Meyne Wyatt puts personal tragedy behind him for King Lear role
Meyne Wyatt at the Sydney Theatre Company, where he appears alongside Geoffrey Rush in King Lear.
Meyne Wyatt appears strong and confident in the role of Edmund in King Lear at the Sydney Theatre Company, even though he had to deal with personal tragedy going into the show.
Acting alongside Geoffrey Rush and Robyn Nevin would be nerve-racking for any young actor, but*Wyatt, 26, has had to cope with the death of his father, which coincided with the beginning of rehearsals.
His father Brian had been battling throat cancer for several years and Meyne had moved to Melbourne to look after him for about 18 months. Then, just after Meyne landed the role in King Lear, Brian’s health suddenly deteriorated and he died in the last week of October.
Wyatt missed part of the first and second week of rehearsals. When he made it back to Sydney, director Neil Armfield was concerned about the impact of Brian’s death on Wyatt, and wondered whether he could play a character who conspires to murder his own father. Armfield told Wyatt that he had considered replacing him and asked how he felt about playing such a character.
Wyatt admits it was a struggle coming back from the funeral and going straight into rehearsals, but after day four he was back to work.
“I am an actor; this has been a good distraction,” he says. “It has allowed me to be another person. I might go home and be crying in the shower, but being in the rehear sals allowed me to shut out everything else going on.”
Wyatt is an animated actor who has done well as the plucky Edmund. He uses his arms and hands to great effect, especially when delivering his first soliloquy.
“I did that once in rehearsal and Neil said, ‘Let’s go with that.’ My character, Edmund, everything goes quite easily for him. Things just happen to slip into his hands. He takes every opportunity that comes to him, but they do come to him easily.
”This is Wyatt’s eighth theatrical role — one of the standouts was his performance in the title role of Belvoir’s Peter Pan in 2013 — since graduating, age 21, from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 2010. He also has appeared in film and TV productions.The emphasis on using his limbs comes from Hamlet,*he says,*and his desire to “suit the action to the word”.
Wyatt’s main gig just now is his role in television’s Neighbours playing Nate, a gay indigenous war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He started the role in August 2014 and says the gruelling schedule has honed his skill for learning lines, which came in handy for King Lear. which finishes this weekend.
"I’ve never been good on lines,” he says. “The (Neighbours) schedule is around the clock. You have to hit it; you get good at learning lines. Because of that show I was learning lines so quickly, it got my brain used to it.
”It has been a steep learning curve for this Kalgoorlie kid who decided he would try out for NIDA after leaving high school in 2006. He was the youngest in his year.
Wyatt has a strong voice and he impressed the NIDA panel when he auditioned with a performance as Peter Garrett singing*Beds are Burning.He says he got some lucky breaks after graduating. “I’ve been working pretty consistently; I was lucky to get those first couple of gigs, but once I got them I made sure I took every opportunity to show my talent. After that, I made my own luck.”
Wyatt*says he wants to be known as an actor rather than an indigenous actor. His father was a Yamatji man from Port Hedland and his mother, Sue, a painter, is from the Wongatha group based around the Kalgoorlie goldfields.
He was reared in Kalgoorlie where his father ran the Goldfields Land and Sea Council before heading the National Native Title Council, based in Perth. While in Kalgoorlie, Wyatt’s parents sent him to board at Hale School in Perth, the state’s most prestigious boys school. Its alumni include Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith, Fortescue Metals chairman Andrew Forrest and Wesfarmers managing director Richard Goyder.
Wyatt says he still could have made it into acting had he stayed in Kalgoorlie, but attending Hale certainly made its mark.
.“I could have gone down this pathway but I’d be a different person. There is a certain discipline at Hale. The motto of the school is duty. There is a certain responsibility to uphold,” he says.
When I ask what he thinks is the most important thing to address indigenous disadvantage, I haven’t even finished the question when Wyatt*says “education”, then adds “opportunity”.“I’ve been given opportunity, or things have come my way at certain stages because the door has been opened for me,” he says. “Some doors haven’t opened for other people. And some people don’t think outside the box; people don’t seem to feel those doors are open for them."
Wyatt*doesn’t have a preference for working in film, TV or theatre, even though the latter seems to suit his animated style.“I want every door to be open,” he says. “There’s no medium I prefer more than the other. I like the intimacy of being on film and *television because the camera is right there, that just picks up every little expression.
“But when you are on stage you’ve got to hit the person in the back row. You’ve got to do an intimate scene but make sure that the person hears you at the back.
"Theatre is a bit more free because you can go as big as you want."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts...84634a1072ad81
Meyne, deepest condolences to you. Well done on the performance!
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