Adrian Goldman’s theatrical career spans a good many decades, two continents and three countries. Although he has focused more on directing in recent years, he’s no stranger to treading the boards and has even turned his hand to lighting design.
So what are some of the high points is his directing career? Here in Finland, he mentions getting Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist off his 'bucket list'. This was both an amazing experience and Adrian’s first play with the Finn-Brit Players. Another big first was directing his current co-star, Stephanie Carlson, in her first role. The play was Pippin, and at this time Adrian was directing semi-professionally in the US. Another highlight from this period was Arthur Miller’s The Price at the Stony Creek Puppet House Theatre.
“We got a standing ovation,” Adrian remembers.
In 2012, Adrian and Stephanie founded Passport Theatre Company as a semi-professional group whose mission is to bring international, alternative and less well-known voices to audiences; and he also has many fond memories of the shows they’ve done together over the past ten years.
When I asked him for some highlights from his acting career, he mentioned playing Gethin Price in Trevor Griffith’s Comedians.
“I had my head shaved and played an ANGRY YOUNG MAN. Which I was at the time,” says Adrian.
In Educating Rita, he plays Frank: less of an angry young man and more of a disillusioned middle-aged university lecturer.
“Playing an academic comes quite easily to me – for some reason,” says Adrian.
That reason obviously being his own lengthy career in academia. Although their subjects differ – biochemistry (Adrian) versus English literature (Frank) – he knows exactly what it’s like to be a university professor and inhabit Frank’s professional world. Yet not everything about playing Frank has come quite as naturally. Frank believes that any problem can be forgotten with a trip to the pub, and Adrian has found the drunk scenes to be the most challenging part of the role.
“I haven’t been seriously drunk since the old gang left Cafe Angleterre,” says Adrian, reminiscing about the old days when post-performance drinks were often had at the Finn-Brit Players’ then local watering hole. “Ah, the days of cigarette smoke inside (ew) and rolling home on the night bus....”
But you don’t have to be a big drinker to successfully play a drunkard. Since Withnail and I, Richard E. Grant has made a long and distinguished career out of portraying iconic drunks, yet a severe alcohol allergy means he’s been a lifelong teetotaller. So hanging out down the pub with a bunch of actors – albeit many moons ago – almost makes Adrian overqualified in comparison.
Text: Zach Chamberlaine
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