Not just a star: Neil Pearson is a vocal supporter of local theatre
A week tomorrow, the non-existent fly curtain at Kingston's Rose Theatre will finally lift, almost two decades after the original Bankside venue was excavated.
This day has been a long time coming, not least for Sir Peter Hall, resident artistic director at the Rose and the man behind its inaugural production of Uncle Vanya.
But it's business as usual in the rehearsal room, says Neil Pearson, who with Ronald Pickup and Nicholas Le Provost leads a stellar cast for Chekhov's tragicomic classic.
"Obviously, we are aware that we're opening a new theatre and we are made doubly aware of that by Peter," says Pearson on his lunch-break. "But when you are in rehearsal you are simply focusing on getting your part of the night out right."
The 48-year-old actor is best known for his popular turns in Drop the Dead Donkey and Bridget Jones's Diary. But as visionary Astrov , he will deliver the first of many weighty speeches - "Existence is tedious; life is a senseless, dirty business" - proving just how bold a choice Vanya is to launch the new Rose. Hall appears to be pinning his non-commerical colours to the mast at an early stage.
"Well, we've nearly sold out already," counters Pearson. "Too often commercial' means dumb' and it doesn't necessarily need to. There's a market for the big, sequinny musical or the light comedy and I enjoy them myself from time to time. But there is also a thirst from audiences for work that credits them with the ability to concentrate, the ability to think and the ability to reflect.
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"Chekhov is one of the greats, a man writing at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries with this great vision. Astrov often sounds like he's campaigning on the green ticket. He sees the problem - his tragedy is that he feels he can do nothing about it. And that should resonate with audiences today. We are aware of the imminent global crisis but feel paralysed when it comes to doing anything."
A quick glance at press coverage suggests the Rose opening is turning into rather an event - the more so for being in the suburbs, rather than a city centre like London, or even Liverpool. But as national newspapers fall over themselves to interview Hall about his grand vision, the Kingston community remains in two minds over the venture.
An estimated £3 million of public money has been channelled into the theatre to date but as yet, there are no signs the Rose can bloom on its own.
Pearson knows better than most the challenges facing local venues - the Clapham resident lives just up the road from the beleaguered Battersea Arts Centre and also lent his support to Bristol Old Vic when the oldest working theatre in the country was forced to go dark last year.
"If anything the plight of Bristol Old Vic is a warning against complacency," he says. "A theatre can't take its existence for granted and I think there was a feeling abroad that the Old Vic, in its last incarnation, was being run for the people who worked there rather than the people who it purported to serve. There was an audience but they were travelling to Bath, where the Theatre Royal manages to appeals to all constituent parts of the community."
So can one area have too many theatres? South-west London already boasts two major commerical venues in Richmond and Wimbledon, as well as the smaller Orange Tree and Polka Theatre.
Pearson pauses: "To be honest, yes. But I don't know how many theatres is too many. Our perennial problem is that we only recognise the value of something when we've lost it. If Bristol Old Vic were to go under, people would recognise it retrospectively as a tragedy. So it's up to us who work in the theatre and those who care about the theatre to safeguard its future. "
Or as Saint-Exupéry's Little Prince reminds us: "You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose."
Uncle Vanya, Rose Theatre, 24-26 High Street, Kingston, Wednesday, January 16 to Saturday, Febrary 9, 7.30pm, Thurs/Sat mat 2.30pm (not Jan 17/19), £5-£29, call 0871 230 1552, visit kingstontheatre.org.
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