How one trip to the theatre changed the life of Sam Mendes
Sam Mendes may be known as one of Britain’s finest directors, but his roots lie in the world of theatre. In the early 1990s, Mendes founded the revered Donmar Warehouse, having already directed Judi Dench in The Cherry Orchard and Ralph Fiennes in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Troilus and Cressida. With his latest film, Empire Of Light, in cinemas on January 9th, Mendes was invited onto BBC Radio 4 to discuss his life in culture.
Speaking to John Wilson on the BBC’s This Cultural Life programme, Mendes was asked to pick some of the cultural works, whether it be music, theatre, film or art, that made significantly impacted his life and career.
Discussing his first pick, the opening number from the original stage musical Godspell, he said: “My mother took me to see it at the Roundhouse. We lived in North London, and so we walked there. And it was Jeremy Irons, a young David Essex, Marty Webb – I mean, I didn’t know who any of them were at that point, but the atmosphere is what is remember.”
It was the intoxicating nature of the theatre experience that captivated Mendes: “I remember the freedom of it and the energy, and I remember the opening number, I remember the claxon at the beginning sending shivers down my spine. And then I remember the energy of the cast, and it was just electric. I suppose that it is my first real memory of the excitement of live performance.”
Mendes went on to recall one particularly euphoric moment: “And then one of the actors came up to me during a number called ‘Turn Back Oh Man’, and she was playing a loose woman, and she said, ‘I’ll see you later, big boy,’ she said, directly to me, and I remember the floor spots swinging on to me, and I was both embarrassed, humiliated and thrilled at the same time. I remember that feeling, so I can really conjure it. It took me a long time, though, to remember it as something significant. I mean, this is the first time I’ve talked about it as something that was the ignition of a spark way in my past. But I think, looking back, that was the moment.”
On being asked if Godspell was the first theatre production he’d ever watched, Mendes replied: “It’s certainly the first one I remember. You know, we didn’t have a lot of money. My mum was a single working mum. It was a big treat to go to the theatre.” A radical re-telling of the Gospel According to Matthew, Godspell transplants the parables of the New Testament into the seedy underworld of downtown New York. Controversial, explosive and utterly infectious, no wonder it made such an impact.
