Stephen Boxer will star alongside Oliver Ford Davies in the world premiere of Ben Brown’s new political drama, A Splinter Of Ice.
Directed by Alan Strachan with Alastair Whatley, A Splinter Of Ice has been filmed on stage at the Cheltenham Everyman Theatre and has been released online via originaltheatreonline.com from 15 April until 31 July 2021.
A live stage production will then open on 8 June in Malvern and will tour until 31 July. Full tour details and tickets can be found here.
You’re starring in Ben Brown’s new political drama, A Splinter Of Ice, what can you tell us about the play?
It’s a speculation on the actual but undocumented meeting between Kim Philby, the notorious double agent, and Graham Greene, his old friend and MI6 operative turned literary giant, in Moscow in 1987; after Philby’s defection and a year before his death.
What was your first reaction when you read the script?
What an intriguing story; and 60 pages of dialogue – if I try and learn a page a day from after Christmas I could be off the book when we start the three weeks rehearsal. And I think I’ll need to be.
Tell us more about your character, Kim Philby?
A charming deceiver, who used it to disguised his political zealotry as a spy for the Communists. He begged the question, is it morally defensible to lie and cause death and injury in order to pursue the purity of one’s perceived truth?
How well do you think Ben Brown has captured the political atmosphere of the end of the Cold War?
Ben is the most detailed, rigorous researcher, and has an eye for drama and the minutiae of human behaviours, with which I would not dare to argue! He deftly captures a time when the world was a political and ideological melting pot.
Following the filmed release, A Splinter Of Ice, will head out on tour, what are you most looking forward to about being back on stage?
The audience is another character. It will tell us things about the play we could never discover by other means. And we work in a PEOPLE business, and God, haven’t we missed them!
Do you think you’ll need to think differently about your performance following the filmed version?
It will happen instinctively I think. There are moments of humour and tension that I expect will be heightened in front of an audience. And we’ll obviously talk a bit louder.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to watch A Splinter of Ice?
Don’t hold back! Apart from this being one of the most fascinating stories of the 20th Century, it’s an opportunity to get this wonderful, inimitable form of entertainment which has such a great history in the UK, back on the rails. Give yourself a treat and have a night out.
