From Shakespeare to Gilbert and Sullivan and all roles in between - Timothy West doesn't like to be typecast, writes Christine Madden
Anyone who assumes acting is a cushy, glamorous profession ought to be sitting here now, I thought, as I sipped barely passable tea from a Styrofoam cup in the "dining bus". The insides of an old bus even the London public transport system didn't want had been ripped out to make way for Formica-topped tables bolted into the floor; a few fraying seats remained, foam entrails gaping, to sit on.
Admittedly, it's not always like this, and can be quite a bit more luxurious. Actor Timothy West knows both extremes and, through his almost 50-year career in the dramatic arts, weathers them all with professionalism and passion.
West is taking a break from shooting Raising the Dead, a murder mystery, and smoothly makes the transition from virtual to actual human being as rain pelts a staccato rhythm on the roof of his cabin. He's playing a man married to an Irishwoman whose son has been killed, a victim of the constant political turmoil in the North. West has two sons - doesn't it cut close to the bone to act in a scenario in which your son has been murdered? "Yes, it's a good thing," says West, who welcomes a situation that can wrench good acting out of you.
Everything about West refers to the dramatic arts: its as if it is his family business. He picked up the baton from his parents, both theatre professionals, and embarked on his career as assistant stage manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956.
Since then, his day job has involved, among other things, acting on stage and screen, television roles and appearances, classics and moderns, comedies and tragedies, directing and managing theatres and recording audio books.
His repertoire this year epitomises the eclectic blend of his talents and interests: after having portrayed King Lear at the Old Vic, he has gone on to direct a production of HMS Pinafore.
Going from King Lear to Gilbert and Sullivan might sound like a contrasiction in taste, but not for West. "I like to move around," he says, with perfect delivery of the understatement. "At the beginning of your career, your working life, you decide that you're either going to stick with one kind of area in which you think you're going to be successful, and make that more and more beneficial to you, or you decide that you're going to make as much variety in your life as possible, and that's what I like doing."
His wife, Prunella Scales, acts as partner in both personal and professional relationships - they have also performed together, although not as husband and wife.
"We don't like playing married couples, or couples that are involved in a relationship, because if you're playing a story where the couple is in some sort of danger of being fractured or things are uneasy, or worse, are murderous, the audience think, 'It's OK, really, it's OK'. And that makes it cosy, and that's not fair to the play, and it's not fair to the audience." Otherwise, he says, he likes "the convenience of working together - it's very nice to be with each other".
The third generation has long since entered the family enterprise: his son, Sam, who is "a very versatile actor", has played Richard II (as his father has before him) and Hamlet with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He also directs - which, as West explains, is one way to avoid acting yourself into a rut. "That's why he does a lot of directing, and he's just directed an opera as well, Cosí fan tutte, with the English National Opera."
Despite West's interest in versatility, his warm and solicitous manner coupled with his impeccable professionalism and integrity create a blend of personality sought after by casting directors to portray characters of authority. In his broad-ranging career, West has played Winston Churchill three times, as well as Richard II, Edwards II and VII, Gorbachev and any number of King Lears - once in Dublin at the Tivoli in a production by Alan Stanford for Second Age Theatre Company. His modesty only allows him to chalk this up to habit - of others, not himself. "It's an example of being pigeonholed. Because I've played a number of real people who have historically existed, I seem to get cast when there is a real person on offer. It didn't matter whether that person was tall or short or Chinese or Norwegian. If you wanted a real person, Timothy West was your man, he's the guy."
However, one of his favourite roles was playing Sir Thomas Beecham, the conductor, a production that also ended up on a Dublin stage, brought over by Michael Colgan for the Gate. "It was because he was a performer, to be able to play a performer. And also, when I did it on television, to be able to conduct an orchestra."
His love of music and variety has led him to this latest production. "You have to keep defeating the casting directors who want to cast you in the same sort of thing every time. And you have to try and confuse them by showing you can do something else.
"I just think it's much more interesting to do something different from last time. And this certainly is."
The opportunity came to him "by accident": the Carl Rosa Opera Company asked him to direct the production, and he agreed. He had originally cast Colin Baker as Sir Joseph Porter, "who is brilliant in the part", but Baker "is a Dr Who". As the annual Dr Who convention in the US conflicts with the dates of the Dublin performances, a stand-in Sir Joseph was required, and West found himself saying, "OK, I'll do it".
HMS Pinafore must certainly also bring a sense of lightness to a career full of profound and weighty work. West and Scales have always been active politically, and "were" great supporters of the British Labour party - which, he says, botched a historic opportunity in 1997. "When it was voted in with a colossal landslide victory," he states, "the people were giving them a mandate to do something really, really radical. They missed the chance to do that, and you don't get a second chance."
West would also like to carry his interest in improving society into future work. "I would love to find a new play that had some kind of political or social aspect to it, rather like that new play by David Hare [The Permanent Way, directed by Max Stafford-Clark for Out of Joint theatre company] about the failure of railway privatisation, which affects everybody. There are not enough plays like that being written at the moment."
Apart from HMS Pinafore at the Helix, DCU, audiences will also be able to catch West next month in the BBC drama series, Bedtime, by Andrew Hamilton. It's about three sets of people in three adjacent houses, and "this year, it's about the terrible Christmases that they're spending", says West. "It's one of those shows that satisfy me because it doesn't fit in to any kind of slot. There are no huge action sequences, just people talking. It's funny, but it's also quite sad, and quite dark as well."
For the time being, however, West is preparing for his première performance as Sir Joseph - Monday is his first night. Is he regretting his decision, damning his love of variety and professional practicality for getting him into this pickle? He grins. "Ask me this time next week."
HMS Pinafore runs at the Helix, DCU, from Monday to Saturday. Booking: 01-7007000. www.thehelix.ie