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Interviews
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Second to Nunn Philip Fisher interviews up and coming young director, Mark Rosenblatt. Mark Rosenblatt is a young theatre director who is already making a big splash. He was chosen by The Times as one of their rising stars and has won the James Menzies-Kitchin Young Director Award. He is now catching the eye of the critics; in the Evening Standard, Rachel Halliburton has described him as young and very talented. In the Jewish Chronicle, John Nathan has gone considerably further referring it to him in glowing terms "One day, Mark Rosenblatt will be a director of national importance". Anyone who has seen his most recent production, Bread and Butter by C P Taylor at the Southwark Playhouse, will know how right all of these judgments are. It seems amazing that a 24 year-old has such a deep understanding of people and theatre. When you meet him, he looks like a fairly ordinary young man. He is a little below medium height and bespectacled and on first acquaintance might be mistaken for a newly qualified solicitor. When he was about eight, he wanted to be an Arsenal footballer. He was exceptionally lucky at school having the opportunity to direct Dr Faustus at the age of 15. From this tender age, he has followed an ambition to become a theatre director. Whilst reading English literature at Oxford University he tried a little acting but concluded that he was not good enough to make a career of it. Similarly, whilst he believes that he could write and enjoys helping playwrights produce the best possible work, this is secondary to his real passion, directing. And although he may look unassuming, he has a great mental strength which is essential for bossing around actors two or three times his age. An indication of his passion for theatre is the enthusiasm with which he talks about the much neglected writer-director-actor, Harley Granville Barker, best known for two plays, Waste and The Voysey Inheritance. He describes him as "absolutely amazing, a man of the theatre - greatly emulated by Sir Peter Hall - who insisted on writing incredibly detailed ensemble pieces rather than ludicrous star vehicles". When Mark talks about having, as a director, " to work your way, imaginatively and soulfully, into the minds and life blood of your characters", it is clear that Granville Barker is not far from his mind. He already has a great grounding in the theatre and has been lucky enough to meet Peter Brook in Paris and Trevor Nunn at the Royal National Theatre, and to work with Dominic Dromgoole at the Oxford Stage Company. Each has made a great impression on him, perhaps Brook most of all. However, while he was "very affected" by meeting Brook, he has the great sense to be cautious about the quasi-religious respect frequently afforded him. Equally, Mark's longstanding admiration for Sam Mendes, Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse and Oscar-winning director of American Beauty, extends beyond his meteoric career path to an appreciation of Mendes' gifts as a director - "a master-craftsman with an exceptional capacity for witty, imaginative and dazzlingly clear story telling". Finding his most recent play, Bread and Butter, was a stroke of luck. His great fondness for the new writing of the Sixties and Seventies led him to a dusty 1966 volume containing, amongst other forgotten plays from that year, C.P Taylor's gentle cocktail of Marxism, Judaism and friendship in working-class Glasgow. In spite of initial uncertainties, the play's resonance with his own family history began to tug at his heartstrings. His father's father and uncles had run a shoe factory in the East End and the parallels between these Jewish characters and Taylor's Glaswegians are inescapable. Having also directed the great Yiddish classic The Dybbuk, Mark's view of Jewish plays is revealing. "They are at their best," he remarks, "when the writer is both deeply affectionate and intensely cynical towards his own cultural and religious background". Not only does this reveal a great deal about his views of Jewish theatre and his own heritage but may also go some way towards creating an understanding of the dramatic tension at the heart of great writing. One problem with being a young actor or director is that the industry is keen to pigeonhole you. A reputation as a good director of Jewish plays might get you more work, but it can also limit the way in which potential employers perceive you. Luckily, he is proving himself successful both in obtaining work and getting the variety that he desires. Earlier this year, Mark directed an acclaimed production of The Circle, W. Somerset Maugham's exceedingly English comedy of manners. And before Bread and Butter had closed, he was already considering how to cast his next production, Kay Mellor's suburban fable, A Passionate Woman at the Theatre Royal in Northampton. His ambitions for the future are diverse and include having the opportunity to direct the classics, both ancient and modern. He inevitably cites Shakespeare but includes him with Howard Brenton and Edward Bond on his list of desirable playwrights to direct. There seems little doubt that this likeable young man will have a very successful career ahead of him and it can only be a matter of time before his ambitions are fulfilled.
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