twitterfacebookgooglevimeoyoutubemail
CULTURE CENTRE
Film - Theatre - Music/Dance - Books - TV - Gallery - Art - Fashion/Lifestyle - Video

Bally Gill in ‘Twelfth Night’ – “I never thought I’d be playing Shakespeare,” says working class Brit Punjabi actor

Bally Gill in ‘Twelfth Night’ – “I never thought I’d be playing Shakespeare,” says working class Brit Punjabi actor

Award-winning classical actor’s powerful advocacy of the bard is inspiring and a clarion call to anyone who believes the Elizabethan playwright remains powerful, relevant and insightful across race, gender, class and age today and always …

By Suman Bhuchar

ON a wintry day, www.asianculturevulture.com went along to the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in Warwickshire to talk to Bally Gill about his role in ‘Twelfth Night’.

He also spoke about the beauty, vitality and urgency of Shakespeare, as someone who only really got into the bard’s work late as a professional actor from a Punjabi working class background and little informal exposure to him – his parents are not play going types.

Gill has also been in films and was one of the principle characters – playing a doctor – in the celebrated Alan Bennett film about the NHS, ‘Allelujah’ (2022). (See link at the bottom).

Bally Gill as he was in his award-winning role as
Romeo in the 2018 RSC production of ‘Romeo and Juliet‘ – Pic: ©PaulStuart

Friendly, and personable, he had never studied ‘Twelfth Night’ – but has learned a lot through playing the character of Duke Orsino.

This play, which is directed by Prasanna Puwanarajah, explores the darkness of grief and loss and leans more to the dark side – a seasonal play, sometimes it is produced as a comedy drama with much about romance and mistaken and hidden identities – but the moral is, love wins out, whatever complicated or circuitous form it may take.

And although it feels like Duke Orsino is a main character, Gill points out that he is only in four scenes.

Nevertheless, he has a great stage presence and he has done a lot of work at the RSC and this is a great achievement.

The 32 year old who graduated from Rose Bruford College in 2015 has been in nine shows at the RSC.

Olivia (Freema Agyeman) in ‘Twelfth Night
Pic: ©Helen Murray

He made his debut in The Other Place Mischief Festival at RSC in 2016 and appeared in ‘Coriolanus’ (Roman Aedile leads in Angus Jackson Production🎭 – see below).

His big break was playing Romeo in the 2018 production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ directed by Erica Whyman for which he received the First Prize at the 2018 Ian Charleson Award, given to actors under 30 in a classical role. (It carries a prize of £5,000 – 🎭 for more see below).

“I never thought that I would be playing Shakespeare,” he shared.

“I’m from Coventry. I was brought up thirty minutes’ drive from Stratford Upon Avon. We didn’t come here when I was a kid. My dad brought me only once. At drama school I wouldn’t say Shakespeare was a great interest.”

Gill has appeared in several RSC productions including ‘Macbeth‘, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream‘ and ‘Salome‘.

This experience of having to go through Shakespeare plays has enabled him to discover a real understanding of the work and respect for performing the Bard’s work. At school and in his early training, he was introduced to and more comfortable with the physical aspects of stagecraft, he told acv.

Malvolio (Simon West) in ‘Twelfth Night’ pic: ©Helen Murray

“I didn’t realise how important it was. I gained an appreciation from doing it by being in the plays. Coming from a physical theatre background, I enjoyed learning more about the language and poetry. I was fortunate to do these plays here.”

As a South Asian actor, there were certain characters, I thought I would never do, such as play Romeo, he said. “I am a Punjabi from Coventry,” he continued, with incredulity.

“I am also the first South Asian person to win the Ian Charleson award (🎭 See below) .”

Acv enquires if he will do Hamlet?

“You’ve got to tell them that. It’s the next challenge on my list. Or Mark Antony”, he revealed.

So what is the perennial popularity of Shakespeare?

“I think that in terms of stories whether you feel (emotions) of love, death, which are massive topics in this play no one can say it better. Which is why it’s lasted 400 years. Every now and then I will find a line I’ll listen to it and it’s a poetic way of saying things – whatever you need in life, he’s written from every point of it”, explained Gill, who is now an enthusiastic advocate for Britain’s most popularly recognised writer.

Sir Toby Belch (Joplin Sibtain),
Antonio (Norman Bowman), and Second Officer
(George Fletcher), First Officer (Michael Lyle) pic: ©HelenMurray

“People don’t feel Shakespeare is accessible to them especially from a certain background because Shakespeare is treated academically or reverentially. But these are plays and must be put on and have a constant engagement with people in order to appreciate the work.”

“I know what I am saying. If I didn’t have the experience of doing it, I don’t think I would be doing it. There are still new discoveries to be made. Shakespeare is never done. I watch the plays over and over again,” he said emphatically.

In ‘Twelfth Night‘ his character is in love with a woman called Olivia (played by Freema Agyeman) – who in the play is currently in mourning for the death of her brother and has taken the veil – as was customary at the time when a close a family member passed away and there was a period of formal mourning.

Meanwhile, a woman called Viola (Gwyneth Keyworth) gets shipwrecked on the island of Illyria, and she disguises herself as a man, Cesario to stay safe and ends up working for Duke Orsino.

The Duke asks her to woo Olivia on his behalf, but to complicate matters further – Viola ends up falling for Orsino.

Duke Orsino (Bally Gill) pic: ©HelenMurray

As a sub-plot, there is in Olivia’s household some other characters, namely Sir Toby Belch (Joplin Sibtain) – an uncle and drunk, Feste the clown (played by Michael-Grady-Hill) and Maria, the maid (Danielle Henry) who all conspire to get Malvolio the steward (played by Samuel West) because they think he’s getting above his station.

Unless you’ve seen the play, it’s important to understand the basic plot and it does all turn out fine in the end. Shakespeare’s message is all about love in all its guises in this play – and do not transcend your social class.

Mostly, ‘Twelfth Night‘ is put on in winter during Christmas time as the title itself refers to the night before Epiphany (January 6, usually when The Magi – a group of foreign men who are supposed to have visited Baby Jesus).

During this time, social norms are disrupted and the play is usually performed as a panto. Feste and Sir Toby Belch who are seen as a slapstick bumbling characters normally – are in this, aggressive, angry and violent.

Orsino (Gill) and Viola (Gywneth Keyworthy)

Belch is bullying, mean and vicious, especially when he drinks which is quite a lot in the production.

As far as his own character of Orsini is concerned, Gill explained that usually he is performed, “mawkishly and not as serious – but Prasanna asked me to make him darker and a more aggressive emotional character who is pining for Olivia and doesn’t accept No for an answer,” he explained to acv.

“Duke Orsino has sent over many, many people as his messengers and when he meets Cesario a man with female women like qualities – he tells him to ‘make this happen for me’.”

The production features a lot of music and singing because as Gill described, Duke Orsino talks about “if music be the food of love play on, give me the excess of it…”. Basically, he hopes that music will cure his feelings, but it has little effect.

This production’s Music is original and by composer Matt Maltese. It has a melancholic edge to convey sadness and grief.

When Gill is at the stage door, people come and talk to him about their experiences of seeing the shows and their heroes, he recounted.

He’s chuffed to be at the place where actors like Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and others live in history and there is a lineage of performers of every decade who are respected for their art and craft.

“I love it. That’s inspiring to me. I am part of something it’s a real community of feeling. I’m so proud. I might inspire people in the next generation.”

Links

🎭 https://www.rsc.org.uk/coriolanus/angus-jackson-2017-production

🎭 https://asianculturevulture.com/portfolios/bally-gill-as-royal-shakespeare-companys-leading-man-in-imaginative-and-contemporary-staging-of-romeo-and-juliet/

🎭 https://www.rsc.org.uk/romeo-and-juliet/past-productions/erica-whyman-2018-production

🎭 The award is named after the actor, Ian Charleson who appeared in a definitive production of Hamlet at the National Theatre in 1989. Older readers may have seen him in ‘Gandhi’ (1982) playing Mahatma Gandhi’s closest friend and collaborator, the Anglican priest Charlie Andrews.

‘Allelujah’ Youtube interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH3dhEyS8u8

Listing
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare until January 18 (2025) , Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Waterside, Stratford Upon Avon, Warwickshire CV37 6BB
https://www.rsc.org.uk/twelfth-night/

Share Button
Written by Asian Culture Vulture