David Suchet on his new play and Poirot
David Suchet chats to Jeffrey Davies about playing Gregory Solomon in The Price, why Hercule Poirot will always be a part of him, and the importance of resetting after portraying any character
GREGORY Solomon, a silvertongued used furniture dealer, arrives at a Manhattan ‘brownstone’ house which was once the childhood home of Victor and Walter Franz. Victor is now a New York cop, Walter a successful surgeon. Expecting to close the deal on a straightforward financial transaction, Solomon hasn’t counted on the brothers being there to confront each other, 16 years after their last meeting. One of this country’s most celebrated actors is reunited with one of the 20th century’s greatest dramatists when David Suchet stars in a new Jonathan Church-directed production of Arthur Miller’s riveting drama, The Price, at the Theatre Royal Bath. One of our most respected actors in theatre and on screen, David Suchet is, of course, best known on TV for his role as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, having completed all the Poirot television films (of which there are around 70). David plays Gregory Solomon in this 50th anniversary production of The Price, a sublime part for the multi awardwinning actor, whose roles have ranged from the aforementioned Poirot to disgraced newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell, and from Italian composer Antonio Salieri to Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. “The play takes place in the late ’60s in the attic of a Brownstone house where the family used to live and is where all the furniture from the mother and the father who have passed away and, basically, it’s about what price is this furniture worth,” an extremely welcoming and friendly David Suchet told me. “We see Victor the son, Walter his older brother and Esther his wife coming to this place to try and sort out this furniture. I play the furniture appraiser, an 89-year old Jewish man from the Lower East Side, and I come to give them the price. He’s a real European immigrant from 1903. He’s a survivor, and I think that’s what Miller wants,” London-born David, 72, said. “He’s written about a man who been through everything. He talks about his past, about being a fighter, and about his struggles and how he’s nearly been killed a couple of times. But he’s survived. And that, if you like, is what he passes on to his family. His name Solomon is not an accident. He gives them his life wisdom in many instances. “As well as being a very jovial, humorous character, there’s a lot of comedy in him too which gives the play a wonderful dimension.” Arthur Miller, of course, is generally acknowledged as being one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. But what, for David, makes the American writer’s work so compelling - after all, so much of
it is very gritty, harsh and poignant. “Several years ago I was in All My Sons in the West End,” David recalled, “and I felt then exactly what I feel now, here is Miller at his best, just as he is in Death of a Salesman. This is a play about family, as are all of those famous plays of his. They’re all to do with family dramas, hidden secrets and what goes on under the surface. Also, it’s very, very, naturalistic and deep and goes to the heart of the matter, with moments of great comedy as well. And so the play is very accessible to everybody who’s watching it. “Of course, Miller himself suffered very much at the hands of politics. And all of his personal life is poured into these wonderful, wonderful and absolutely iconic plays which have the most wonderful characters.” Timeless classics then. As pertinent now as when they were written and set? “Absolutely. One hundred per cent,” David replied immediately. “They are of their time but they’re also for today like Shakespeare, with universal themes of love, hate, jealousy and greed. You’ve also got, with Miller, the American Dream and what’s the price of your decisions, the price of your relationships and the price of your life and so on.” Does David, brother of former TV newscaster John Suchet, ever ‘become’ the character he’s playing when off stage. Or does he leave him firmly behind in the theatre or studio at the end of a drama. “It’s not my description of myself, but I was once described as one of Britain’s character actors,” one of the most charming of thespians I’ve ever interviewed, replied thoughtfully. “Very rarely have you ever seen me play me. I’m always playing characters of great depth and complexity and very, very different from myself in so many ways. And so it’s inevitable that when I get a really full understanding of the character that I’m playing that I have to change so many aspects of me, and that certain things will indeed rub off,” he answered. “But you know, during the run of a play, I always give myself a de-programming in front of the dressing room mirror before leaving the theatre or studio. It was advice given to me by a dear, late psychiatrist friend of mine who said that I must always get out of character and come back to being me.” A much-in-demand actor, how does David choose which roles to accept and which, conversely, to reject? “That’s a very, very good question. Whenever I’m offered a part I ask myself this question: If I didn’t do it, would I feel bereft that I hadn’t done it? My function in life as an actor is to try and serve my writers.” And Hercule Poirot - what a wonderful Agatha Christie creation, and played so superbly and definitively by David on television for 25 years. “In spite of all the other things I’ve done in my career, being known perhaps best for playing Poirot does not bother me one little bit,” David said cheerfully, adding with disarming modesty that he’s very lucky to be remembered for anything. “I loved playing Poirot and remember him with great affection. And I miss him so very, very much. He became more to me than a character I played, because when you play a role for that length of time you get to know them beyond just the script. “I knew him so well, how he’d think and behave, but, alas I’m no longer with him and he’s no longer with me. Really, my best friend died when the series ended in 2013. “But I do have such wonderful, happy memories of him and the series. Though, like with any death, there’s a period of mourning. And I went through that with my friend Poirot.” Awarded a CBE in 2010, David’s other TV work includes the award-winning BBC drama Maxwell - for which he won the Best Actor International Emmy Award in 2008 - Great Expectations, Victoria and Albert, Murder in Mind and The Way We Live Now, among many others. His equally impressive film credits include Effie, A Perfect Murder, Executive Decision, The Bank Job, The In-laws and Sunday. And on stage, David’s extensive credits include Complicit at The Old Vic, Once in a Lifetime at the National Theatre, and the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of The Tempest, Othello and Troilus and Cressida. His previous performances at the Theatre Royal include The Last Confession [2007], Man and Boy [2004], Amadeus [1998], What A Performance [1994] - all prior to the West End, and Oleanna, direct from Broadway, in 1993. First seen on Broadway in 1968, The Price was nominated for two Tony Awards including Best Play. It was most recently revived in New York in 2017 starring Mark Ruffalo and Danny Devito. Arthur Miller’s numerous works include Death of A Salesman, A View From the Bridge, All My Sons, The Crucible and Broken Glass.