'Young actors often look divine. But then they open their little traps, and you think: Oh dear'





As Barbara Jefford prepares to star in Coriolanus, she talks to Veronica Lee



Veronica Lee
Guardian
June 8, 2000



The programme for the Almeida's new production of Coriolanus sets out its stall: warrior hero and jealous rival, played by Ralph Fiennes and Linus Roache, square up across the front page.

It's a boys' play, right? Well, no actually. At the heart of the work is the relationship between Coriolanus and his destructive mother, Volumnia. In Coriolanus Shakespeare covered a subject that keeps many a therapist in business - an obsessive love between mother and son that leads to the destruction of both.

How and why did she produce this angry young man convinced of his own invincibility, off to battle at the drop of a hat, but who hangs on her every word, while his wife is merely "my gracious silence"? For Jonathan Kent, who is directing the Almeida production, the key to understanding Coriolanus is Volumnia.

"She has created this killing machine who has an almost Pavlovian response to battle and bloodshed. But at the end, in persuading him on a course of action that will eventually lead to his death, she destroys him, and she knows she's doing it," he says.

According to Kent, Volumnia is a strong woman who survives in a male society by adopting all the masculine virtues. In Barbara Jefford, one our most experienced Shakepeareans, Kent has found a sparkling Volumnia. "She would have made a great soldier herself," Jefford says, "but lives vicariously through her son. He is her life and there is an almost unnatural love between them - she is totally fulfilled by him. He is her work of art."

Volumnia may be considered the baddie - she even encourages her young grandson to crush butterflies - but Jefford does not share that view. "I wouldn't call her evil. She doesn't incite people to murder, like Lady Macbeth, say. She's so obsessed with her son that she might be considered unbalanced, but that's what makes her fascinating."

Jefford explains: "I suppose one could say it's a one-parent family. Her husband, a soldier, was killed while her son was very young. As soon as he was old enough to hold a sword he was in battle, not just playing soldiers. He has to die to save his homeland and she knows that, but she persuades him to do the 'right' thing. I feel it is the only thing she can do." It is strange that Shakespeare examined the mother-son dynamic only in this play. Jefford points out that Shakespeare wrote Coriolanus at the time of his mother's death. "We have no way of knowing what she was like, or how he felt about her - but that's interesting, don't you think?"

Jefford, now 59, has appeared in 52 Shakespearean productions. She made her debut as Isabella in Measure for Measure, opposite John Gielgud, and was part of the postwar golden age at Stratford with Michael Redgrave, Peggy Ashcroft and Anthony Quayle. After stints at the Old Vic and National Theatre, in films and TV, Jefford returned to Stratford 11 years ago, where she played Volumnia opposite Charles Dance.

"It's a chance you don't often get," Jefford says. "To be able to go back to a role after a decade is just marvellous. You know what works, but having lived that bit more, you do have a new take on the role." She has also played Fiennes's mother before, in Six Characters in Search of an Author, at the National in 1987, and admires his work.

"I like his straight-down-the-line approach. It think it's how all great actors work." Jefford is unusually busy for an actress of her age, but while Hollywood and television may cast aside older actors, in the Shakespeare scene it's a positive boon to have packed a few years in.

"I'm far too old to play Volumnia really, but you can only play Shakespeare when you have reached a certain stage of technical expertise. So often you will see performances by very young actors who look divine, but then they open their little traps, and you think, 'Oh dear.' "

It is also true that Shakespeare almost has to be age-blind, partly because no teenage actress could play, say, Juliet with any great acting expertise, and partly because the roles require some experience of life. "The last time I played Portia I was 43, having played her in my 20s and 30s," says Jefford. "I think I was better at it when I was older.

"And I'm not so frightened now. It's strange: when you're young you don't have nerves because you don't know what the pitfalls are. Then the more you do, the more is expected of you. But now I'm more confident. I know I can do certain things and I'm not stuck in a rut."

Which would explain her latest film, Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate, in which she plays a rather bizarre role, a scientist complete with withered arm, wheelchair and mittel-European accent.

Most actors would rush to work with Polanski, but Jefford first turned the role down, saying she was too busy. "Then Polanski himself rang me. It was like that Pete 'n' Dud sketch: 'It's only that bloody Roman Polanski on the phone.' It seemed rude not to, so I was on the set within a couple of days."

She found it good fun, but has been around long enough to see through Polanski's wiles. "It seemed to me that he would put aside a day for his tantrums. It's transparent that it's drummed up, but he still does it."

Does she now feel able to upbraid a difficult director? "Oh no. In films I still feel that I'm way behind, having done my first at the age of 36. As for theatre, I honestly haven't worked with a difficult director for years, but then age does command some sort of respect. They don't make you their whipping boy because the company would rise up and say, 'How dare you be nasty to Bar?' "

Like Gielgud, Jefford wants to work until her last breath. "I feel it's like food and drink - it's part of one's existence. I know a lot of people reach a stage where it isn't as gripping as it used to be. But it's nice to go on showing off a bit, because that's what actors are in it for really."

Coriolanus is in rep at the Gainsborough Studios, London N1 (020-7359 4404), from Wednesday till August 5.

 

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