Kenneth Cranham on His French Beard, Frank Langella & Grappling with 'the Big A' in London's The Father

Kenneth Cranham has performed twice on Broadway—in Loot in 1968 and then again in 1994 in An Inspector Calls. But the veteran actor is getting some of the best reviews of his career for his performance as the Alzheimer’s-afflicted Andre in Frenchman Florian Zeller’s The Father. After two previous runs, James Macdonald’s production is now at Wyndham’s Theatre.

What is the role of Andre like to play?
If it goes well, this play brings with it a great feeling of release. And because it’s only 85 minutes long, it may be intense but I nonetheless do feel, “I can do that,” whereas when I played Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream I used to get depressed having to watch the lovers’ scene time and again—which is 40 minutes long.

This play is incredibly spare—almost like Beckett.
You won’t be surprised to hear that his name did come up quite a bit during rehearsals. But you’re right: there’s not any fat on The Father at all, which to my mind makes it even more playable.

Actors dream of roles like this, don’t they?
Yes. Eileen Atkins actually said to me, “You’re lucky to get a part like this at this age”—usually what happens is that they can be great parts like, say, Firs in The Cherry Orchard, but they're not at the center of the story. But with this, I feel as if I am using myself totally to play him, and that is very nice indeed.

Have you had first-hand experience of some of the issues that beset your character?
My own father had a branch of dementia so some of what happens in the play is similar, and when he was in hospital on the South Coast [of England] I saw as much of him as I could. It’s funny: I saw a brief filmed extract from The Father for a TV broadcast that they did and I thought, “there’s my dad.” He grew a beard when he could no longer shave, and I've done that for the part as well.

The beard suits you.
You know, I had a beard when I was rehearsing Gaslight a few years ago at the Old Vic, with Rosamund Pike, and the director Peter Gill said to me, “Don’t do that; it looks too French.” I never forgot that and of course here I am playing a Frenchman, so I’m able to be French.

What were you first thoughts about the play when director James Macdonald asked you to do it?
I immediately thought, “Well, this is the last in my trio of decrepitude” what with Firs and then Rory Kinnear’s first play The Herd where I played a grandfather who couldn’t get out of the chair unaided.

All this is doubly striking since you seem so vigorous.
Someone said to me, and it stuck, that it’s better to play decrepit before you are. I’ve heard the stories of other Firs who come on stage and are in danger of falling down!

It’s intriguing to note the volume of work now on Alzheimer’s, including Julianne Moore’s Oscar-winning turn in Still Alice and the new Royal Court play, Plaques and Tangles.
And the topic in some of those instances is often the early onset version. I think audiences are able to hear these stories now and to go on these journeys. For a long time, everyone talked about the Big C [as in cancer] but now it’s the Big A as well.

How do you feel about the Broadway production of this show? Frank Langella will star in it in the spring.
There’s nothing I can do about that, is there? Sure, it would have been great to do [The Father] in New York, but I have just signed to do a U.K. tour of the play next March and April so it's not as if I’m saying goodbye to it at Wyndham’s.

Have you enjoyed your visits to Broadway?
Well, Loot [in 1968] didn’t last long, but Joe Orton has always been a tricky sell on Broadway. Inspector Calls was a great success, though I’m not sure that had very much to do with me and more to do with our amazing set. There is a tradition of politically structured theater here in Britain, which Americans can find preachy: they generally want their entertainment to be entertaining!

But you were part of Inspector for a long time.
I played the title role for some 800 performances and my leading ladies both sides of the Atlantic included Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Judy Parfitt, Rosemary Harris, and Sian Phillips: that’s not too bad, is it?

What’s the performance count so far on The Father?
I’ll be up around the 200 mark by the time I finish the tour and I’m quite pleased with that!