onto an
excellent lesson in Shakespeare’s Highway Code – Iambic, Pentameter, Iambic
Pentameter, Alliteration and Onomatopoeia. He showed us their use in various
speeches from Shakespeare exaggerating some to highlight and clarify as he
would do in rehearsals while exploring his character development. To land on
consonants or not can be a question 😉 David emphasised – as indeed I’ve heard many
actors do – that his acting choices are to serve the writer. And in turn it is
crucial to understand how the character is needed in the play. What would
happen if you took Iago out of Othello for example? Othello and Desdemona would
have a honeymoon and live happily ever after. No conflict and no jealousy! No
drama!! David was involved in a production of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in which
he played Shylock. He and the production received complaints about antisemitism.
David showed us through two speeches both the ‘dark’ sides of Shylock and the
humanity in him “Hath not a jew eyes… If you cut us do we not bleed…” Here
surely Shakespeare is telling his Elizabethan audience at the time and us now
that we are all the same whatever creed and colour we are – a profound exposition
on humanity as appears in many of his plays. There really is more than unites
us than divides us.
And so shall we
travel back to Cher Hercule for our grande finale?! As I had already read –
also during one of our lockdowns – in ‘Poirot and Me’, David read all of Agatha
Christie’s Hercule Poirot Mysteries digesting every single detail of his
character and making handwritten notes which he used to be absolutely precise in
his impersonation of him as well as giving copies to all involved in the
productions so they could help him maintain that accuracy. Sadly where Agatha
Christie was alive to fully approve of Joan Hickson as her definitive Miss
Marple, she had passed away at the time David Suchet embarked on Poirot.
However her family knew other interpretations had not felt right to his creator.
Agatha’s daughter told David the audience needs to laugh with but not at
Poirot. David fully achieved that in his inhabitation of Hercule. Now to the
piece de resistance – the fundamental aspect of character - a demonstration of going from the voice of David Suchet to that of
Hercule Poirot with steps on the way incorporating first a French accent, then
a twist of Belgian/Flemish and gradually going up from stomach via ribs (he
could feel it there and still not right) to neck, behind the eyes (where the
voice was “out there” rather than within the body) and finally reaching the
little grey cells where Hercule resides! We could hear each subtle difference
in sona along the way perfectly. I was in floods of tears by the end and so
wished I'd been naughty and recorded it!! I did not but here is a more
compressed version: https://youtu.be/MZJpGq6W1bw
Et Voila Poirot within Suchet smiles
with arms outstretched on stage as behind him we see Poirot in the same pose
and in full costume outside Agatha Christie’s Hatfield House.
Magnifique!!
David Suchet:
Poirot and More – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2022
