PHILIP QUAST

BY JO LITSON STUDIO COLLECTIONS MAGAZINE AUSTRALIA
JUNE/JULY 1988

Philip Quast has now achieved international recognition for his electric performance as the villainous Javert in the Australian production of the international hit musical Les Misérables.

'He's a rare breed of actor', says a member of the stage-management team as I wait in Philip Quast's dressing room in Sydney's Theatre Royal. 'He's always courteous and considerate. Everybody likes him - the crew and the cast. He's a real professional.' He must be.Praise like that from stage management is equally rare.

Philip Quast himself views his backstage behaviour in a slightly different light. 'I tend to be a bit pig-headed,' he says smiling, 'but I've been good through this one! (Les Misérables). I kicked the bridge one night out of frustration or nerves, but that's all, so maybe I really have learned something from working with Trevor Nunn.' Such shows of frustration, however, are the result, not of artistic temperament, but a drive for perfection. Philip Quast is currently playing Javert in Les Misérables - the iron-willed inspector who hounds Valjean across the years, believing he does so in the name of duty and justice. When he is forced to recognise the duty is misplaced and his relentless pursuit of Valjean unjust, the whole premise on which he has built his life falls apart, and , jumping from the bridge, Javert falls too. Quast gives an absolutely electric performance for which he recently won the Sydney Critics Award.

Since graduating from the national Institute of Dramatic Art, he has worked consistently in theatre, film and television in roles as diverse as the Nimrod's Candide to the TV film Fields of Fire andthe ABC's Playschool, but few people knew quite what to expect when he was cast in Les Misérables in one of the most sought-after musical roles. Had it not been for Trevor Nunn's insight, Quast believes he would not have been given a chance in the role, so different is it from anything else he has done. 'It's the first chance I've had to sing something that's right smack in my range.' Quast went along to the auditions, not having read the book or having heard the music. Unable to read music, when asked to sing a song from the show he almost packed up and went home, but was called back by French composer Claude-MichelSchonberg. Having hoped he might be lucky to get a chorus role, Quast found himself auditioning before Trevor Nunn for the role of Javert. 'Casting is everything,' stresses Quast, 'and when a director cast, as risk must be taken. Often it isn't and the obvious person is given the part. Trevor cast me where I don't think anyone else would and so invested in me. In return I'll give him back 3000 percent and work 10 times harder than in a role for which I was more obvious.' In a generally excellent cast, Quast is quite outstanding.Trevor Nunn is on record as saying he is simply the best Javert in the world. Quast's voice is rich and melodious, his stage presence charismatic, his performance compelling. It is one of the great performances in Australian theatre in recent times. And yet, Quast is far from complacent 'I feel a bit disappointed sometimes because I can't give it everything I would like to give it vocally. The difference between what I think is good and what is bad, is probably infinitesimal to an audience, but it feels dreadful as a performer, particularly with singing. I'm the least experienced of the company as far as singing is concerned. I'm a worrier anyway and singing is such an exposed thing.'

Amazingly, Quast has had no specialised voice training beyond NIDA. 'I had the chance to go to Germany in my third year to study at the Goetheinstitute,' he says, 'but I'd seen a few operas that year and thought that's definitely not for me. It meant missing the opportunity to work with someone like Anthony Warlow (Enjolras, the leader of the student revolution) who has a beautiful voice and whom I admire greatly, I sometimes regret not going, for he is a new breed of opera singer, but you can't look at it that way.' Offstage Quast seems to share little with Javert beyond his towering stature. The first shock, on meeting him, is to realise how young he is beneath the wig and whiskers; the second, how self-effacing. He runs his fingers almost nervously through the somewhat unruly fringe which curls into his eyes, as he talks of the role. Javert is a manof steel; Quast is an altogether gentler character.

He grew up on his father's turkey farm in Tamworth. It may seema long way from the stage, but to Quast the transition 'always seems obvious to me. It makes a great deal of sense. I went to a one-teacher school, I had no-one to play with but a brother and sister and so I spent a lot of time working with my father on the farm, or wandering the hills dreaming, shooting foxes, playing with the dog - a hell of a lot of time by myself.'

His love of the country and the outdoor life is still very strong and one of the reasons he is an actor. 'The things which make me an actor are not what I'm doing when I act, so much as what I'm doing when I don't act- things like fishing. Unless I can do those things my work is terrible I don't like being tied down for too long, so this is a lesson in itself. I don't like going to the theatre a lot because I don't like most of what I see. I worked in England on a film recently and didn't go to the theatre at all. Trevor wouldn't let me go to Les Mizin case I came away with preconceptions. I would probably have thought I'm too young for the role, so it's just as well.
'A mate of mine has a trawler. If I go 40 miles out to sea chasing tuna, or seeing whales jumping and rocking themselves against the boat, that is of more value to me than seeing a good piece of theatre.
'It's always been more awesome to me. The things I've seen out there are more exciting than anything I've ever seen on a stage - seeing marlin moving at 30 knots chasing flying fish or being on a little boat near the rocks where the waves are breaking..' He pauses laughing almost apologetically at himself. 'That's the reason I am an actor. I can work for four weeks and then go and do that for a while. No other job gives me that opportunity. It sounds clichéd, but it's true. It's a luxury.
"I'm desperate to go to Antarctica. There's a fair chance I have a passage on a supply ship in December that goes to the American, Canadian and Australian bases. I've always wanted to see it. There'sa wonderful book by Barry Lopez called Arctic Dreams which I've read three times. It was an inspiration for me.'

Quast has suddenly come alive, talking with a passion that has, until now, been absent. Referring to the controversy over former NSW Premier Barrie Unsworth's decision to save 80,000 hectares of forest rather than the jobs which will be lost, Quast argues, 'What are 40 jobs compared to 80,000 hectares of forest which will never exist again? Our politicians are to blame and we are to blame, because even people with foresight never make a decision more than three years ahead. I think Greenpeace is the only political party worthwhile. There's not enough education about quality of life.'

Quast's other great passion is writing. 'I'm happier when I'm writing than at any other time,' he says. Most of his writing is inspired by his recollections of living in the country."Much of my old lifestyle in the country is disappearing and I'm cynical enough to believe people don't give a shit. I actually find it depressing going back there now because it's changed so much. It was isolated in my day, now it's all cut up into hobby farms with houses everywhere. You can't walk anywhere without people saying 'Get off my land'.'

Quast has a collection of short stories which are almost finished, 'but I don't know how you finish a book. If you write a film script, the actors and the director then bring life to it. I do the opening performance of Les Miz and I'm still working on it. Writing is different. How do you say it's finally done?'

It is unlikely Quast will stay with Les Misérables longer than a year. Although he is thoroughly enjoying the challenge and the experience of working with 'one of the most extraordinary gatherings of people I've ever been involved with, right across the board', he admits that performing in such an emotionally draining show eight times a week is taking its toll and can be depressing. "there are not exactly a lot of laughs in it!' He maintains he is not overly ambitious or burning to play certain roles, though he is enjoying playing 'obsessives' - characters that are on the edge, weird. 'I can't wait to be 45 as an actor. I feel if I stay in theatre I will come into my own then.'

He would, however, very much like to work with Trevor Nunn again, in a legitimate play. However, since he is not able to work in England, despite the fact that his wife's father is English, it is somewhat unlikely. Nor would he push to work there. 'I'm a real equity supporter and was willing with our other members, to go on strike to protect our jobs. The wonderful thing about this Les Misérables is that it's all Australian, but I would give anything to work with Trevor again, in another form of theatre. He's so calm and confident, which comes from years of experience. He knows exactly what he wants. He's very special. We didn't go near the text for the first week of rehearsals. We were all a bit frightened because we realised it was such a mammoth task, but he was calm, as he always is. He doesn't give anything away. We would be given a description of a character and then half-an-hour to work on it physically, paring it down to the minimum. Most directors I've worked with spend the first week poring over the text and no-one really develops the physical characteristics. That first week of exercises helped us make choices early on about our characters.'

After Les Miz, Philip Quast will probably avoid musicals for a while. 'I don't like being pinned down. After Candide it was a struggle, because that was how everyone saw me. 'Raul Julia has done the musical Nine, the film Kiss of the Spiderwoman and the play The Taming of the Shrew. He has worked with Meryl Streep in The Park and is a wonderful actor who works all over the place I admire that. I'd like to spend some time writing, but whatever I do next it'll be very different from Les Misérables.'