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Playwright and actor John Michael Swinbank |
Going walkabout in the footsteps of Coward
After travelling the around the world performing the work of his hero, ‘Australian’ John Michael Swinbank is on the home turf of Noel Coward, writes Sarah Mann
ON Noel Coward’s birthday and just a short walk from the theatre in which he first shot to fame, a new cabaret season by renowned playwright and actor John Michael Swinbank has opened to celebrate not only the artist’s work, but the remarkable influence it has had on Swinbank himself.
Noel at Noël opened on December 16, at the New End Theatre in Hampstead. Written and performed by the actor known as “Australia’s foremost Coward exponent,” Swinbank, and accompanied by Tim Cunniffe, the performance mixes some of the eminent 20th-century playwright’s best-loved songs with witty anecdotes about Swinbank’s own experiences.
“The performance is a celebration of Noel’s lyrical gift,” explains Swinbank, but it is also “the story of an English boy falling in love with Coward’s work in the Australian bush.”
Swinbank emigrated to Australia at the age of two, but he never considered himself to be fully assimilated and instead clung to his British roots.
At the age of 16, he was cast in an amateur production of Coward’s play Private Lives and the impact was instant.
“I loved the play,” Swinbank enthuses.
“It was witty and subtle. It was like a light had switched on in my teenage brain.”
Not only did his involvement in the production cause his popularity with classmates to soar, but Coward’s quintessentially
British work became almost a guide to his own identity.
“It became the link to my birthplace that I had really needed,” says Swinbank.
His passion for the theatre developed from here and he even had ambitions to join the Royal Shakespeare Company, but his attachment to the debonair playwright’s work had become unshakeable and he found himself touring Coward repertoires across the globe in a trail of Coward’s own well-travelled footsteps.
Despite dedicating nearly 30 years to the playwright, Swinbank never tires of performing his work.
“Coward creates strong characters that actors are able to flesh out and because his work is so rich, the interpretation can change from performance to performance,” he says.
And the lasting appeal isn’t just for the actors.
“His plays were of the time, but also completely not of the time,” says Swinbank.
“His work discusses human frailty and foibles and he used a subtle humour which allows the audience’s imagination to run riot.”
Noel at Noël will run for six weeks at the New End Theatre, just yards from the Everyman Theatre where, in 1923, the controversial play The Vortex launched Coward into the public eye almost overnight.
Swinbank hopes his London debut will be more than a museum piece in tribute. His aim for the act is that it will develop Coward’s work to a new level for fans old and new.
“I hope they will find my passion for Coward’s work,” Swinbank adds. “I hope they will get the Coward bug.”
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