When Playing The Greats You Have To Bring Yourself To The Role

Damien Strouthos was 19 when Bell Shakespeare hired the young actor to bring the magic of the Bard to school kids in remote parts of NSW.

Arriving in Wilcannia, a tiny town in far western New South Wales, Strouthos encountered something he never imagined — an audience of kids desperate to find out how Romeo And Juliet ended.

"It was very moving to be a part of that and have a discussion with the kids afterwards to get their insight into the play."

The mostly Aboriginal audience had never studied the play and Strouthos says their emotional reactions to the play were among the most honest he's experienced as an actor.

"It's probably the most important production of Romeo And Juliet that I've been a part of so far," Strouthos says.

"Because these kids had no idea how it ended I remember them being very vocal through the final death speech and saying, 'Don't kill yourself because she's still alive.' It was very moving to be a part of that and have a discussion with the kids afterwards to get their insight into the play and what they felt about it."

Like most of us, Strouthos first encountered the Bard in a classroom — so he understands why a lot of people find the language frustrating and difficult to unpack.

"I feel sorry for English teachers because they've got to teach a 450-year-old play as a piece of written literature, which it's not. It makes it very boring for school kids.

"Kids grow up going, 'This language is impossible for me to understand,' because it's never meant to be sat down and read in a classroom. I was in a play in Year 9, a production of Henry V, and as soon as we stood up and started playing with it we realised that all these characters are all just human beings."

The character Strouthos gets to play with this time around is Mercutio, the ill-fated friend of Romeo who has wit and flair but also harbours a darker side to his soul.

Though Strouthos says it's hard to zone out the many previous Mercutio performances he's seen over the years, he's also been able to take advantage of the vast amount of analysis that has been done on his character.

"My research has taken me to weird places like psychologists analysing Mercutio as a manic depressive. He's got plenty of amazing traits about him that I don't have. I'm trying to play someone who is so witty and funny but dark and bawdy at the same time.

"When I was a kid growing up at high school I was already exposed to the Baz Luhrmann and Franco Zeffirelli productions, even before I considered being an actor. I suppose those things will always inform you but at the end of the day there's no way to do what they did. You can only bring yourself to these roles."

Strouthos' last Bell Shakespeare performance was in The Tempest in November last year. That show was John Bell's final performance as the Company's namesake and Artistic Director. Now Strouthos and his fellow actors are being directed in this new production by incoming Artistic Director Peter Evans.

"They work in very different ways," Strouthos explains. "They're both so supportive in their ways. It's very exciting to see how John worked and then now where Pete is taking the company. I think there are amazing years to come with Pete at the helm."