We had talked about the possibility that this would be another dark, intense role for Colin. The new photos of him that are emerging seem to bear out this thinking. We are being teased … about 2 weeks left of filming … then post production … it’s is very hard to wait!
“I cannot wait to come back to Glasgow. I know the place like the back of my hand. In fact, one of the jobs I had as a student was in Cineworld. And I was always at gigs in King Tut’s, Nice ‘n’ Sleazy’s and the Barras. I played Ultimate Frisbee down on Glasgow Green and pulled pints in O’Neill’s on Queen Street.” ~ Colin Morgan
We were just talking about this. 🙂
The Young Vic, February 2008
Coming back to the very dark:
The scene is a seedy police office in downtown New York. Into this grubby space come two police officers desperate to pin the murder of an old woman on one of two suspects. The problem is that the cops seem little better than the crooks. Kelly is an alcoholic while his partner, Jack, is a junkie.
As for the suspects, Sean is a former Vietnam medical technician who acts as surrogate father to his so-called “daughter”, Jimmy, an asexual druggie punk who is filled with a weird inexplicable charm and courage.
The play is an examination of the lack of clear boundaries between masculine and feminine, and good and evil. It quickly becomes clear that the two police sergeants have as many issues as the pair of murder suspects they are interrogating. Throughout the play, the two police officers increasingly blur the lines between right and wrong.
Left alone in the outer room, Officer Kelly instructs the suspect, Jimmy to strip naked, then takes him in his arms, and talks about his daughter, talks about how strange this is. Confesses that he’s excited by the embrace, even though it’s obvious that Jimmy isn’t.
Comments about this play frequently concentrate on a prurient interest in male full-frontal nudity. As with so many things, the obvious obfuscates the subtler inquiry and deeper examination into the characters and questions being presented. Stage plays are often studies of various aspects of human behavior … in this case, Jimmy’s is the more fascinating role.
Reviews:
And Sean Chapman’s surly dignity as the gay Vietnam vet is neatly offset by the flaky angelic charm of Colin Morgan … (The Guardian-Billington )
The good news is that A Prayer for My Daughter looks great and could not be better acted, with each man having several chances to shine. If anything, in great company, Colin Morgan creates the richest character, following up the positive impression that he made in a similar role at the same theatre in Vernon God Little. (British Theatre Guide –Philip Fisher)
… the waif-like and wasted Jimmy, whose twisting, twitching mood-swings and mix of half-druggy cackling punk and half-angelic visionary are brought to life by the brilliant Colin Morgan. (The Independent – Paul Taylor)
… I can safely say Jimmy Rosario is the most complex character I have ever encountered. (Alan Rosenberg)
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Author Julie Bozza has these insightful comments on the fascinating complexities of Jimmy Rosario as portrayed by Colin Morgan:
He seems completely mad; perhaps always vulnerable, and fey, and then driven off the rails by drug addiction. By the end of the play, however, he seems the wisest of the four of them.
… and that’s what makes him such a fascinating character. Not just the nudity, no. But that our perspective on his character seems to turn around one–eighty degrees. I really would have loved to see what Colin – such a subtle evocative actor – did with that.
From his first moments as vulnerable, immature, crazed and dependent – to these moments of hard–won knowledge, independence and a sense of hope in the new day. That’s one hell of a journey to take us on.
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By far and away the most interesting and enlightening review is by Julie Bozza. I encourage you to read the entire review and herein provide the link:
Dark, yes, but there is therein, some light.
The Old Vic, August 2007
21 and still looking -19, Colin crosses the street to appear at The Old Vic.
On his seventeenth birthday, Esteban is hit by a car and killed while chasing after actress Huma Rojo for her autograph. The play opens with Colin Morgan at a microphone. He plays Esteban who, unusually for a narrator, perishes in the opening few minutes but leaves his ghostly presence behind. His role is to assist his mother, Manuela in her quest to rediscover his absent father.
Manuela goes to Barcelona in search of Esteban’s father. While there, she gets caught up in the lives of three women: Agrado, a long-lost transvestite friend, Rosa , a young nun in search of love and Huma Rojo, the famous actress that Manuela’s son so admired. As Manuela’s life begins to have meaning once more, her son’s father returns and the journey of discovery and forgiveness comes full circle.
The play deals with complex issues such as AIDS, homosexuality, transsexualism, faith, and existentialism. Variety called it, “A rare mix of comedy, tragedy and hope.” In this production the very young Colin Morgan joins a group of established stage actors, among them Diana Rigg, Lesley Manville, and Mark Gatiss.
Colin said he had the one costume, hung around in the background, and just kept popping up in and around scenes as the ghost of Esteban, who wears a striped t-shirt for most of the play.
While I couldn’t find any reviews that specifically evaluated Colin’s performance, there is this interview by What’s On Stage, which we like a lot.
http://www.whatsonstage.com/west-end-theatre/news/02-2008/20-questions-with-colin-morgan_19953.html
Taking a break from Colin’s stage performances, I am posting this amazing artwork:
There is a poster on Google, named mahboobe h, her postings can be breathtaking. She says she does not create them, only finds them … but her collection is truly one of the most beautiful I have seen. She has excellent taste; if you enjoy lovely and unusual artwork, as well as photos of interesting places and architecture, google mahboobe h and enjoy the view. As an example, the image I used for Magic! is one of her ‘finds’.
The Young Vic, May 2007
The story … The life of Vernon Little, a normal teenager who lives in Martirio, Texas, falls apart when Jesus Navarro murders their classmates in the schoolyard before killing himself, and Vernon is taken in for questioning. The media descend looking for someone to blame, someone to sensationalize their stories. The town wants vengeance. Vernon, described as a nasty, sarcastic teenager, and best friend of the shooter, Jesus, seems the likely target. He is accused of being an accessory to the crime.
He runs to Mexico but is tricked into confessing to the crime and is brought back. The play climaxes in a death-row reality TV show. He is found guilty and sentenced to death.
His former attorney persists and at the last moment comes with the evidence that proves his innocence. Vernon, whose cynicism and smart-ass behavior give way to a poignant curiosity about the meaning of life, becomes a fully human, profoundly sympathetic character.
That is basically the story the play tells. The play is laced with four-letter words, includes seduction and betrayal. Yet Vernon, it is said, comes through as likeable and sympathetic … the kind of character who just can’t catch a break, even though he probably deserves one. The reviews of Colin’s participation were glowing. Among them:
“Colin Morgan’s Vernon belies his relative inexperience. Even if you can see Norris’ directorial hand moulding his youthful enthusiasm at moments, it is still an exceptional achievement to hold the dramatic centre of the piece with such aplomb.” (http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/2702)
The Stage said this about his performance, “Full of restless energy and youthful charisma from start to finish, Morgan is an absolute delight and carries the weight of the production on his shoulders with ease and a certain swagger, in what is his major stage debut.
Charles Spencer, The Telegraph: Colin Morgan, still at drama school and making a sensational professional stage debut, captures all the vulnerability, confusion and gallows humour of the adolescent hero who finds himself in no end of trouble, before making the happier discovery that trouble is the one sure way of getting girls. By the end you feel like cheering him on to a happy ending.
As Alison Jane Reid observed, much later in 2012: Morgan also seems drawn to play some of life’s outcasts – the uncomfortable, challenging fascinating roles, that linger long after the performance has ended.
So Colin begins his career on the “dark:” side of drama. As we have previously discussed, this won’t be the last.
The big difference I think between TV and stage is definitely the immediate buzz that you get. And that’s not just as an actor, as an audience member you’re getting the chance to have this kind of two-way process where the actors and the audience are experiencing the same thing. With TV you often have to wait months and months down the line to actually get the pay-off. Whereas with theatre it’s a very immediate thing. (Colin Morgan)
The Stage …the place where Colin’s career began, and the place to which he will always return. It is easy to understand how exciting this must be. There are weeks of rehearsal. There are at least 3-months of nightly and matinee performances, sometimes more than that, to work on your character, to develop it, to try new things, to be part of a team who collectively strive to improve the performance. With stage plays actors have time to grow and polish the performance.
All this must be very appealing to actors whose interest in the art of acting is profound and dedicated.
This dvd release date has now been moved to 25 May 2015, with a delivery date of June 2-6.
Testament of Youth on dvd is being released May 18, 2015 by Amazon.UK
It is time for all Colin fans in US and Canada to purchase an All-Region DVD Player. Honestly, it is not any more expensive than our usual ones, but will play dvd’s from all over the world. Region 2 players will play anything from the UK, but as long as you are spending, why not get the All-Region and be prepared for anything.
After I ‘met’ Colin and became so interested in him and his career path, I gave my regular dvd player to a friend, bought an all-region player and have never regretted it for one moment.
Today, I am placing my pre-order with Amazon.UK and am counting the days until it arrives. It may arrive even before the film is released to theatres in my own country. Isn’t that a bit weird?
It’s 2007 … Colin Morgan is in his final year at RSAMD. He is pursuing his studies, pursuing improving his craft, looking to a future fast coming toward him. What will it be like? To be out of school and treading the boards to audition after audition? It will be exciting, surely … and a little scary perhaps … but this is the first step out into the world he has been preparing for.
Along the way, there have been those watching … among them, Rufus Norris, Associate Director at the Young Vic from 2002 – 2007. May 8, 2007 … Rufus Norris, along with many of his generation, was excited by the novel, Vernon God Little, and began preparing to bring it to a theatre audience. Not one to wait for his destiny, but rather one who pursues it, and not due to graduate until July, Colin auditioned for the lead role of Vernon Little. When asked about the casting of the young undergraduate, Mr. Norris responded,
Good casting directors have their spies in many places. We did have to look pretty hard for that part and it took a long time. Colin was literally the last person we saw. There were two others who were alright but when Colin came in on the last day we knew we had our Vernon.
Colin had to leave RSAMD three-quarters of the way through his final year to make this professional London West End theatre debut as the title character of Vernon God Little, a role for which he was critically acclaimed, and one that was also assessed for his final grade.
We will begin our look at Colin’s early stage work soon. However,
It is very special to note: … This is the first time he will set his foot on the professional stage. It is the well-known Young Vic Theatre in London, and he takes on the role which launches his professional career.
Hugh Hodgart is what you might call a bit of a Scottish theatrical legend. Head of the School of Drama at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama).
For Hodgart, as a director and teacher, presenting student actors such as Colin Morgan with a Howard Barker play is rather like offering them a drama by Shakespeare: “Barker is a poet and a historian, and that’s expressed through his writing. Barker’s theatre stands, says the director, against “the dead hand of Hollywood realism. Something has happened in the past 100 years that has made us fearful of drama which is poetic, ambiguous and metaphorical”.
I am copying here the entire First Prologue of Bite of the Night as an example of Hugh Barker’s poetry. The play was directed by Professor Hugh Hodgart.
First Prologue
They brought a woman from the street And made her sit in the stalls
By threats By bribes By flattery
Obliging her to share a little of her life with actors
But I don’t understand art. Sit still, they said
But I don’t want to see sad things. Sit still, they said
And she listened to everything Understanding some things But not others
Laughing rarely, and always without knowing why
Sometimes suffering disgust Sometimes thoroughly amazed
And in the light again, said
If that’s art I think it is hard work. It was beyond me. So much beyond my actual life
But something troubled her Something gnawed her peace
And she came a second time, armoured with friends
Sit still, she said
And again, she listened to everything
This time understanding different things
This time untroubled that some things
Could not be understood
Laughing rarely but now without shame
Sometimes suffering disgust Sometimes thoroughly amazed
And in the light again said
This is art, it is hard work. And one friend said, too hard for me
And the other said, if you will, I will come again
Because I found it hard. I felt honoured
— Howard Barker,
from The Bite of the Night
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