Sam Alexander stars in Marcus Brigstocke’s bittersweet drama, The Red, online from 16 March until 16 June 2022 .
Originally commissioned for BBC Radio 4 and winner of the BBC Audio Drama Award 2018 for Best Single Drama, Marcus Brigstocke’s compelling drama of family and addiction is based on his own recovery. The 2019 stage production had acclaimed runs at Omnibus Theatre and 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The Red stars father and son Bruce Alexander (A Touch of Frost) and Sam Alexander (Royal Shakespeare Company). It is Written and Directed by Marcus Brigstocke, Directed for film by Charlotte Peters, Designed by Alex Marker and has Sound and Composition by Max Pappenheim.
You’re appearing in the online version of The Red, what can you tell us about the play?
The Red is about a father and son who both really love wine, only one of them hasn’t had a sip for 25 years. It’s a play about the joy of drinking and the hell of drinking, and poses an unsettling question: Do our parents know us better than we know ourselves? Still?
Marcus’s play is warm and witty – as you’d expect from such a funny fella – and it is also rooted in lived experience. Most of us have fairly superficial ideas about addiction. Marcus reveals what it feels like on the inside. The writing is honest and authentic; I think that’s what makes The Red so compelling.
This isn’t your first time performing it, how will it be different this time?
Dad and I performed the play in Edinburgh Festival in 2019, which was just fantastic. We spent the whole month together: on stage at 4pm everyday, then in the audience watching other people’s plays and stand-up and gigs. It was a proper bit of father-son bonding!
Now, thanks to Original Theatre, we’ve had the chance to do a filmed version. It has been a total joy to get back inside the play and reconfigure it for the screen. It’s an extremely intimate piece set in a wine cellar, which lends itself perfectly to the camera. This time around we’ve been able to really lean into that intimacy, without worrying about short changing audience members on the back row.
If one good thing has come out of the pandemic as far as the theatre is concerned – and let’s face it, it’s mostly been a car crash – it’s that there’s more appetite for watching plays online. When they’re done well they can be magical, a real event in your own home. And definitely a welcome change from another TV show.
How would you describe the character you’re playing?
A calm sea on the surface, with rip currents below. Benedict’s life unravelled very dramatically when he fell hopelessly in love with alcohol at the age of 14. After a quarter century of sobriety, he has put all that behind him. Thanks to his 12-Step recovery programme Benedict is successful and pretty content most days. But the day of your dad’s funeral isn’t most days. . .
He had a great relationship with his father, but when it came to his addiction his dad never quite ‘got it’. As Benedict contemplates the merits of drinking one extra special bottle of red wine at his father’s request, the mental safety nets he has relied on for years begin to fall away. And it’s a very long way down.
And you’re back performing with your Dad, what do you enjoy about that and do you ever find it challenging?
I love it. We’ve worked together a couple of times over the years. The first time we played father and son in a certain popular medical drama, and it was a bit hairy to start with. We tried to run our lines in a hotel room before our first day of filming and kept corpsing. But we’re used to it now.
It’s actually really efficient working with someone you know inside out; you certainly spend a lot less time wondering what your colleague is really thinking and what makes them tick. I think doing a job like this when I first left drama school would have been tricky – he might have given me acting notes in the wings – but it feels like an equal partnership now. It’s actually a real privilege to spend time with your parent in work mode. Dad’s a brilliant listener, thoughtful and kind. Come to think of it, I could have done with a bit more of that when I was a teenager!
What was it about Marcus Brigstocke’s writing that really attracted you to the role?
The setup is gold, it grabbed me straightaway. Benedict is wrestling with an impossible dilemma and the messy complicated parts of himself, that’s a lot for an actor to get his teeth into.
I knocked about with Marcus years ago at university, playing small parts in a sketch show of his. I leapt at the chance of working with him again. He’s got boundless energy, knows a heck of a lot about a whole heap of subjects, makes you laugh and enjoys being made to laugh. It’s infectious that kind of spirit.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking a ticket to see The Red?
Do it! You won’t regret it. We had such a cracking response in Edinburgh. After every show there were audience members waiting to tell us how much they got out of it. It’s a play about the very best and the very worst reasons to have a drink, but it’s also a play about fathers and sons. Basically if you like wine or have a parent, this show is for you! (That should cover pretty much everyone, right?)
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