Tony Award winner Robert Sean Leonard, best known for his long-running role as Dr James Wilson in House, stars as Pierre alongside Paten Hughes as Katya in this world premiere production of Interview at Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios.
The basic storyline of Interview is well-known from previous film iterations. It became something of a cult classic with Theo van Gogh’s 2003 film of the same name and gained wider recognition with a 2007 Hollywood remake starring Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller. Curiously the program notes say nothing of van Gogh’s 2004 murder in Amsterdam at the hands of an Islamist over his film Submission about the treatment of women in Islam.
This new production is adapted for the stage and directed by the Dutch-British writer and director Teunkie Van Der Sluijs and follows the basic premise of the original. Pierre, a world-weary political journalist on a New York newspaper is sent to interview mega-influencer Katya, when what he wants to be doing is covering the imminent vice-presidential impeachment in Washington.
Originally scripted as the world’s hottest movie star, the ‘it girl’ of the moment, Katya is now an internet superstar with millions of adoring followers across multiple platforms. The battle-lines between the two are clearly drawn – age against youth; legacy media and new media; male and female – all underpinned by questions of truth. Who controls the narrative and whose truth is it anyway? Perhaps more fundamentally, what is ‘truth’ and does that matter?
Interview: cast
Leonard and Hughes are both excellent, each fully convincing in their character and owning their moments in the spotlight. There is tension too: Pierre thinks the assignment is beneath him and sees Katya as nothing more than an empty-headed opportunist; Katya is wary of journalists, especially older male ones, who she believes always have an agenda to bring her down.
The play takes place in Katya’s Brooklyn loft, brilliantly created on stage with set design by the multi-award-winning designer Derek McLane. Wall-sized projections designed by Manchester studio idontloveyouanymore bring the internet into the loft for all to see.
A new post? Ping, it’s on the wall. There’s a live feed too so we see the actor and the projection of the actor at the same moment. It’s a clever effect, and very in tune with the central themes about new media owning the narrative, but it can be a little distracting and dilutes the emotional impact at key moments. And perhaps it makes sense of the pre-show announcement to ‘please turn your phones onto flight mode to allow the smooth running of all the technological aspects of tonight’s show’.
Interview: cat and mouse
Pierre and Katya dance around each other, intellectually and physically, as the mood swings from professional to flirty to despairing in an emotional roller coaster. It’s really a game of cat and mouse – or truth and dare – but we’re never quite sure who’s the cat and who’s the mouse.
Pierre’s supposed to be asking the questions but Katya is very adept at turning the tables and putting Pierre on the spot. ‘How does it feel to feed the brain rot of America?’ he asks. Leonard and Hughes handle the verbal jousting convincingly and manage to keep the fiery pace going for the full 90 minutes without a break.
There’s some humour too, especially as Katya demonstrates some of her acting exercises, such as ‘the muffled weep’ or her particular speciality ‘the rhythmic sob’.
Towards the end of the play Katya says ‘I don’t make the rules – I just know how to play the game’. And there it is – yes, it’s all a game, but only if you know how to play it. Highly recommended.