The Syndicate
An Interview with Ian McKellen and Michael Pennington
Cambridgeshire Agenda
16th August 2011
Ian McKellen and Michael Pennington take the lead roles in Eduardo de Filippo’s The Syndicate at Cambridge Arts Theatre this month. They talked to Clair Chamberlain.
The Syndicate marks a much-anticipated return to the stage for Ian McKellen, who is very much enjoying his role as Don Antonio Barracano. “Although a few Eduardo de Filippo’s plays have been done in the UK, this is the first time The Syndicate has ever been done here,” he says. “I wanted to do it because I was in another of his plays, Napoli Milionaria, at the National Theatre some time ago, and I remember Filumena and Saturday, Sunday, Monday, also at the National.”
Michael Pennington, meanwhile, who stars alongside McKellen as Dr Fabio Della Ragione, is a self-confessed de Filippo nut. “I’ve always loved his plays and it’s a mystery to me why he’s still a bit of a closed book to English audiences. We know three or four of the plays - but there are 45 of them and I’ve got my hands on several. I hope to get through a few more of them before I finish.”
For McKellen, though, it’s not just about the play itself. “The Syndicate’s a very enjoyable play to be in because it’s quite a large group of actors,” he says. “There are man old friends of mine in it and the director’s an old colleague, Sean Mathias. That’s really what I enjoy most about acting: working with friends - and going on tour. I don’t really enjoy sitting in London in the West End eight shows a week, I’d rather be off around the country.”
And, of course, the play comes to Cambridge on the 29th August, and McKellen, who studied here, is looking forward to coming back to his roots - and celebrating an anniversary. “The Cambridge Arts is a very dear place to me. I worked there more than 50 years ago when we undergraduates were allowed to perform in the professional theatre every so often. I’ve been back as an actor but this year it’s actually 50 years since I left Cambridge. Personally, I think it’s rather appropriate that I’m going back to my roots. I haven’t worked there as often as I would have liked over the years, but I’ve been there on and off, helping them raise funds sometimes. It’s a theatre that deserves support.”
Reviews of the Chichester shows have been overwhelmingly positive, but Tim Auld, of the Sunday Telegraph, describes McKellen as ‘such a powerful presence that the rest of the cast don’t get much of a look-in’. Pennington, though, knows that his character is vital to the audience’s understanding of the play.
“It’s very important, as in all good plays, that there’s a character who is like a spokesman for the audience and in a way interprets the play for them. So they think ‘Oh yes that’s what I would feel id I was in that position’ - there’s this kind of common ground between the audience and the character.”
Pennington’s character, Fabio, has been a loyal friend and doctor to McKellen’s ageing mafia boss for 35 years, but now he wants out of the organisation that was originally set up with high ideals to dispense unofficial justice in the city of Naples. But Don Antonio is not the sort of man you up and leave. “What keeps Fabio there is a mixture of compulsion - literally compulsion, he’s not allowed to leave - but also a deep, though weakening loyalty to Don Antonio,” says Pennington. “He’s worked with him for over 35 years on a programme which has done good for many troubled and poor people in Naples who can’t find justice or find representation through the system because the system is corrupt and operates against the interests of the poor. So Fabio and Antonio have led a kind of crusade to give these people justice and that - it’s difficult to give up.”
It doesn’t trouble to McKellen, though, that his character may be hard to like. “You might begin by thinking Don Antonio is not the sort of man you’d like to meet down a dark alley in Naples, but he’s unlike other criminal classes, in that he has a conscience - or he says he does - and that he’s trying to make the world a better place. He’s trying to stop violence rather than get involved with it.
“But it’s not up to me to tell the audience what they think. I just play the character and I think they’ll like him; they’ll find him amusing and they’ll be surprised by him and intrigued. But the morality - well it questions your own sense of morality.”
Archives Jan/June 2012 |
Archives July/December 2011 |
Archives Jan/June 2011 |
Archives July/December 2010 |
Archives Jan/June 2010 |
Archives July/Dec 2009 |
Archives Jan/June 2009 |
Stage |
Audio |
Television |
Radio |
Film |
Books |
Plays |
Anton Chekhov |
Sweet William |
English Shakespeare Company |
Readings |
Direction |
An interview wiith Antony himself |
Reviews |
Michael Pennington on Ibsen |
Exeunt.com |
Ibsen's Judgement at The Print Room |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Interview |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Shakespearean actor learns from 'Love' |
Reviews |
Collaboration & Taking Sides |
San Francisco Sentinel |
The News |
Reviews Chichester |
Reviews London |
On ... Doing a West End Double |
When Bobby Met Terry |
Reviews |
Nellie Ternan |
Reviews |
A curious character |
Reviews |
The Short Answer |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
The Knives Are Out |
Reviews |
They call it puppet love |
Reviews |
Interview |
A performance fit for a King |
A World of Schemers |
Reviews |
Peter's friends |
From Russia With Love |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Coping with the Apocalypse |
Pennington back in fold |
Labours of love |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Changing of the Guard |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Old Vic's Master of Disguise |
Studies in misogyny |
Reviews |
The Entertainer finds new life ... |
Reviews |
Ugly Americans, British Style |
In Defence of the Playwright |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
The thing with this play |
There's something nice ... |
Reviews |
Reviews |
How to be in two plays at one time |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Rigorous romantic |
If this is Venice |
Reviews |
Bring on the Russian Horses |
Man with a lean and hungry look |
Reviews |
Reviews |
In the shadows .... |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
A state of mind and body |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
The Travels of Michael |
First Wicket Down |
Reviews |
Way of the Actor |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Former Spear Carrier |
One man's week |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Limelight 1967 |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Chekhov's Vaudevilles |
The cherries on Chekhov's birthday cake |
A Jubilee |
Reviews |
Cottesloe 1984 |
Dublin 1990 |
Old Vic 1997 |
Winchester Festival 2003 |
ETT 2003 |
Hampstead Theatre 2008 |
Little Angel Theatre |
Arcola Theatre |
Guthrie Theater |
Hampstead Theatre London |
Chicago Shakespeare Theatre |
Oxford Playhouse |
Salisbury Playhouse |
Theatre Royal Northampton |
reviews |
Talks about book |
From Macbeth to Lear |
Performance |
Direction - Twelfth Night |
Books |
Videos |
Theatre company head quits |
The Henry Trilogy |
The Wars of the Roses |
Coriolanus |
The Winter's Tale |
Macbeth |
Henry IV Part I |
Henry IV Part II |
Henry V |
Reviews |
Articles |
Heady Challenge |
Hurray for the new Henry |
The Bard takes to the Road |
A bubble for the Bard |
Marathon Man |
Bard Boy |
Richard II |
Henry IV Part I |
Henry IV Part II |
Henry V |
Henry VI Lancaster |
Henry VI York |
Richard III |
Reviews |
Articles |
A Magnificent Seven |
Star Wars, Rose Wars |
An ambitious programme |
Tough company |
The Battle of the Bards |
Cycling Shakespeare |
Histories for our time |
A garment all of blood |
Coriolanus & WT Reviews |
Articles |
Roman Hero for our day |
Sun rises on Coriolanus |
A theatrical tour de force |
Son of Shakespeare-Wallah |
Bard on the Run |
Reviews |
Articles |
Now and thane |
Bard stripped bare |
Reviews |
The Story of the Wars of the Roses |
Operation Shakespeare |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
Twelfth Night (Chicago) |
Twelfth Night (Tokyo) |
Kafka - A Report to the Academy |
Alone Together |
Twelfth Night Across the Continents |
On Acting and Directing Shakespeare |
Reviews |
Reviews |
By Gloucester Docks |
The Name of the Rose |
Felix in the Underworld |
Antony and Cleopatra |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Classics for Pleasure |
Reviews |
Sentimental journey |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Lucky Stryk |
Reviews |
From Russia ... with love |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
Reviews |
The book the Bishop burnt |
Reviews |
Reviews |
The Return of Sherlock Holmes |
Fragile |
Britain isn't Working |
The Iron Lady |
Elementary, my dear Miss Watson |
Review |
Hamlet. A User's Guide |
Twelfth Night. A User's Guide |
Are You There Crocodile? |
A Pocket Guide |
A Midsummer Night's Dream. A User's Guide |
Players of Shakespeare |
Audio |
Books |
Direction |
English Shakespeare Company |
Film |
Theatre |
Radio |
Readings |
Television |