Interview: Daniel Betts Star of Bedroom Farce

Interview: Daniel Betts Star of Bedroom Farce

22 March, 2010
by: Benjamin Goode

Basking in the four Ds of Daniel Betts - Dreamy, Divine, Delectable and er Divine - oh, and some theatre, Benjamin Goode catches up with the actors' actor before the opening of Bedroom Farce at Duke of York Theatre.

Do all actors practice their lines to themselves walking down the street?

Daniel Betts: Yeah, I bet they do actually.

And do you think this is a contributing factor to the perception of the actor as mad eccentric, à la Christian Bale?

DB: Well you know what? Years and years ago it was always a tradition, and I think it still pervades today, that you should never trust an actor. They are liars and cheats, there is something very untrustworthy about them.

I remember Nick Le Prevost said this wonderful thing once, something like: “The theatre comes to town, nobody knows who they are, they set up their tent in the market square and then one day they are gone. They disappear. Okay, you know, there is litter, some old flyers dusting around ,fluttering in the breeze, a couple of chickens have gone missing and the landlord's daughter is pregnant, but they are gawn.” They are a bit dodge.

Do you ever take your characters home with you, miss them almost?

DB: Well it depends on the role really, sometimes they demand such a lot of you. Because at the same time as trying to use yourself, you're also trying to transform, of course, into somebody else. It's a fine line between what works. I mean, you talk about Christian Bale, yes lunatic and all the rest of it, but you totally believe in who he is, in what he is doing.

Allegedly Rob Lowe, when he was in the London run of A Few Good Men, used to use the shiny shoes of his female counterparts to look up their skirts. Are there any actors' in-jokes that we should be aware of for Bedroom Farce?

DB: I mean there are some stories of actors doing that. I remember Gambon did this fantastic thing when he was doing Volpone. One of the lines is 'San Frittata'. That's one of his henchmen, who's about to sing a song, and Gambon would say, “and I am now going to introduce Frank Sinatra. And he's going to do it his way...”

But you can alienate the audience if you're having too much of a good time. Of course the bottom line is how much of a good time you are giving the audience, and that's across the board. Even for tragedy it's not how incredibly upset I feel; it's how upset, hurt or moved I can make you feel [at this point he says it with such earnest emotion that I almost burst into tears]. But if it's done for the benefit of the audience it's totally infectious: you're playing with this suspension of belief and including them.

Is Ayckbourn transferable to these times?

DB: Absolutely – especially when you're dealing with people's relationships. Even if you're doing the story of Noah, the arguments that Noah and his wife have are just classic scenarios that totally happens today, and yet this was written 600 years ago. It's also true of Terence or Plaustus, these great Roman comic writers, and even before them.

In Bedroom Farce, Finty Williams' character has a conversation with her husband Malcolm who I play: she discusses the possibility of them spicing up their sex life a bit and he just can't cope with it. When he's left the stage at the end, she says, 'I just don't want to get boring'. That kind of exchange is just as relevant now as it was in the '70s.

Yes, I can certainly relate to that. What's it like being married to Dame Judi Dench's daughter [in the play]?

Finty is absolutely extraordinary. To have parents of that calibre of actor – Michael [Williams] and Judi – and make your own stand, I don't know how she does it, how she can cope with that kind of pressure. But she does. She has such a unique talent: it's fresh, lively and it's a joy to work with her.


Bedroom Farce runs at Duke of York Theatre from 24th March until 10th July


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Benjamin Goode