The Sheenant Chronicles: Michael Sheen, RADA and 'Hay Fever'
An interview with Royal Academy of Dramatic Art's Geoff Bullen and directing the student in his 1991 graduate production of the Noël Coward play
Part of the joy in researching an actor’s history is uncovering the unsung heroes that helped guide them in performing while elevating their talent.
There are many of those special people in the life of Michael Sheen. As many of you who know about The Sheenant Chronicles, Patricia Browning of A Tennantcy To Act and I have delved into the lesser-known aspects of both Michael and his contemporary acting half/best friend David Tennant with shared roles throughout their careers.
As our scope encompasses work that — due to time and technology — is not digital-friendly, most of what we find relates to more, shall we say, analog conventions and interviews with those who were there to bring their skillfulness to the fore. One of those for Michael was Geoff Bullen.
Geoff may not be one of the more recognizable names in the ‘Sheendom,’ but, his role was just as critical to his acting future as you’ll find. Coming into Michael’s orbit via the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 1991, Geoff was the director for that graduating class’ production of Hay Fever. Written by acclaimed playwright Sir Noël Coward in 1924, it’s well known for its scathing and comical take on the British class system, including the wayward and warring factions within the Bliss family. Michael was cast as Simon Bliss, the attention-seeking, dramatic son who fancies himself a caricature artist. Alongside classmate Jane Robbins who portrayed his flighty and petulant sister Sorel (and later played Michael’s wayward wife in 2002’s Heartlands), the two characters begin Hay Fever in high form with an eight-minute introduction full of bickering and pithy dialogue.
Precious little exists for posterity, considering it was one of many student productions that RADA has conducted over the decades. While distance from the event now feels otherworldly to those of us schooled in Michael’s career, it’s a plain fact that it’s been 35 years and we can only take away what one recalls from memory in the early days of his career. Fortunately, I was able to speak with Geoff in a recent interview about his time there.
But first, some background on Geoff: Born and raised in Cornwall, Wales, and a graduate of Manchester University, he was enthralled with various shows he saw on holidays with his parents in Blackpool. His first professional part at age 18 was as the officer in Molière’s Tartuffe — and he “just dried stone dead,” he recalled. “I can remember all the faces of the other actors going, ‘Oh, shit! You know, we've got this kid!’ They were then trying to improvise, and I was cool as a cucumber.”
He began his run at RADA in the early ‘70s with a recommendation coming from David Carson (Star Trek Generations), interviewed with Principal Hugh Cruttwell, while working on several shows, including Harold Pinter’s A Night Out and Sandy Wilson’s musical The Boy Friend.
Working more as a freelancer than a staff member, he directed in regional theatre and would return to RADA at intervals, at one point serving as Chair of the audition panel for the school. He directed three versions of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap and his last full-time position with RADA was as Director of Actor Training.
❦
Geoff provided several anecdotes about Michael, one of which was his last time seeing him in person in 2014:
”I had the opportunity to do this thing at Buckingham Palace. I met the Queen. And Helen Mirren was there. But my first meeting with her, I was 15 [playing Proculeius] and wrestling with her on the stage at the Old Vic, trying to disarm her, as she was playing Cleopatra!
“And funnily enough, that was the last time I met Michael Sheen. [Ed. note: Michael had been in London to present at the 2014 BAFTA Film Awards]. This was all a big fundraiser. So all the great and good of the [RADA] graduates were there. Mike was there and yes, I remember, because he was extremely cordial. We didn't speak much. We just sort of embraced. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, my God, Michael, you’re thin! You’re bony!’”
❦
As Michael was graduating in 1991 — and simultaneously committing to his first professional role in When She Danced with Vanessa Redgrave — Geoff provided some context for Michael’s RADA end-of-term requirements.
“Schools have a showcase. RADA has the Tree. He left early to do this job and then came back to do the Tree. The showcase was named after [RADA founder] Herbert Beerbohm Tree. So, he did a speech from Peer Gynt. It's a modern rendition of it, which was popular at the time. It was incredibly dynamic. All I can remember is this sort of twisting gesture which is very effective. He was brilliant as the Bliss boy, but this was like a transistor radio attached to Battersea Power station. He had such dynamic and presence. It didn’t overbalance, but one was aware of the floodgates of his talents.”
With regards to Hay Fever, Geoff further elaborated on what it took (and to this day, takes) to bring Coward to the stage.
“Hay Fever, I think, is my favorite. The characters are brilliantly drawn. It’s incisive. It’s economical. It’s very, very satisfying to watch. Coward was a very serious man in many ways. A serious worker, a masterful playwright. In drama school, it’s very difficult for inexperienced or learning actors to get the balance, the degree of knowing and innocence. The whole thing about Hay Fever is that the Blisses, in their different ways, are complete innocence.
“I do remember one of my proudest moments was the end of the first act when they’re having tea and I choreographed this whole routine where plates were passed around and cups and saucers and it ended up with the Bliss family with cups and saucers and cake on plates — and the guests with none! [RADA] Principal Oliver Neville particularly praised me for that and said that some friends of his in the business had seen it and said it was a masterpiece of fast technique.”
I asked Geoff how the roles were chosen for the students who would perform for their final year. In essence, was there an audition process?
“No, there has never been an audition system for roles at RADA. The roles are allocated. The idea is that everybody gets a fair break. But some people feel they don’t. Occasionally you did get people from early years coming into finals productions.”
This statement would square with an online conversation Michael had with director Rufus Norris discussing the 2024 production of Nye. For those unaware, Rufus — a 1989 RADA graduate — was in his final year production with Thomas Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. Both recalled that Michael, as a first-year student, came into the role of Davey Dahumma on a recommendation from Principal Neville to replace someone who was “voluntarily dropping out” (Michael’s recollection) or that the play was in terrible shape! (Rufus’ recollection).
I was curious as to the audience for these types of performances: who would be watching a young Michael as Simon Bliss onstage at the Vanbrugh Theatre in February 1991?
“Obviously, the agents. Casting directors. Interested members of the profession. There used to be a Vanbrugh Theatre Club, which was the supporters club. That’s the audience. In those days, it would have opened — there weren’t many performances — on Thursday, Friday and two performances on Saturday. It was quite skinny. And Michael was an extremely clever guy. He knew what the style was.
“As I remember, at the time there would be a feedback session, a collective feedback session with the staff. Of course, teachers would buttonhole students in on the staircase and all that. And they get feedback in classes.”
The fly in the ointment to the situation surrounding a student such as Micheal would be an interruption in his studies to take on a role outside school. How did that sit with RADA? Geoff was equal parts resigned to reality and theory.
“This still goes on. It was always a bone of contention. You know: should you let students go? Or is this a three-year training? It needs to be three years of training. But then some views are like, if you’re training them to act well, then why not let them go and act? Agents are kind of specifically requested — very strongly requested now —not to ‘talent spot’ and hoover up the most promising actors and offer them positions prior to their completion or near the completion of their training.”
One final insight that Geoff was able to provide was that of Michael's first professional role: Alexandros Eliopolos, the devoted Greek pianist in Martin Sherman’s 1991 play When She Danced. Notwithstanding the reviews the company earned during its run at The Globe Theatre, the play was first taken to the Brighton Theatre Royal in late July for what could be termed a ‘soft opening.’ I was intrigued by that unearthing and asked Geoff why this caliber of talent would choose a location so geographically removed from London.
“Brighton was the classic kind of pre-West End you would go to. Do you know the Brighton Belle?” I replied I had not. “It ran from Victoria Station to Brighton [until 1972]. You could go in the morning, get on the train and have your breakfast, get to London and then after the show you could take the last train back to Brighton. So there’s that connection. It would be kind of like London — a West End audience — in sort of microcosm.”
❦
Geoff currently teaches two or three times a year online. “A course of five consecutive evenings. It’s for people who want to start Shakespeare, feeling that they’re a bit scared. I try to demystify it and have a laugh.”
I’m hoping to share in another edition of this series, a later piece of work of Michael’s that has a secondary connection to Geoff. And of course, this wouldn’t be The Sheenant Chronicles if I didn’t include a teaser for something that will be written about in the future by my ‘proto-Davidologist:’
