Interview

Richard Johnson

by Phil Willmott
24/11/2005

This week, I got the chance to meet and talk to Richard Johnson. He's currently one of the leads in Agatha Christie's thriller - And Then There Were None, a real gent... and what a life and career he's had. How's this for a CV?

He was born on in 1927, the son of a paint manufacturer in Upminster and got the acting bug performing a party piece at the age of eight. At sixteen he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and immediately landed a job as a walk-on in John Gielgud's company at the Haymarket in 1944. In the mid-fifties he joined with the acclaimed, cutting-edge director, Peter Brook in several productions with his company, then went on to Stratford-on-Avon to perform with the RSC and was hailed as a new Olivier. He got the call to Hollywood in 1959 and there he made his featured debut as an actor on the screen as Frank Sinatra's English sidekick in "Never so Few". He made his Broadway debut in 1961 and appeared there as both an actor and playwright. In the early nineties he returned to London Theatre, became the father of two more children, one with the Swedish actress Marie-Louise Norlund, whom he married in the early '80's. And even tried his hand at running a pub for a while. These days alongside appearing in "And Then There Were None" and making selective appearances in TV drama he occasionally teaches and lectures on Shakespeare and the modern theatre both in the UK and the USA, and remains an associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company and of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Q: You've had an incredible life. I've never met anyone with such a varied and amazing career.

A: Thank you very much.

Q: When I read about the West End in the 1940s and 50s it sounds like such a glamorous place.

A: It didn't feel very glamorous in the blitz when the bombs used to blow the stage dock doors in.

Q: Apart from the bombs how has the West End changed?

A: Back then West End theatre had much more of a cultural impact then now. The radical ideas often found in the plays of the time paved the way for the radicalism of the Sixties. These days it's the subsidised Theatres like the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre that are doing the interesting work because of course the West End must be more commercial.

Q: You must feel encouraged that Shaftsbury Avenue can be home to productions like the recent revivals of Schiller's "Don Carlos" and currently "Mary Stuart".

A: I'm not sure those make money though. You're best hope is that a production can break even. Luckily people invest in such production for other philanthropic reasons. West End theatre is dead in the sense that we knew it in the 50's but it's great that it still means a lot to a lot of people. More people go to the thatre then football matches but you wouldn't know it from the coverage we get. The problem is going to the theatre is so costly because making theatre is so expensive. Look at this building. So many people have to be paid front of house, back stage and on stage then there's the heat, lights etc. A show like "And Then There Were None" with it's big cast and high production values will actually need to run for a few years to make it's money back. Fortunately we've got one of the biggest star names in the world up outside the theatre, and we all know who that is.

Q: I'm guessing you don't mean Tara Fitzgerald.

A: Agatha Christie is still the world's best selling author if we discount The Bible, which was a team effort, and the Complete Works of Shakespeare because we don't know who really wrote that. The other bonus of course is that Kevin Elyot who's adapted our play from Christie's play and novel is no slouch as a writer himself so there's also the thrill for us of being in a new play by an award winning contemporary writer.

Q: Isn't it frustrating having to play an archetype?

A: But you always do. Shakespeare's characters are archetypes.

Q: Yes, but not as blatantly as here when the cast are required to play the archetypal doctor, judge, spinster, glamour girl, silly young man etc.

A: They're all more interesting then that because they're all murderers is some way. It's a very clever criticism of English Society. Everyone, in some way is responsible for the suffering of others.

Q: It's interesting that when J.B. Priestly makes the same point in "An Inspector Calls" it's regarded as art but when Christie does it many critics dismiss it as frivolous.

A: Quite. Christies doesn't write naturalism of course. The play is an elaborate and elegant dance of death. You won't give away the end will you?

Q: No, I promise. Tell me about your early days, age 16, watching John Gielgud from the wings.

A: Magical of course. What a command of language and an audience.

Q: Who's the Gielgud of today?

A: We have some very wonderful leading actors today, I love Simon Russell Beal, Anthony Sher but what the theatre thrives on now-a-days is stars, celebrities. Actors from earlier eras had a mystique because there was no gossip about them, you only knew them through there stage persona. I had no idea that Gielgud was gay for instance, it didn't matter, I was watching Hamlet not the celebrity playing him. Richard Burton could have been an Olivier I think but he was lured away by Hollywood and money and became another celebrity actor so that now when you watch his performance it's wrapped up with everything you know about his personal life.

Q: In the 80s' you formed your own production company to create more interesting work then was being offered elsewhere.

A: The ethos was "why we don't raise money to do our own shit rather then other people's shit".

Q: Well you created some very classy films and theatre productions. I've read that eventually it wore you out.

A: Yes, we underestimated how much money we would need to keep rolling in. We had to make work for our members in film TV and theatre so the cost of just developing projects was huge before you even got things into production. We were also badly advised in business. Eventually when Angela Lansbury suggested I leave producing and return to my first love, acting, it seemed a very attractive idea.

Q: You're obviously having fun in this production. It's nice to meet someone so positive about a show.

A: It's very rewarding piece. A lot of fun. Kids love it. I've had teachers write to say how much their school has got from visiting us. If you don't come with any prejudices about Agatha Christie you'll have a very entertaining evening. Now you really won't give away the ending will you?

Read about our exclusive customer Q&A evening with the cast of And Then There Were None.