Irish actor saddles up onstage with a dead horse and on-screen, puts aside rivalries to play an Englishman
Americans can joke all we want about Europeans and their, well, untaxing work weeks – especially in summer – but Irish actor Stephen Rea is putting any Yank to shame with a slate of projects. First and foremost, Rea, 61, is starring in “Kicking a Dead Horse,” a new stage comedy from Sam Shepard about a New York art dealer who heads west to discover his “authenticity,” only to have his trusty steed up and die. Then Rea, who’s best known for his work in Neil Jordan films, including “The Crying Game” and “Michael Collins,” also appears in “Sixty Six,” out August 1. The charming dramedy from England’s Working Title Films (“About a Boy”) tells the story of a socially awkward British kid who suffers the misfortune of scheduling his bar mitzvah on the same day as the 1966 World Cup final, in which England is set to play. Rea appears as the kid’s asthma doctor and only friend.
What memories do you have of the 1966 World Cup?
Feelings of utter resentment and anger because I don’t support England – I’m Irish. Everybody from that neck of the woods, not just the Irish but the Scots, we just put our heads down. One of our great pastimes is watching England being beaten. It’s kind of a malign pleasure that you take. Thankfully, England has never won it since. So it’s an irony that I’m playing a devoted England supporter. That wasn’t lost on the [English] crew. They found it endlessly amusing.
Is it more difficult to do something with a character in a supporting role?
I think it’s always more difficult. If you’re playing a lead, you’re shaping the movie. When you’re playing a supporting role, you’ve got only a moment to make it count. I think it’s an interesting character, and there’s a twist. He isn’t perfect, but you thought for a moment he was. I liked that.
Is it true that Sam Shepard wrote “Kicking a Dead Horse” for you?
He wrote it for me to do. Now whether that means he wrote it because he felt I’d understand the character or not, I don’t know. But he wrote it for me to act in it, yeah.
Is that flattering?
It’s very gratifying indeed. In my view, he’s one of the top three English-language dramatists of the century. I’ve known him for a lot of years. He directed me before in a play of his called “Geography of a Horse Dreamer,” way back in the ’70s when we were both living in London. To work with him has been a constant pleasure.
Does the grueling theater schedule wear you out?
Yes, it does. When I’m not doing the play, all I’m doing is eating or sleeping. Just trying to rest. It’s very, very tough. I talk for an hour and a quarter and then I also do all this stuff with a horse and various props – saddles, ropes and things. We do shows Tuesday through Friday and two on Saturday and Sunday. It’s like being mugged. I’m overplaying the difficulty of it maybe.
The dead horse prop is quite something.
A man called Sean McArdle here at the Public Theater created it. We had one in Dublin when we did it [at the Abbey Theatre], and it was pretty good, but Sean has improved on it. It has to do a lot of things that seem quite simple on the page but in fact are feats of technology. It has to lie on its back with its feet in the air. It has to fall in the grave at the right moment. Various things it has to do. You’re never supposed to work with children and animals – even dead ones.
* “There are so many wonderful traditional Irish bands. I don’t know that you would know any of them. There’s a wonderful Irish concertina player called Noel Hill. He’s a personal friend. My God, we’ve got astounding players. Seamus Begley on the accordion. These are not obscure people, but they’re not up there with U2 – let’s put it that way.”
*”New York is a city of the most wonderful bars in the world. Usually I sample them fairly enthusiastically, but this time I just can’t. This role is too much. For the first time in my life, I don’t drink alcohol at all during the run of the show. I normally used to, when I finish a show, go to the bar and have a few drinks. I don’t do that anymore.”
* “I never watch TV. I know I’m missing so much, aren’t I? I’m probably not. I can’t stand popular TV. I’ve got too much to do to watch it. I know that sounds pretentious and pompous, but there you are.”
* “[My sons and I] go for vacation in Donegal, which is on the northwest coast of Ireland. We’ve been going there ever since they were tiny kids. It’s right on the ocean. As soon as I finish the play, that’s where we’ll be going. That’s my favorite thing to do with them. We basically lie around and laugh a lot. It’s as sunny as Ireland can be. After the heat of New York, we’ll be quite happy to have a bit of misty rain.”
*”My two sons are here with me. They go up to Harlem to jazz clubs. I might do that next week. We have a drummer in the show, and she’s going to take me up to see jazz in Harlem. That’s a pretty cool thing to do.”