David Haig takes “The Player” to new heights
On paper it’s a role that equates to being “swaying tree # 2” in any play.
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The role of “the player” usually translates to an insignificant walk on part that’s quickly forgotten, but in the hands of an actor like David Haig in a play written by Tom Stoppard, that role signifies something entirely different.
Our OnScreen film “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” on Tuesday June 27 features David Haig in the pivotal role of “The Player”, the leader of the actor’s troupe in Hamlet’s “play within a play”.
If it’s all sounding confusing, never fear, all will be revealed in the screening of Tom Stoppard’s groundbreaking theatrical gem at the Manning Entertainment Centre, fresh from London’s National Theatre.
David Haig is an Olivier Award-winning English actor and FIPA Award-winning writer, appearing in the film “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and the television productions Dr Who, The Thick of It, Midsomer Murders and Inspector Morse.
He is an acclaimed playwright, writing “My Boy Jack” in which Haig played Rudyard Kipling and fellow “Rosencrantz” star Daniel Radcliffe played Kipling's son, John.
David Haig is no stranger to anarchic situations.
As a father of five, he’s done the hard yards, revealing a little about his off stage life in an interview in the UK’s Daily Telegraph when he said: “I don’t tend to separate the weekends conventionally from the rest of the week, and I suspect this could be something to do with having five children. When they were little, gosh, it was a busy life. My wife, Julia, is also an actor and our weekends were always chaotic affairs. I don’t know how we managed. I imagine that if you had a nine-to-five job and were not careering around with hundreds of kids, you would have quite a distinct structure to your weekend. You could get up, have a fry-up and a walk in the woods with your two children and then go for a pub lunch or something: it would all have shape and be very organised and relaxing. Whereas our lives were always, and still are, totally disorderly.”
He’s clearly a man well versed in drama in all aspects of life, and his performance in our OnScreen film is superb with the Daily Telegraph declaring: “David Haig deserves a special mention as the Player, a scene-stealing combination of obsessive old-stager, cockney wheeler-dealer, pimp and pirate”.
Don’t take their word for it – roll up to the MEC on June 27 and savour the 50th anniversary performance of Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece. Sessions at 10am and 7pm.