The Michael Sheen Chronicles: 'When She Danced'
Michael makes his professional stage debut in 1991 opposite... Vanessa Redgrave
As a yet-to-graduate drama student, Michael Sheen was unaware of how a 1991 theatre audition would cast him (and his future) onto one of the most famous West End stages in London.
When She Danced, an imagined yet semi-true-to-life portrayal of dancer/choreographer Isadora Duncan, written by American playwright Martin Sherman and first staged in 1985, was the second pairing of Sherman with actress Vanessa Redgrave, following 1989’s A Madhouse In Goa. Here, Redgrave – already familiar with Duncan, having portrayed the flamboyant figure in her 1968 Academy Award-nominated film role Isadora – was showcasing a moment in Duncan’s life that had her on the downswing circa 1923 Paris, as she becomes involved with Russian poet Sergei Esenin while mourning the deaths of her three children and then comically, inviting into this realm Greek piano prodigy (and wholly ficticious character) Alexandros Eliopolos, brought to life by 22-year-old Royal Academy of Dramatic Art student Michael Sheen.
From a historical standpoint, Michael’s casting was not a slam dunk despite his theatrical aspirations, as he recounted to The Telegraph in November 2009 the series of events that led to him being chosen:
One afternoon, while I was at drama school at RADA, I took myself off to an audition in a church hall somewhere. It was for the part of a Greek piano prodigy in a play about Isadora Duncan called When She Danced.
Duncan was being played by Vanessa Redgrave and, I found out later, they’d been looking for someone to play the young pianist for months and months. I was the last person they were seeing. I delivered some speech, did a scene from the play and then went home without giving it much of a thought. However, two days later, they phoned me back and invited me to a second audition.
This one was on a stage in a West End theatre and in front of the director, the writer, Martin Sherman, and the producers. I read the same thing I’d read at the first audition and, at the end, Martin put his arm around me and said, 'Welcome to the West End.’ I don’t think anyone could have had a better start to their career. Vanessa takes risks all the time on stage. She taught me how to be courageous.
For those not intimately familiar with the West End’s theatre district, When She Danced would, for its entire London run, be staged at the Globe Theatre (renamed The Gielgud Theatre in 1994 in honor of the famed thespian & director). This was (and is) not the famed Globe from Shakespeare’s era, but rather one of several illustrious playhouses along Shaftesbury Avenue, just outside Piccadilly Circus.
The timing of the play and the convenience of the locale for Michael could not have been better suited. He was in his third and final year at RADA, not yet graduating, but assured that this prestigious exposure would bring him in front of not only the theatre-going public but also agents, casting directors, and playwrights, due to the star power of Redgrave.
But one of the more curious examples in rolling out a production of this caliber would be the formality of a ‘test’ audience, away from the glittering lights of London. After the customary rehearsals, the revival company took themselves to Brighton’s Theatre Royal on the west coast of England for a soft premiere in July 1991, before the official opening on August 6. In a previous Write Hear interview with Michael’s RADA drama director Geoff Bullen, the premise was not out of the ordinary. As Geoff explained:
Brighton was the classic kind of pre-West End you would go to. It would be kind of like London — a West End audience — in sort of microcosm.
Michael was given a mention during the brief Brighton run in a review in The Lancing Herald as “making the most of his professional debut,” as Eliopolos, but more would await him and the rest of the company upon their return to London.
The narrative of the story focuses on the real-life escapades of Duncan as she struggles financially to raise funds for a dance school. Having married the much younger non-English-speaking Esenin in 1922, she tries to keep the eccentric characters of the play entertained in her Parisian home on the Rue de la Pompe. Among those in Duncan’s company are Esenin (Soviet actor Oleg Menshikov, speaking only in Russian), French maid Jeannie Affelder (Sheila Keith), theatrical agent Mary Desti (Alison Fiske), out-of-work translator Hannah Belzer (Frances de la Tour, in her Olivier Award-winning role), Italian filing clerk Luciano Zavani (Kevin Elyot) and Christine (Jodie Scott), a pupil of one of Duncan’s protégés. With direction for this production by Robert Allan Ackerman, a frequent collaborator of Sherman’s, When She Danced made its premiere on 6 August and would run through until 21 December.
The farcical nature of the story had its admirers and detractors in the tight circle of London’s theatre critics, most notably pointing out that the audience is never treated to a ‘Duncan performance.’ Instead, the overall tone is focused on character interactions rather than a linear storyline. Michael’s role as Eliopolis is folded into the mix as someone who arrives with a backstory that dovetails nicely into this tale: his mother named him after Duncan while she was pregnant, and his admiration of the now middle-aged diva is fraught with equal parts adoration and mischaracterization.
Eliopolis’ role is a mash-up of interloper, translator (helping Duncan understand Zavani’s Italian with a side of inappropriate attraction designed to elevate the obvious), and wide-eyed devotion to someone who is clearly past her prime. With pure speculation based on how his character is portrayed, Michael would have likely spoken with a Greek accent and possibly brought a certain amount of melodramatic flair to the part, given the blatant indication that he’s portraying a gay character.
Yet, the proof as to how well he inhabited the role and the impression he made leaves no room for misunderstanding. The bulk of the reviews made no bones about Redgrave’s emotive portrayal, far more willing to heap praise on her reactionary performance rather than as a leading force guiding her ensemble. For Michael, the critics could be flippantry in tone – The Financial Times characterized his role as “half Rik Mayall (The Young Ones), half Manuel (Fawlty Towers)” – or adjectively described as “delightful” (Time Out), “excellent” (Evening Standard), and “hilarious” (The Independent). Nearly all pointed to his RADA credentials and this being his professional debut.
Interviewed during this period for a Welsh programme series titled Primetime, you can hear the very young, very Welsh Michael speak briefly on the experience of When She Danced.
Michael Sheen “You Saw Them Here First”/Primetime (1991)/© YouTube
Michael finished his third and final year at RADA amidst this five-month run and moved on to a National Theatre workshop of Richard Hayton’s Neon Gravy. But it is no small feat of destiny that in January 1992, he would find himself in Manchester auditioning for one of the most prominent and prestigious Shakespearean roles in literature, following a long line of renowned actors, including John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, and John Stride.
“Thus with a kiss I die.”
