"Democracy": You should know this face
Place: Toronto
Event: Tarragon Theatre presents the Canadian premiere of Michael Frayn's hit show "Democracy" about the relationship between Willy Brandt and Günter Guillaume. Supported by the Goethe-Institut Toronto. Guillaume is played by Alon Nashman, who the GI Toronto works with frequently.
If you know the name Alon Nashman but can't pinpoint who he is or what he looks like, don't feel too bad. You're well on your way to understanding this most chameleon of Toronto stage actors.
For now, Nashman's interest is focused on all things German circa the 1970s to prepare for Democracy. He is playing Gunter Guillaume, a spy who brought down the government of Willy Brandt in what was then West Germany. The character is both a key player in the political drama and the main narrator and guide for the audience. It will require all the shape-shifting and blending skills that only an actor such as Nashman can muster. It should be old hat to him, but he is still in that nervous-excited stage of previews.
"It's one of the toughest roles I've ever done," he says. "I'm functioning in two worlds throughout the play. I'm always in two scenes at once."
The native Torontonian has made a career of shape-shifting his way from one production to the next. Who but Nashman can claim to have played Albert Einstein (Picasso at the Lapin Agile), Franz Kafka (Kafka and Son) and Tom Cruise (Hotel Loopy)?
Ethnically, the "very out Jew" blends into every race and creed on this planet. He was Irish in Restitution, Lebanese in Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons and all-American in Talley's Folly. His next two engagements at the Tarragon Theatre reincarnate him as an East German spy in Michael Frayn's Democracy (which opens tonight) to be followed next month by a stint as a French vagrant in New York in Brendan Gall's Alias Godot.
(…) For now, Nashman's interest is focused on all things German circa the 1970s to prepare for Democracy. He is playing Gunter Guillaume, a spy who brought down the government of Willy Brandt in what was then West Germany. The character is both a key player in the political drama and the main narrator and guide for the audience. It will require all the shape-shifting and blending skills that only an actor such as Nashman can muster. It should be old hat to him, but he is still in that nervous-excited stage of previews.
"It's one of the toughest roles I've ever done," he says. "I'm functioning in two worlds throughout the play. I'm always in two scenes at once."
Event: Tarragon Theatre presents the Canadian premiere of Michael Frayn's hit show "Democracy" about the relationship between Willy Brandt and Günter Guillaume. Supported by the Goethe-Institut Toronto. Guillaume is played by Alon Nashman, who the GI Toronto works with frequently.
If you know the name Alon Nashman but can't pinpoint who he is or what he looks like, don't feel too bad. You're well on your way to understanding this most chameleon of Toronto stage actors.
For now, Nashman's interest is focused on all things German circa the 1970s to prepare for Democracy. He is playing Gunter Guillaume, a spy who brought down the government of Willy Brandt in what was then West Germany. The character is both a key player in the political drama and the main narrator and guide for the audience. It will require all the shape-shifting and blending skills that only an actor such as Nashman can muster. It should be old hat to him, but he is still in that nervous-excited stage of previews.
"It's one of the toughest roles I've ever done," he says. "I'm functioning in two worlds throughout the play. I'm always in two scenes at once."
The native Torontonian has made a career of shape-shifting his way from one production to the next. Who but Nashman can claim to have played Albert Einstein (Picasso at the Lapin Agile), Franz Kafka (Kafka and Son) and Tom Cruise (Hotel Loopy)?
Ethnically, the "very out Jew" blends into every race and creed on this planet. He was Irish in Restitution, Lebanese in Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons and all-American in Talley's Folly. His next two engagements at the Tarragon Theatre reincarnate him as an East German spy in Michael Frayn's Democracy (which opens tonight) to be followed next month by a stint as a French vagrant in New York in Brendan Gall's Alias Godot.
(…) For now, Nashman's interest is focused on all things German circa the 1970s to prepare for Democracy. He is playing Gunter Guillaume, a spy who brought down the government of Willy Brandt in what was then West Germany. The character is both a key player in the political drama and the main narrator and guide for the audience. It will require all the shape-shifting and blending skills that only an actor such as Nashman can muster. It should be old hat to him, but he is still in that nervous-excited stage of previews.
"It's one of the toughest roles I've ever done," he says. "I'm functioning in two worlds throughout the play. I'm always in two scenes at once."
by Kamal al-Solaylee, Globe and Mail, 5 March 2008
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