Week 6
Rehearsals are becoming increasingly intensive as we dig deeper and deeper into the various characters. Whereas Clare is coming to grips with the overt complexity of Mrs Erlynne, Ross has the opposite problem: revealing the depths of Lord Windermere, a man with a rigid code of honour who is tormented by a dilemma – but who cannot reveal it to anyone.
This is how he sees it:
‘Windermere is a very challenging role for me. I have never played a part that is so far removed from my own character. I would argue that Windermere is also the furthest removed of all the characters in the play from Oscar himself: the perfect late-Victorian husband and father that Oscar was unsuccessfully trying so hard to personify at the time he wrote the play. The problem, then, with acting Windermere is to stop the slippery slide into caricature. The key, of course, is to play him totally for real: there's no room for even the slightest indulgence in whimsicality. At the moment, I find I can act different aspects of Windermere - his character, his voice, his posture, his development throughout the play - but not all at the same time. When I feel I have found his character perfectly, my posture goes. When I get my posture right, I lose track of Windermere's train of thinking. It's a bit like learning to do one of those novelty plate-spinning acts - results do come, but only with determination (and rehearsal!).‘
However, Ross claims to have a secret weapon:
‘Once it’s fully grown, all responsibility for Windermere's performance will pass to the moustache that is currently growing nicely under my nose, and I’ll be able to relax and let it do all the hard work!’