Stanley Townsend on Solar Bones and working on Star Wars: Andor

As the adaptation of Mike McCormack's novel plays in Cork and Dublin, the veteran actor has several other interesting projects in the pipeline 
Stanley Townsend on Solar Bones and working on Star Wars: Andor

Stanley Townsend in Solar Bones, at the Everyman in Cork, and the Abbey in Dublin. 

 Stanley Townsend has experienced a lot in his long and varied career as an actor. But even he couldn’t have anticipated what it would be like to put on a production at the height of a pandemic. When he appeared in Solar Bones, the award-winning stage adaptation of Mike McCormack’s novel, at Kilkenny Arts Festival in August 2020, the surreality of it all hit home.

“There was a tiny window when we managed to put the show up. But the protocols were pretty extreme," says Townsend.

 "We were allowed 50 people in the auditorium, including the people who were working the show and me, in a 350-seat theatre. It was very strange looking out at the audience — this vista of caution tape and surgical masks. But nonetheless, it was a wonderful thing to be at, in the middle of this terrible crisis. And the audiences were so focused, it was amazing. It was a great privilege and honour really, I felt that very deeply.” 

 Townsend is touring with Solar Bones, which has been adapted for the stage by Michael West. The performance aspect of the production rests very much on his shoulders, as, like the novel, it is centred on the stream-of-consciousness musings of Marcus Conway as he ponders his life and relationships. Townsend says his “head is melted” as he attempts to find the sweet spot of readiness.

Stanley Townsend in Solar Bones. Picture: Ste Murray
Stanley Townsend in Solar Bones. Picture: Ste Murray

“I'm like a pterodactyl galumphing down the runway. And eventually I will take flight and it will be marvellous. But at this stage, it's pretty arduous. Nonetheless, I found when we did it in Kilkenny, the act of performing it was really wonderful — very serene and therapeutic. So I’m looking forward to getting to that stage.”

 For Townsend, there is a pleasing circularity to the fact that Solar Bones is directed by Lynne Parker of the renowned theatre company Rough Magic, which he co-founded.

“It has been the brilliant completion of a circle for me to come back to Rough Magic, and work again with Lynne. That we managed to get the show up in the height of the pandemic, and that it’s been affirmed by the notices and the awards has been extraordinary,” he says.

Townsend is from Dublin but has been based in London for 25 years. As well as having a long list of acclaimed stage roles under his belt, on screen, Townsend has played everyone from Saddam Hussein to Luciano Pavarotti and featured in a host of landmark British TV programmes from Spooks to Sherlock. He puts a lot of his success down to his versatility in terms of look and accent.

“I suppose I don’t look particularly Irish. When I was younger, I could play Mediterranean, Eastern European, or Jewish. Starting out with Rough Magic, we did a lot of the American modern, like [David] Mamet, and as an Irish person, you tend to have good facility with American accents. It’s been hard trying to get English work in England — bringing coals to Newcastle — but I seem to have convinced them that I can do that.” Townsend has a role in Star Wars: Andor with Disney and is also filming a Netflix show called Kaos, a contemporary take on Greek mythology. While he sees the difference working for huge streaming platforms versus linear TV, he says the core experience remains very much the same.

“The Star Wars job with Disney was amazing — I mean, I was in the Peter Cushing gear working for the Empire. Disney and Netflix are two massive organisations, and they have mostly American systems, which are different to the smaller productions. But the people are still the people and the stories are still the stories and you get on with the work. I mean, you have more time because they have more money.”

 Having said that, Townsend says he particularly relishes doing work with a “social purpose”.

“I did a small Palestinian film in the West Bank called The Teacher, directed by Farah Nabulsi. There's a real connection there telling that Palestinian story in a small independent film. It had real and immediate political purpose, and that’s the difference.”

 He is also very aware of the uncertainty that continues to loom over live performance due to Covid but he is determined to stay optimistic.

“I have no crystal ball, but you have to be positive without being stupid. As a performer, in terms of Covid, if I get laid up or if I get diagnosed with the dratted virus, we’re gone, so I have to be very disciplined about all of that. But to be back in the theatre and performing, that’s the life-blood of me.”

  •  Solar Bones is at  Abbey Theatre, Dublin from Oct 20 – 29; and The Everyman, Cork from Nov 2 – 4; everymancork.com

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