Rufus Sewell has made it three in a row by winning the Best Actor award at the Laurence Olivier Awards 2007. The actor picked up the equivalent accolade in the season’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards and Critics’ Circle Awards.
Tonight, Sewell fended off stiff competition from Iain Glen (The Crucible), David Haig (Donkeys’ Years), Frank Langella and Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon) to win Best Actor for his portrayal of Czech student Jan in Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘N’ Roll, which opened at the Royal Court and subsequently transferred into the Duke Of York’s.
Sewell was unable to attend the ceremony to collect his award, so director Trevor Nunn was there to do the honours on his behalf. Speaking to officiallondontheatre afterwards, Nunn gave his opinion on the actor. "Rufus has got an extraordinary dexterity, quickness, nimbleness to the point where you know if you say ‘in one moment you have to be absolutely believably a Czechoslovakian, and the next you must have no trace of an accent’ you will never have a problem. He relishes that sort of dexterity, but he is extraordinarily truthful, very hard on himself. He was wonderful throughout the process, I mean I love him very much so it was a delight when he said yes, and we had just terrific fun throughout.”
It is a first Laurence Olivier Award win for Sewell, who picked up a Best Actor In A Supporting Role nomination back in 1994 for his part in another Stoppard play, Arcadia. The actor’s other stage credits include Macbeth at the Queen’s and Luther at the National, while he has been seen on screen in the BBC’s modern adaptation of The Taming Of The Shrew, Charles II: The Power And The Passion, and most recently, alongside Kate Winslet in the film The Holiday.
Set during the cold war years 1968-1990, Rock ‘N’ Roll follows Jan, who studies in Cambridge before returning to his communist homeland and becoming caught up in the dissident movement, and Max, a Marxist philosopher and professor at Cambridge University. The story is punctuated by music of the era, including that of Czech band The Plastic People Of The Universe, who came to symbolise resistance to the Communist regime.
Rock ‘N’ Roll is still running at the Duke Of York’s until 25 February, with Dominic West in the role of Jan.
CB
