Theatre/film Director Sean Mathias (Bent) may have been married to his husband for almost 20 years, but he is still linked professionally to his ex-partner, Ian McKellen even now, almost 30 years since they parted. Their latest project together is the delightful ‘Frank and Percy in which McKellen’s stars with Roger Allam,  in an adaptation of the West End hit, about finding connection beyond your sixties.  Plus, it has one of the most star-studded supporting casts we have ever seen, including Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, Derek Jacobi, Ncuti Gatwa, Sheila Hancock, Siân Phillips, and Wayne Sleep, etc etc. 

On the eve of the movie being screened at the BFI London Film Festival, we look back to 2019 when we sat down with Mathias to chat with him when he was directing McKellan once again: this time in the revival of one of his own plays, A Prayer for Wings.   Here we revisit our interview from that time 

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The multi-award-winning Welsh Theatre Film Director SEAN MATHIAS (known, among many other things, for the LGBT film BENT) is back at King’s Head Theatre to direct the revival of one of his own plays, A Prayer for Wings.  He talked with QUEERGURU about this and his other London production, directing his long-time collaborator and one-time partner Sir Ian McKellen in McKellen On Stage at the Harold Pinter Theatre

QG: Welcome to Queerguru and congratulations on being back at London’s King’s Head Theatre after a very long absence with the revival of your play, which you wrote some 35 years ago. So can we start with briefly talking about what A Prayer for Wings is about without giving it all away?

SM: It’s a story about a mother and daughter living in a disused church in Swansea, Wales, where I am sitting right now. I was born here, left when I was 17, and have now returned; I’m in the process of buying and renovating a house here right on the coast. It’s probably very similar to Provincetown where you are: very dramatic with cliffs, sea, and beautiful.

The play is set in Swansea in this disused church, and the mother has got multiple sclerosis, and the daughter is a very young carer, and she has looked after her since she was 10 years old. The mother is only in her 40s now when the play takes place, and the daughter is a late teenager and frustrated by her life and dreams and yearns to get away. One of the places she dreams of going to is America

QG: So it’s set in Swansea where you grew up, but is there anything else in the play that is autobiographical?

SM: Yes, of course, there is a lot of me in the girl. When I was a young boy, I dreamt of getting away, getting into the theatre, getting into show business, and going to America. In the culture I grew up in, it seemed such an exotic place. I later found out that my parents had been planning to immigrate when I was about 14. However, my father had a heart attack, so we had to stay here for his health. I do have American family and cousins, and I just dreamed of being with them.

Although the play is about a mother and daughter,  in my life my mother nursed her mother, and then my father, who did die from heart disease. So much of the compassion in the play comes from my mother’s nursing skills and how the physical pressures of caring affected her in the end. Once you get rid of the disease of the body, then it gets around the carer as a disease of the household. It’s all very tough for someone as young as Rita.

You know there are a lot of kids in the UK as young as 8, 9 and 10 who are carers, and the Government is doing nothing to alleviate that problem as the National Health Service is bursting at the seams and is going through a major crisis.

When I was asked to revive the play, I was terrified about its relevance today, but it turned out that it is now even more relevant than when I wrote it.

QG: It took you 35 years to produce it in Swansea?.

SM: That’s odd, isn’t it? The play has been done in various places, but I haven’t directed it since I first did, and that wasn’t the play’s debut, as that was directed by Joan Plowright.

QG: When I read that today, I thought how exciting.

SM: Joan directed it at the Edinburgh Festival but couldn’t direct it when we came to London. Of all people, Faye Dunaway had read about the play and another one I wrote, and she decided she wanted to act in one and so started stalking me. I was having dinner with her the night I had to phone Joan to see if she could do the London transfer. However, she couldn’t, and I came back to the table, and Faye said that I must direct it. So we can thank Faye for kicking me into theatre direction.

QG: Sean, why was it important for you to review the play now?

SM: I’d been thinking and hoping that I would like to start writing again. A life of directing is very exciting, and I have had a wonderful life directing, but I feel I have neglected something and left something behind. Out of the blue, I got this invite to come to Swansea, which was celebrating 50 years as a city. So I came back as a Swansea artist with a play I wrote called Swansea Boy, written in the late ’90s, which dealt with the devastating effects of sexual promiscuity with the arrival of AIDS.

It had only had a studio production at the National Theatre, so I said I would really have to look at Swansea Boy, rewrite it, and revise it, but A Prayer For Wings is ready to go. They said they would take that instead.

It has been an incredible baptism for me, as I have come back to where that play was set, and retracing my footsteps made me want to go further with the play, and I have even started work on Swansea Boy again.

QG: You have a Welsh Cast at the King’s Head in London; is it the same cast as Swansea?

SM: It is. When we came to cast it, I was worried about what the pool of talent was like in Wales, as I hadn’t worked there for years. I needn’t have worried, as there is some phenomenal talent there. I ended up with three Swansea actors, two of whom now live in London, and all super talented. The authenticity of their voice, and the idiom so accurate, is really exciting.

QG: You have another show in London right now McKellen On Stage, How easy or difficult is it directing someone you have been very close too over all the years?

SM: Well, of course we were in a relationship for nine years, and since then we have worked together at least a dozen times in America and in England and on tour. We are a good team I suppose.

QG: There’s been no fights? 

SM: (grinning) There have been a few fights and some real humdingers, but I suppose I’ve mellowed.  I am more the fighter, and he doesn’t like confrontation.  I get frustrated and want to get things sorted out.  We don’t fight so much now, but let me tell you he’s not beyond it

QG: You mentioned that you have worked with Sir Ian many times, but it’s all been very diverse. From Widow Twankey in Aladdin to playing Waiting For Godot on Broadway, do you have a preference/ or favorite from this body of work?

SM: One of my favorites was directing him in Uncle Vanya many, many years ago, but Godot would be up there too. I think my favorite production I directed him in would be No Man’s Land with Patrick Stewart. Godot is my favorite of the characters he created, as was his performance as Gogo in it. There was something so sublime between him and the character; it was so seamless. Ian has been at it for such a very long time that he is a master of it all now,

QG: My favorite works of yours both include the actress Siân Phillips. I loved your National Theatre production of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, and of course, as I am a gay man, I so appreciated at how totally fabulous she was as Dietrich

QG: Is there life for A Prayer for Wings after the run at King’s Head? Do you plan to take it elsewhere?

SM: Who knows. I don’t know what will happen; I think it will depend on London’s reception of it . I think it will be a curiosity with people saying ‘oh he’s a writer too, I‘d forgotten.’ So there’ll be a bit of judgment about that. I think there’s something about its very Welshness …….do you know about the TV series Gavin & Stacey?

QG: Of course, I’ve not totally forgotten my British life.

SM: Well, that had this wonderful combination of East London and South Wales, and it really helped people to appreciate the special quality of South Wales. My play includes that same quality and I think people will be curious to see that.

Also, politically, it may not be totally appreciated, as some people will say that it’s a ‘woman’s play’ and Sean should not be directing, but I’m afraid I’ve been selfish here, and I wanted to revisit my own writing.

QG: Is there anything in your near future that we SHOULD know about?

SM: (grinning) We are going to be announcing very soon, but I cannot talk about it. Yes, I have quite exciting plans for next year. Hopefully we’ll also stage Swansea Boys in Swansea next summer.

QG: Before we go, I need to ask you for a very important favor. Next time when you see Sir Ian, whisper in his ear, if they are going to make a sequel to Downton Abbey The Movie and Dame Maggie Smith steps down, he should play her part.

SM: (laughing) That’s very funny you should say that because last night we watched an episode of his TV series Vicious and he plays that character called Thomas, a one-line role in Downton Abbey. So I will tell him.

QG: It’s been a real pleasure talking with you, and good luck with the King’s Head run, and one of Queerguru’s London-based Contributing Editors will be there to review it. Maybe I should ask our Welsh one?

SM: Lovely to talk to you.

A Prayer For Wings Kings Head Theatre, London30th October - 23rd November 2019

McKellen On Stage  Harold Pinter TheatreUntil Jan 5th 2020