Dion Johnstone
Actor on King Lear, Harper Lee, Lord of the Rings, and Stargate SG1
Triple threat Dion Johnstone chats about King Lear's Edmund, Harper Lee's Tom Robinson, Tolkien's Boromir, Stargate's SG1's Chaka, and fave playwright Tom Stoppard.
In Part One of this five-part series, actor Dion Johnstone chats about the challenges of his current role as Edmund in the Stratford Festival's King Lear.
King Lear is a very potent portrayal of a jealous brother. Did you do a lot of research for this role or did you just refer mostly to the text?
"Mostly through the text, but one of the directions that Brian Bedford gave me early on in the process is to think of Edmund as a nihilist for whom the rules don’t matter. The state of the world as we know it is pointless. The way people are; they are full of lies, and that gives Edmund the freedom to be exactly who he is and not care about what the outcomes will be. Brian kept pushing me in that direction and that was the most helpful."
When you get out on that stage it is 'take no prisoners', and with growing cultural diversity in theatre, you are the first coloured Edmond I have ever seen. Have you had audience reaction to this?
"I did a talkback at the Festival, and we had a lady in the audience who asked me how it felt to be the only visible minority in the company in playing the role of Edmond. The question threw me because I just see myself as an actor on stage. But I have to say I try to use everything that’s at my disposal as an actor to tell a story. I think my colour is a part of it so I use that in the research and in the building of the character, part of his anger. What was it? My mum was black, I am not a white child, and I was born out of wedlock. All of these factors serve to fuel Edmond's feeling of being excluded, the bastard son. At that point, I use that as a springboard. From there it is playing the moments, playing the texts, and playing the other actors. Then it’s a question of audience perception. There are some audiences who don’t see it. Others do see it and it is whatever works for the viewer at that point."
Edmund is a pivotal character. His actions cause a lot of trouble.
He definitely moves a lot of the plot of what happens in the play.
Do you see a correlation between Edmund in King Lear and Iago in Othello?
"They are definitely cut from the same cloth. I think you could say Iago is a definite psychopath. There is no real rhyme or reason to what he does. I would say that Edmund is more of a borderline psychopath and he could go there fully but he does repent in the end to the best of his ability. I think for Edmund, what made him what he is even though he does say “I should have been that I am, had a maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing” ... well... it doesn’t matter what kind of upbringing he had. It doesn’t matter what stars shone on his being brought into this world, he still would have been a bastard."
"He does say that about himself but he has just cause for the anger and the pain that he felt because he’s always been slighted, overlooked, not included as part of society, and made to feel that by his father. His father (Gloucester) does love him, and has him in the court, but always talks about his bastard son. He had fun with my mother and that was it. Edmund has had to carry that burden his entire life. It’s society that’s made him who he is. Rather than coming out of nowhere like Iago, and being that way, Edmund is coming out of a place of just cause."
In Part Two, Dion Johnstone chats more about the role of Edmund and about working with director Brian Bedford.
King Lear continues at The Stratford Festival Theatre to Oct 28.
