Interview by Madeleine Ringer
With roles in The Seagull, The Constituent, An Enemy of the People and Julius Caesar, British actor Zachary Hart is no amaetuer to theatre work, which is clear as day in his new venture, Stereophonic, starring as Reg. While Hart has just as respectable appearances in TV series such as Peaky Blinders, Bodies, and Slow Horses, we’re always happy to see him back on stage, this time as a rocker, no less.
Transporting the London crowd to mid-1970s California, the highly awarded Stereophonic allows the audience to slip behind the curtain of a fictional rock band on the cusp of fame, and right in the centre of tensions, compromise, and rock’n’roll.
Stereophonic is coming to the Duke of York’s Theatre in May! Do you still get pre-stage nerves in the build up to the show’s debut, or has your prior work in theatre cemented an ease to the lead up?
I definitely wouldn’t use the word ease. I’ve been very lucky with the amount of theatre I’ve done over the last few years, but on the run-up to an opening night, there’s still a hearty amount of self doubt - a worry that maybe I am actually terrible at this and I slide into the abyss of wondering where else in the world I can put my narrow array of talents when they inevitably realise I’ve made my way onto stage one too many times when no one was looking. That being said, I definitely feel I have grown a bit of a ‘worn in stage bruise’, which helps me to rely on the work I’ve done and trust myself. I would say a growing sense of perspective over the years has definitely helped the nerves. I now know that if my trousers fall down in front of a theatre full of people, there’s 8 billion people outside who didn’t even know the play was happening, let alone see my trousers fall down.
It’s set in the context of an up-and-coming rock band in a music studio in 1976. Are you a big lover of ’70s music? Who did you look to for influence and immersion?
I love 70s music, but rock-wise, it’s not a decade I was familiar with before starting work on Stereophonic. The rock music I’ve always had on repeat is from the ‘90s, however, from an early age I was brought up on Motown and buckets of Bowie. Early ‘70s tracks like Bewley Brothers and Midnight Train to Georgia are the backing for some of my earliest memories; my mother taking the role of Gladys Knight and my two siblings and I her Pips. My brother introduced me to Going to California by Led Zeppelin, so since starting Stereophonic that has been on repeat and has become the soundtrack to my character. I’m from the Black Country like Robert Plant and the play is set in California, so there’s a wonderful meta element in that song that’s getting me in the zone.
The show is all about chemistry - the magical kind as well as the explosive. What was that very first rehearsal like with the rest of the cast?
I think the chemistry between us all came out of jumping straight into band practice. The first week for us was a band camp week, so it didn’t feel like we were rehearsing a play at all, it felt like we’d started a band! We got tighter as the music got tighter, bouncing off each other when things started to sound good and ribbing each other when mistakes were made; it all felt very organic. The band we play all had a life together before the play starts, so that first week was perfect for helping us convey that. Obviously, our confidence was crushed when we got to the second week and realised we had a bit of acting to do too, but I think our rapport as a band then helped us to support each other. Hopefully those parts of the play are getting tighter too!
