A "beacon of light" amid the savagery on the Chichester stage

SussexWorld

Sheyi Cole offers Ralph as a “beacon of light” in Chichester Festival Theatre’s new production of William Golding's Lord of the Flies, adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams (Friday, September 19-Saturday, October 11).

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this

00:06morning to speak to Shea E. Cole, who will be Ralph in The Lord of the Flies on the stage

00:11at Chichester Festival Theatre before too long. Goodness, it's a piece that was set some time ago

00:16obviously and you will have costumes you think from that era, but it's very much a modern mentality

00:22that you'll be bringing to. What do you mean by that? Yes, what I mean by that is as time has

00:28changed, also people have changed, and the way that we tend to carry ourselves isn't the same

00:34way that we would have carried ourselves back in the 50s, 60s. It is a more diverse play. There is,

00:40you know, naturally as time has progressed more people have been able to migrate to different

00:44countries, so having a modern day version of Lord of the Flies it is going to be a very diverse

00:51open space where people have come from different walks of life. Myself, I come from inner city

00:58London, and there are some other actors that come from Ireland, you know, so it's going to be a

01:04really big mesh of different communities all in one microcosm. It should be really interesting.

01:10Absolutely, and obviously as you say the mark of classic literature stands the test of the time.

01:14I'm probably still reading this hundreds of years, but why will it strike a chord note? Why do we need

01:20to be watching Lord of the Flies right now? Yeah, one, I think it's just a very thrilling, exciting play.

01:27I think naturally humans love to see other humans in, I would say, wild circumstances,

01:37and I think that is what this play is. It is full of wild circumstances and wild scenarios,

01:42and to be able to visually see that and hopefully experience that with us on stage will be great.

01:50Yeah, you know, in those wild circumstances, you are to a large extent the voice of reason,

01:57aren't you? Yes, very much so, very much so. Yes, he is the grounding figure. I would say he's kind of

02:04the overarching leader of the rest of the group, and I like to really call him the beacon of light,

02:11when things do get dark and horrible. Ralph is the voice of reason. He is someone that brings hope

02:17through, you know, how articulate he is and through, you know, just being a genuinely nice,

02:24open person that, look, when everything does go bad, we can still connect to morals the way that

02:29we've been brought up, order to, you know, to bring us back down to earth and hopefully help these boys

02:35escape a wild situation. For the poor guy, for all his reason, for all his civilization.

02:40He's swimming against the tides, isn't he? Yes, you know, I don't think not. It's interesting,

02:47because I do think Ralph is a character that is, you know, he is older than he is on paper.

02:55I think in terms of maturity, how he thinks, how he's, you know, quick to listen, but slow to speak.

03:02You know, these are all qualities that, you know, amazing leaders do have,

03:06which you wouldn't necessarily attach to someone young, especially when you've got a group of kids

03:11that are excited to be away from home, to be away from reason and law, where they can really be who

03:17they want to be without being, you know, slapped on the wrist and told off by someone twice their age.

03:22What Ralph is able to see is very insightful is that he goes, you know, this isn't sustainable.

03:27It might be fun for the next two or three weeks, but when we need shelters and we need order and community,

03:34you know, we need rules set in place. Yeah.

03:39Yeah. Fantastic. Well, it sounds like a truly thrilling prospect. Looking forward to seeing it before too long.

03:45I'm really happy to speak to you now. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Phil. Thank you so much.

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