by Andrew Tomazos
Being able to work on a character like Roy as an actor has been truly exciting. And honestly, the role of Roy has reinvigorated the essence of what I love about character work, portraying characters, and theatre - all of it really. I guess that is what happens anytime you are offered a truly great, well-written script – which in fact is what Cosi by Louis Nowra is.
Knowing we would have a limited amount of time to rehearse and put this show together (7.5 weeks about) I had to somehow speed up my “process” for both characterisation and learning lines. I generally like to build the life of my character in my mind, and my body before I start any work on lines. However, the sheer volume of dialogue, especially for Roy that I had to learn meant I really had to do all the bits and pieces of what you could call my process at the same time. Character work, line memorisation, blocking and any staging work.
I did a lot of physical character work in my portrayal of Roy. Roy is quite complex with many contrasting elements combating each other. Roy’s need for control, his insecurity built up by his abandonment and his lifetime in mental asylums and his lived trauma all feed into his desire to be loved, validated, and center of the attention. Roy likes to pretend he has lived a lavish, luxurious life so there was a bit of this ‘put on’ grandiose gestural work I would do with my hands and even footwork, but at the times his insecurities would be triggered I would find the ‘letting go’ of this exaggeration – and vocally too, with my voice subtly hinting at what is my normal voice, whereas when Roy intends to impress he’ll speak with a put on British accent voice.
As I was exploring his childhood trauma this interesting physical manifestation came up with the banging of my head at certain points. Particularly when Roy has lost all sense of control in the situation. I’m playing with the reality of him in and out of foster care versus this imagined lifestyle of opulence and privilege and “my mother hiring French tutors, and singing lullabies and hiring maids to serve me lemonade on summer days” – I think Roy has convinced himself so much of this lie that it has slowly moulded into a truth in his own mind; which was a fascinating discovery, because that allowed me the moments of internal conflict, particularly during that monologue in act 2 where he talks about what Cosi Fan Tutte would recapture for him these memories would flash of what his actual childhood was. At some point, there was a vague memory of when Roy first did listen to the Mozart opera of Cosi, and then Roy just pretended most. of his life that it was his Mother always playing it to him, and then eventually he convinced himself of this.
There were some truly exciting discoveries. I really did focus on making Roy a real person and that’s where I feel audiences have really resonated well with my interpretation, and a lot of the comedy and laughter were. able to come out naturally in the performance.
I really did have so much fun portraying Roy. I wish there was more time to explore and discover, however I know I discovered all that I could and that what I brought audiences enjoyed and ultimately the time has come to call the curtain on Roy!