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A dream role for DeanSHREK
might be a modern fairytale, but there is an even bigger fairytale on
stage than the adventures of the loveable green ogre. When Shrek opened in the West End four years ago
Dean Chisnall was just one of the ensemble, one of those names hardly
noticed at the back end of the programme, all listed as playing an
assortment of quick change roles and some with the added responsibility
of understudy for a named role – in Chisnall’s case it was Shrek. A responsibility which had to be fulfilled in a
crisis when the actor playing Shrek was struck down with a sore throat
and failing voice mid-show. Cue short delay while green make up was
slapped on, no time for niceties, and Chisnall was Shrek. From chorus line to star, the plot of no end of
Hollywood feelgood movies. Chisnall must have done OK because in February
2012 he was asked to take over the role full time, playing Shrek until
the West End show closed a year later and when the first UK tour
launched last year he was back in the role again and, having now played
the role longer than anyone else in the British productions, he still
has another year of swamping ahead of him. Incidentally, he is the only person to have been
in Shrek since it’s very first performance in Britain in 2011 to the
present day.
So what is it like playing such an iconic,
cartoon character? “Its incredible,” said Chisnall, “you can feel the
warmth and love for the character before you even start, so we are
already ahead of the game. It’s really nice as the actor playing that
role to know that the people are with you, so to play the character that
many of us fell in love with in the movie is just a dream.”
One advantage of playing such a well known and
easily recognised character as Shrek is that no one recognizes you in
the street, so Chisnall, Shrek in his human form, can wander the shops,
eateries and sights of Birmingham without anyone batting an eyelid. He said: “It’s great I can walk out of the
theatre and no one knows who I am. It’s great, brilliant. I’m not one of
those actors who wants attention, I am very happy to leave the theatre
and no one know who I am.” Not that that was the appeal of the role.
Chisnall, a likeable 32-year-old Lancastrian, in an interview about
playing Shrek was recently asked what would be his dream role in the
theatre? “I said I am playing it” he said without
hesitation. And he means it. You can feel the enthusiasm he has for the
role just talking to him. Mind you the role is physical challenge for any
actor, not that Shrek does anything but amble from scene to scene, this
is more try hard than die hard. It is not the physical effort, the challenge
comes from merely being Shrek for a couple of hours a night. For a start
there is the make up and costume for the role. Chisnall said: “That
takes about two and a half hours.” That means arriving about 4pm for a
7.30 show. Then there is the costume itself. “It’s heavy and
it is vast, not forgetting the boots which are two or three inch
platforms, so by the time I am finished it is enormous. I am losing so
much fluid per show, I am drinking seven or eight litres of water per
show, just to refill so that tells you a little bit about how much I am
losing, it is the best gym membership I have ever had.” If almost two gallons is going in then imagine
what is coming out and all that perspiration just serves to make the
costume even heavier. Not surprisingly there are two Shrek costumes
with the one used in a show cleaned and dried as soon as the curtain
falls. Shrek came out just before Chinsnall want off to
drama school, Arts Educational Schools London, not that the DreamWorks
film had anything to do with his career choice. “It’s a bit of a Billy
Elliot story really. Acting was something I wanted to do and then the
dram school said I had got in which was a great surprise, and here I am
and I left there 10 years ago this year and I am very lucky to still be
in the business.” His first job was the then new Andrew Lloyd Weber
musical The Woman in White, and he has also appeared in the West
End in Evita, La Cage aux Folles and Love Never Dies. And the appeal of Shrek never dies either. He
said: ”I am genuinely enjoying it. I am absolutely loving it and for
someone who has been in the makeup 5 or 600 times and at least another
200 ties to go, I do genuinely have a love for the role. I don’t think
you can do thinks if you don’t love it and I am deeply passionate about
the show and about the people in it and about the audience who come and
see it. So I am really very much enjoying myself.”
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