In our profile series, Tell Us In Ten, we ask cast members and creatives of top London shows to tell us all about themselves in just 10 questions. From how they got their start in the industry to their favourite shows, we want to know everything.
This time we’re chatting to Alastair Whatley who is playing Oscar Wilde and many other characters from Oscar’s life and plays in The Importance Of Being Oscar – This funny and fiercely moving show about the rise and fall, glory and devastation of Oscar Wilde.
1) My route into theatre was…
The Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds where I grew up. I did a lot of plays in my last two years at school as well as joining the local amateur company in Bury St Edmunds where I memorably burst onto the stage for my first show (Tartuffe) and forgot everything single one of my lines in quite a spectacular manner. I was subsequently the actor/ASM for a a few shows after that.
After school I headed to Royal Holloway to do a theatre degree and again spent a lot of time doing all manner of plays, but also became a street theatre entertainer and learnt some valuable lessons in stillness as a living statue (more alive than statuesque alas), and lessons in showing off as a Peacock in the carnival zoo parade. I was also a kids party entertainer all over the South of England just before the age of sat-nav, thus my map reading skills and an ability to control a room of 6 year olds – high on sugar and wielding plastic guns – improved significantly,
I set up Original Theatre in 2004 and have been with it ever since, although I have had spells as a director-in-residence at Sherborne School, a spell at the RSC, and some schools tours back in the early post-university days probably best left where they are…
2) My West End idol is…
Kerry Ellis – I directed Kerry in The Importance Of Being Earnest back in 2018 and she was just brilliant. She has that ineffable, ephemeral star quality which she brings to everything she does. She was as a total delight to work with.
3) My colleagues would describe me as…
I asked this to my team and this is what I got back: ‘Astute. Unique. and tall…’- so let’s go with that.
4) My favourite show (that isn’t one I star in/work on) is…
I watched Michael Boyd’s Histories Cycle at the RSC almost on repeat back between 2005-2008. I must have seen them all multiple times, including the legendary ‘Tetralogy day’ both in Stratford and the Round House. I loved the sense of ensemble craft Michael brought to these plays – the way the cross casting of actors and characters fed into the unfolding action, his use of the vertical space and the sense of connection built with the audience. It was alive, dangerous and just superbly told with a rough magic that bound it all together. Unforgettable.
5) The career moment I’m most proud of is…
When not acting, my main job is being Artistic Director for Original Theatre. Sometimes that means being the person who needs to ensure the ‘show goes on’. Back in 2018 we had two shows touring, The Importance Of Being Earnest which was playing in Winchester on one particular week and Sebastian Faulk’s’ Birdsong playing the same week up North in New Brighton. This was before Covid, and our understudy system was not nearly as robust as it is today. It turns out – although I didn’t know it – I was the expected understudy by process of elimination (nobody else would do it). Thus I found myself answering the call on Friday morning to travel down South to go on as Jack Worthing to a sold-out house in Winchester that night before travelling through the night to go on as the lead role of Stephen Wraysford for the matinee show up in Liverpool the following day.
Both shows went on. No lines were called for. Some lines may have been extemporised. Badly.
6) The hardest part about my job/role is…
The Importance Of Being Oscar is a one-person show which requires an unbelievable amount of focus – and stillness. I cannot turn up at the theatre at the half and waltz on the stage (I really wish I could!). It needs a degree of preparation, as much to be mentally sharp as anything. I have been doing this show on and off since I was 24 and I have found my stamina has improved, so what felt like climbing Everest initially is today after more than 200 shows more like climbing Mont Blanc; still a challenge and – as with all climbing – expect the unexpected and always respect the mountain…
7) If I wasn’t an actor, I would be…
A travel writer. Part of the job of touring has by necessity involved a lot of travel. It’s a wonderful way to see the world, to perform on stages and meet people. Great travelogues are like being sucked into a different place – I have loved reading the likes Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux and Jan Morris for that reason.
8) Something people don’t know about me is…
I am chairman of Southgate Hockey Club which is one of the biggest Hockey Clubs in the UK based in North London. We have nearly a thousand members across our senior and junior sections and a diaspora spread all over the world. Thus when not on stage I will likely be answering calls to coaches and players or planning the forthcoming season.
9) The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is…
Before we had our press night for The Importance Of Being Oscar last year at The Jermyn Street Theatre, the director Mike Fentiman took me for a coffee. I had imagined it was just going to be a coffee and not a notes session – as it turned out it managed to be a bit of both.
Mike spoke about the play in a round-a-bout way, never heavy handedly, never in a way that led me to think it was more than two friends chatting – yet by the time I came to do the show that night, realised that whatever he had said had managed to put me into exactly the right place to do the show when the pressure of that first night expectant audience was applied.
I just wish I could remember what it was he told me!
10) The one thing I wish I could tell my younger self is…
It’s a marathon and not a sprint. I remember coming out of University and expecting everything to happen all at once. A lot of things did happen, often all at once – yet you look back years later and it just forms one part of a chapter of a much longer book. I wouldn’t change the gusto and bravery (or recklessness) with which I tackled my early years working in the industry, but I would try and explain that the road is long and the highs are always outweighed by the lows and to quote Kipling you need to ‘treat those two imposters just the same’.
I wouldn’t have listened of course.
Get your tickets to see Alastair in The Importance Of Being Oscar!
