Actor Ioan Hefin plays the part of Dafydd in Brassed Off

Watch Actor Ioan Hefin plays the part of Dafydd in Brassed Off - Tindle News on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00 I'm in Joanne Hevin and I'm playing the part of David.

00:14 When you've got a popular story, I think a lot of it depends on where the audience are

00:19 at that moment in time. And I don't mean the auditorium, I mean the things having an impact

00:24 on their lives. Sadly, perhaps there's a bit of a resurgence with Brastov at the moment

00:31 because we are living through times that for the first time in 30 years echo the sentiments

00:38 of the 80s a little bit. So there is a resonance, there is a connection, there's an empathy

00:43 there that we can perhaps understand because of the current sort of climate that we're

00:48 living in as well. So as far as the audience, I think it is that sense of having something

00:53 that's human, it's connected, it's something that we can relate to, it's something that

01:01 gives us a little bit of that perspective again and also in that sense a bit of hope

01:05 because if we are in a cyclic sort of nature then there is that opportunity to emerge from

01:11 that again and have those stories of survival and camaraderie and community and those essential

01:18 components that we need at any sort of stressful or demanding times in our lives.

01:26 I really think the casting for this is fantastic. We're in early stages of rehearsal but the

01:33 characters are so well defined. Everyone has really sort of slotted into their characters

01:41 in such a wonderful way and if we get that connection right that's something that the

01:45 audience can enjoy as well. If we get that spirit, the banter and everything else that's

01:51 going on between the characters on stage then it's going to be a great night for the audience.

02:00 Every now and again you land with a casting or with a character that you think, 'I can

02:05 bring a lot of myself to this' and that sort of sense of having lived through it personally

02:11 brings a different joy to the research of an actor so when you've got that synergy between

02:15 your own personal experiences and what you're trying to depict on the page it's very powerful

02:21 and it's very cathartic and it's very, I wouldn't say easier because it's probably harder because

02:28 you have to put that in the context of performance as well but you've already got such a great

02:33 place to start from and for me this is an absolute privilege to be able to play David

02:41 in this production. It's something that I would have dreamt of at the beginning of my

02:46 career, at this point of my career.

02:48 Theatre always has the role. I mean if you're going back to sort of Greek theatre and even

02:59 the sort of prior to that in any capacity of being a documentation, an illustration,

03:04 a passing on of a different perspective and it's even more important now in the world

03:10 that we live in of having that sort of documentation and that ability to transfer a story that

03:16 isn't in the domain of the news channels that have editorial capacity over what they present

03:22 to us. In that sense I think it's really important that we keep that going whether it's in

03:29 popular theatre, in classical theatre or in any genre within that we have the ability

03:33 to reflect on the society we live in and to pass a comment on that that is something that

03:40 may lead to a different connection to the audience that they can't get in any other

03:44 spectre or any other sort of outlet.

03:47 If you're familiar with Brasloff, if you know what the story is, you're going to have a

03:55 very personal take on it that hopefully you can connect to in a different way. So if you've

04:01 been to see other productions, there's an ensemble in this that has a different ownership

04:05 of it which is something incredible and unique to this production. If you've never seen Brasloff

04:12 before, then what have you got to lose?