"I have nightmares where I look out into the audience and see his face."
George Fouracres on playing the most famous man in musical theatre, giving his Hamlet at The Globe, and doing sketch comedy with Phil Wang and Jason Forbes. Plus: three shows to see next week.
Hello, and welcome to The Crush Bar, a newsletter about theatre by Fergus Morgan.
This is the free Friday issue, which usually contains an interview with an exciting theatremaker or an essay on a theatre-related topic. This week, it is an interview with George Fouracres, who is currently performing One Man Musical at Underbelly Boulevard Soho. After that, there are your usual three show recommendations.
In case you missed it, here is this week’s issue of Shouts And Murmurs, which is a weekly round-up of the most interesting writing about theatre elsewhere…
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For legal reasons, actor and comedian George Fouracres has been advised not to publicly reveal the name of the character he is currently playing in One Man Musical.
It is not difficult to find out who it is, though, as most reviewers - either those that saw the hit show at last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, or those that saw it during its current run at Underbelly Boulevard Soho - had no such anxiety. Here in The Crush Bar, let’s just say that the show, which is the creation of musical comedians Flo and Joan, AKA sisters Rosie and Nicola Dempsey, is an extended lampoon of the most famous musical theatre composer of the modern era. Yep, that’s the one.
Fouracres’ varied career has involved sketch comedy (he formed the Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated troupe Daphne with Phil Wang and Jason Forbes at Cambridge), stand-up (his show Gentlemon was a gentle look at his Black Country background), and acting (he has performed extensively at Shakespeare’s Globe, taking on the title role in Sean Holmes’ production of Hamlet in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in early 2022). This, though, is his first foray into musical theatre.
You play the one man in One Man Musical but you have to keep his identity secret.
Yeah, we can’t reveal that somewhat crucial piece of information for legal reasons. What we can say is that he is a very prominent – arguably the most prominent – figure in musical theatre. He is an extremely prominent composer whose works have been with us for many, many years and are revered the world over.
Say no more. How did you get involved in the project?
It was just a straightforward audition process. I hadn’t done a professional musical before. I had auditioned for one earlier that year and it had gone horribly. I think it was was one of the worst auditions I’ve ever done. I was so nervous that my hands were shaking so my sheet music was flapping noisily while I sung. I don’t know why I had it. I can’t even read sheet music. It was there purely for show.
Later in the day I had to do a group dance audition. I am a terrible dancer because I have a slight limp due to arthritis in one leg. They said the steps would be fine for a beginner. It turned out to be one of the most complicated dance routines I’d ever seen. The wall of the room was mirrored, too, so I could see myself dancing terribly.
The One Man Musical audition didn’t go that badly, though?
No. Nicola and Rosie – that’s Flo and Joan – and I got on so well immediately. It became apparent very quickly that we had a similar sense of humour and similar frames of reference. I’d been fans of them for years. We just clicked.
What did you think of the one man that you play? Were you a fan of his stuff?
I wasn’t, and not because I disliked him, although I know about political things he has done that I deplore, but because I just wasn’t that familiar with his work. I only knew him from television programmes he did in the 2000s that my family watched.
How did you prepare to play him?
I decided to take the shell of the character – his looks and his vibe – and fill it up with madness, rather than do an impression of him exactly. In my mind, my performance is like one of those Punch cartoons from the early nineteenth century.
Are you enjoying performing the show?
I really am. Nicola and Rosie have done so much research. They really do know everything about this one man and his work, and also about how his work works because their musical knowledge and talent is huge. They – and our director Georgie Staight - have been so generous and patient with me, too. They have given me free reign to push things as far as I can. I love that. I love having a diligent, detailed core to the work, then playing around with it. I love that elasticity.
Are you worried that this one man might be in the audience one evening?
I have nightmares where I look out into the audience and see his face. Actually, the other night, there was something that looked a lot like him, and for a split second I thought it was him, and my brain went into panic mode, so I have had a glimpse into what it would feel like if he was there, and none of it was particularly positive.
Where did you grow up? Did you see a lot of theatre?
I grew up in a little post-industrial town called Willenhall, which is in Wolverhampton. It is famous for making locks and keys. People there will tell you that all the locks in the Empire State Building were made in Willenhall. There is even a lock and keys on the coat of arms. Both my parents were public librarians. They worked on mobile libraries. They were both from very working class backgrounds but loved books. My dad, in particular, loved Shakespeare. Two years ago, I found out that he used to read sonnets to me when I was a baby.
I saw my first shows, Playdays Live and Postman Pat Live, at the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton. I remember we had to leave halfway through because the curtain malfunctioned, so I still have no idea how Playdays Live ends.
When did you get into theatre yourself?
I really got into theatre in Year 10. I played Bottom in our school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was a bit of a class clown. I had always been able to make people laugh. Theatre became a good way to channel that.
Something really clicked for me one night when I was driving my mum’s Vauxhall Corsa home after rehearsals. There is a line in the play-within-the-play: “This lanthorn doth the horned moon present.” I remember looking up at a crescent moon thinking: ‘Oh, yeah, it does look like horns.’ The idea of Shakespeare looking up at that same moon in that same patch of sky really stirred something in me.
You went to Cambridge University. Did you do a lot of theatre there?
I studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic because I was very into the linguistics and etymologies of the early medieval period in Britain and Ireland. I only ever gave off the impression of being clever enough to be there, though. I never really understood what on earth was going on, so I fled to theatre. I did serious plays. I did devised theatre with a group of friends who went on to form the company Glimmer. The comedian Pierre Novellie, who was my best friend from the first day, introduced me to Jason Forbes, who then introduced me to Phil Wang, and we started doing sketch comedy together. We were always just mucking around like primary school kids really, doing silly stuff to make each other laugh.
In one of your sketches, you did the whole St Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V.
Yeah, that was a running joke about a guy who was just too nervous to ask someone out and ended up doing these long monologues. In one of them, I did that speech, which starts: “What’s he that wishes so? My cousin Westmoreland.” Then I did the whole speech, everyone charged into battle, and I went: ‘Ugh. Hello Westmoreland. Would you like to go out for a drink?’ like that was all I meant to say.
Since graduating, you have done a lot of work at Shakespeare’s Globe. You even played Hamlet in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2022. It was a really fresh take on the play. You played Hamlet in your own Black Country accent, injected a lot of humour into your performance, but also a lot of madness and instability.
That was the biggest privilege of my life, really. I really wanted to bring out the instability in his character, and how unapologetic he is, and how uncomfortable watching him behave the way he does is. He is slightly dangerous and so full of pain, but so witty and so funny at the same time. There is real ugliness to him but, and this sounds a bit trite, that ugliness is also part of the beauty of the character. There is depression in there but there is also neurosis and mania and I wanted to capture some of that because, unfortunately, those are things I have experienced.
You’ve done all sorts of other stuff, too, including stand-up. What do you want to do?
I want to keep playing characters that blur the line between silly stuff and serious stuff. You asked me about my background earlier. In my family, the generations before me experienced some very serious stuff, but they were all far funnier than I am. And it wasn’t just gallows humour. It was more than that. It was a refusal not to love the world. It was using laughter to express how mad and joyful it is that we are all here. I want to do work that pushes boundaries in that direction.
I guess the sadness is that there are not that many spaces where you can experiment in pushing those boundaries anymore. You can do it while you are at university. You used to be able to do it at the Edinburgh Fringe. Where can you do it today?
That is the key thing. Even ten years ago, when we were just starting out as Daphne, it was easier just to mess around and experiment with stuff. Everything is so exploitatively expensive now, though, and I don’t just mean in the arts. The economy is bleeding everyone to death, and the freedom to play and be joyful and create things is disappearing. I don’t think this is a particularly joyful time to live.
Some people do just fine out of theatre, though.
Oh, some people make a ton of money. Don’t worry about them. And don’t worry about making fun of them on stage, either. They are going to be absolutely fine.
One Man Musical runs at Underbelly Boulevard Soho until March 2.
Three shows to see next week
Kenrex - Southwark Playhouse, until March 15
This one-man show created by Ed Stambollouian and Jack Holden was a huge hit in Sheffield last year. Now, it transfers to Southwark Playhouse for a month-long run. It features Holden playing eleven different characters to weave the remarkable, resonant true story of Ken McElroy, a smalltown crook in rural Missouri who repeatedly evaded justice until members of his community took matters into their own hands. The Telegraph’s Mark Brown called it “an unlikely collision between Under Milk Wood and For a Few Dollars More in his five-star review. You can get tickets via the button below.
Lavender, Violet, Hyacinth, Yew - Bush Theatre, until March 22
Directed by Debbie Hannan, this new play from Coral Wylie focuses on enthusiastic gardener Pip, who discovers a jacket and a diary belonging to Duncan, a gay friend of her dad who died of Aids in the 1990s, and who was similarly passionate about plants. Wylie plays Pip, alongside It’s A Sin star Omari Douglas as Duncan. You can read an interview with Wylie in The Guardian here, and get tickets via the button below.
Otherland - Almeida Theatre, until April 19
Chris Bush - the playwright behind Standing At The Sky’s Edge, and many other great things - is back with a new play at the Almeida Theatre. Directed by Ann Yee, Otherland stars Jade Anouka and Fizz Sinclair lead an eight-strong, all-female cast as two women going through a break-up. You can get tickets via the button below.
That’s all for this issue
That is it for this week. If you want to get in touch about anything raised in this issue - or anything at all - just reply to this newsletter, or email me at fergusmorgan@hotmail.co.uk, or you can find me on Bluesky.
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