13 Nov 2011
Every so often you stumble across a part which feels like it fits you like a glove. And so it was on Friday. Except this is a part I’ve taken some time stumbling into… We first performed THE JUNGLE BOOK in 2004 – so who knows why it took so long for me to think about playing Shere Khan in the show. The truth is I never thought about. But when the actor playing the part in our current tour requested a day off for a special occasion, my eyes began to light up, and I began to wonder whether this would be an enjoyable part to play. My goodness! With only four hours of rehearsal, and just two performances on Friday, Mr Khan has become one of my favourite roles. But maybe something helped it all make sense. Just a few weeks ago I sat open-mouthed and with the rest of the world watched the videos of Gaddafi in his final hour on earth. My friend Graeme (who originally directed THE JUNGLE BOOK back in 2004) remarked that it was like watching an old, desert lion in his final throws. And knowing I was going to be playing Shere Khan, that image must have somehow fixed. A ruthless predator, at the end of his days, with those dead, dead eyes, lashing out in one last attempt to stay alive. Given the anthropomorphic style of THE JUNGLE BOOK, that grizzled and bloodied dictator seems to have become the perfect inspiration for this old and dangerous tiger. And maybe one other inspiration – from one of my favourite poems by Yeats – The Second Coming Somewhere, in the sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds…. And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?