It started so well: a lead role with the Royal Shakespeare Company, ecstatic reviews, a hotshot agent. But then I started losing parts to Dev Patel, and the years of hustle and humiliation beganA lead role with the Royal Shakespeare Company is a dream gig for an actor at any point in their career. In 2006, straight out of drama school, I had it in my grasp. I´d already signed with one of the most powerful agents in the business, who operated out of a gymnasium-sized office fringed with hanging plants and succulents. I´d pop in every now and then just to steal the toilet paper, which was enriched with natural butters. We´d have meetings, the only purpose of which were to tell me how great I was and discuss what I wanted to do. I´d take my shoes off and put my feet up, wanting to be at home in the feeling.The audition was for a uniquely brilliant new play called The Indian Boy, a modern retelling of Shakespeare´s A Midsummer Night´s Dream, focused on the changeling who is fought over by the king and queen of the fairies. The play placed this feral child, literally raised by animals, in a psychiatric unit as doctors try to socialise him. Rona Munro´s script was a wonderful, layered exploration of what it means to be human, and from the title page I visualised it as a giant finger crooked from the heavens, ready to hoist me skyward. I am a changeling boy, I thought. Continue reading...
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