By David Nanton
[email protected]
"HE has a tremendous witty, dangerous, sexy quality. Although it is a
dangerous label, he is very much like a young black Marlon Brando. He
has the same sort of potency, danger and wit."
That's Sir Peter Hall, the highly-acclaimed British theatre and TV
director, talking to the Evening Standard about Michael Cherrie.
After looking at some 100 British actors, it took Sir Peter just one
audition to cast Cherrie in the lead role in The Final
Passage, a television drama based on the novel about West Indian
emigration by St Kitts author, Caryl Phillips.
Then he wanted Cherrie for the Royal National Theatre's productions
of Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonnus, and for a key
role in Titus Andronicus scheduled for the New Globe, the
exact recreation of Shakespeare's theatre at its original site.
But like Michael Williams, the character he played in the movie,
Cherrie is learning just how hard the passage to England can be. He
received the disappointing news in July - he had been denied a work
permit by the UK Department of Employment and could not join the rest
of the Oedipus cast when rehearsals began that month.
The decision followed strong protests from the actors' union, Equity,
which felt there were enough talented black actors in Britain who
should have been considered before a foreigner. Equity refused to
meet with Cherrie to discuss the matter. And not even the record of a
man of such high international status as Sir Peter or his reputation
for discovering new talent could sway the union.
But the former director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the
National Theatre, who has worked with such notables as Sir Laurence
Olivier, Sir John Gielgud and Dustin Hoffman, plans to appeal the
decision. Sir Peter is determined to hold on to his latest
'discovery' whom he chanced upon at a rehearsal for Derek Walcott's
Ti Jean and His Brothers in Trinidad last year.
"This theatre workshop in Trinidad was a very moving place," he told
the Evening Standard. "There were a lot of motivated actors
desperately trying to make it against very difficult circumstances.
That it should have thrown up a talent as big as this and then find
he has nowhere else to go is deeply distressing."
But no one was as distressed as the 24-year-old Cherrie who recently
returned from England after the premiere of The Final Passage on
Channel 4 a few weeks ago.
"Yes, it was depressing to know I was actually in England and not a
part of Oedipus. Everyone was saying 'Well, there'll be
another time,' but this is Sir Peter Hall we're talking about. And if
he can't get them to issue a work permit..."
The young actor also lost out on fees
and salaries amounting to well over $100,000 during the six-month
period the Oedipus plays are expected to run. The plays are to
open in Greece in this month before coming to the Royal National
Theatre and running until January, 1997.
Cherrie had no problem getting a work permit for The Final
Passage since filming for that movie began in St Lucia with the
second half shot in Britain. He doesn't understand what all the fuss
is about this time, though, since the roles for which he was cast in
Oedipus were minor ones - Messenger and Chorus.
"The point is I don't want to take work away from actors in Britain:
I will like to work with actors in Britain," he says.
"What makes my situation unfair is that a lot of their actors and
directors and film-makers constantly come to the Caribbean and it's
never a problem with us, even though we have our own quality actors
and directors. Yet when an opportunity arises for Caribbean artistes
to go out and do work on an international basis they constantly meet
with this problem of talent unions and having to constantly make a
case for a work permit."
Several English artistes have indeed done work in this country and
throughout the Caribbean without problems. Greg Doran, who directed
local productions of Walcott's Joker of Seville and The
Odyssey in 1994 returns later this year to stage the plays in St
Lucia. Adjoa Andoh shot What My Mother Told Me in Trinidad
with an all-British cast. Filming of The Humming Bird Tree and
The Final Passage, was done with almost entirely British
crews. And those are just a few.
"The British stance has basically been a protectionist one, so I'm
thinking we may have to do the same. Maybe it's time to start forming
our own unions to have more strength on a Caribbean basis, like a
Caribbean Entertainers body or something," he says.
The local drama community has also reacted with disappointment and
outrage at the UK's decision to deny Cherrie a work permit.
It is not the first time such a situation has developed, however. In
the mid-80s, Equity also blocked Wendell Manwarren and other members
of the Tent Theatre from performing in Britain. More recently,
American Equity prevented Leah Gordon from taking up the role of
Circe (which she performed outstandingly in Trinidad) in a production
of Walcott's The Odyssey at the Arena Theatre in Washington.
Cherrie, winner of the Cacique award for Best Supporting Actor in
1994, points out that almost all the Trinidadians who are enjoying
international success on the stage or television are actually
naturalised British or US citizens - Sullivan Walker, Malcolm
Frederick, Horace Ove (whose daughter has also appeared in films like
Interview with a Vampire and Othello), and Jaqui Chan,
among others.
Changing citizenship hasn't crossed his mind. But he is determined to
break the nationality barrier one way or the other to make name for
himself in the theatre - at the New Globe or on Broadway.
As for Sir Peter, he already sees Michael Cherrie making it big in
Hollywood: "I cannot believe an American agent will see The Final
Passage on Channel 4 and not say this boy is going to be a star,"
he told the Evening Standard. "Although their rules may not
let him in either, Americans are much more pragmatic than we
(English) are and they will find a way."
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