Interview with William Zappa, actor and writer of Winter’s Discontent

William Zappa is both the writer of and actor in Winter's Discontent, a one-man show that dissects the art of acting and the lives that actors lead. One of Australia's most exceptional and experienced actors, and also possessing a finely tuned sense of humour, Zappa is singularly qualified for this role.

My mind filled with romantic visions of the theatre, it throws me a little off guard when Zappa begins the interview by telling me he's "just been doing a bit of gardening." I comment that it sounds... relaxing, but he quickly qualifies, "It's been pretty bloody hard work actually." Not as relaxing as it sounds then, but certainly not the hectic rehearsal schedule I'd been expecting to hear about.

That rehearsal schedule, while seemingly lax, has in fact been a process of many years. The play most recently visited Canberra and, prior to this, it's last 'outing' was in 2006 with the Ensemble Theatre. Zappa comments, "It was really interesting getting it ready to do in Canberra, because that's the first time in four years that I'd looked at it, you know?"

Keeping with the spirit of review, I invite Zappa to introduce me to the show. He explains that there are essentially two aspects to it. To begin with, "It's a man in his dressing room getting ready to do a play he hates - he thinks it's a load of postmodern crap, basically." Secondly, to raise the stakes, "The thing is that he's not only having to do this play that he hates, but he's also had some fairly tragic news which he's trying to ignore. But he can't ignore it. And throughout the play, this issue keeps raising its head until eventually it can't be ignored any longer." This head-raising occurs almost literally in the performance. The character that the actor protagonist, Winter, plays is initially "represented as a wig on a wig block." As Winter prepares and makes up for his show, "the character forms in the mirror for him and starts talking back to him. So the character starts becoming his subconscious, I suppose one could say."

This triggers images of Heath Ledger playing the Joker for me, so I ask Zappa whether he's ever experienced characters bleeding over into his own personality. Zappa dismisses this with a light hand. "Oh look, generally it's really easy. Especially since I've been doing it for a long time. I have memories of, in a sense, not letting go of the character. That might be because I didn't really have a technique for it, or because I was being self-indulgent and enjoying being this other character or whatever. But generally the process is being able to make sure you let it all go, being relaxed enough to let it all go." He takes a moment to think, and then qualifies, "there are times when a character can sort of take you over to the point where you really enjoy the character. Especially if they're a feel-good character, it's really nice to do. Whereas other ones that are angst-ridden can be quite tiring."

There is a strong sense of Zappa investing this play with his own experience: for example, the character that Winter plays is Monsieur Thénardier, a character from Les Misérables that Zappa has himself played. When I voice my suspicions regarding Thénardier to Zappa, he concedes, "That's partly because it was when I was playing Thenardier that the idea for the play came up, so in a way it was honouring that, I suppose." He asks if I've even seen 'Les Mis', and I guiltily admit that I have - and more than once. "There you go. Well you remember Thénardier in Les Mis. Yes he's quite funny and everything, but he's also a really horrid man. And I wanted Robert to be playing a fairly horrible person, and I thought 'Well, Thénardier's not such a nice guy. So let it be a play based on that character that he's playing.' So he's doing a postmodern, apocalyptic play inspired by the character Thénardier." Zappa laughs. "Which is quite amusing, I must say."

It's easy to see by this point that Zappa has the admirable ability to reflect on his own experiences with a fair grain of salt. The play within a play that Winter performs has a title that Zappa accurately describes as 'absurd': Eleven Episodes of the Torture, Trial and Execution of Monsieur Thénardier. As he recites it, he laughs, "That was just me as a write being a bit tongue in cheek." I ask if he has always been able to take things so lightly, or whether this has come with experience, and he explains, "You get old, and you sort of get over it, you know? I'm over it." This isn't the cynicism it sounds like. Zappa explains, "There are many aspects of the life of an actor which are very very tough. It can be a very very hard, frustrating life and, at the same time, deeply satisfying. You mentioned it being autobiographical and in actual fact there are some anecdotes, which are in the play, which are based on my own experiences. But the general expression, Robert's expression of being an actor, is pretty much what a vast majority of actors would feel." He adds, "But I'm happy to say the anecdotes are quite amusing. Thank God. Because the play is also dramatic and very theatrical, so it's really good to have the opportunity for an audience to laugh out loud."

Opportunities for a bit of release must be particularly significant in the pressure cooker of a one-man show, for both Zappa and the audience. Zappa admits that "One of the interesting things is, with intimate spaces, the audience really do feel like they're a fly on the wall...there's this really strong sense, I've gathered from speaking to people, that they really feel they're in the dressing room with this man, watching what he's going through. So that's been very satisfying, I have to say." I ask Zappa if this process of feedback has affected his take on the play. "My take on it hasn't changed, but I've allowed myself the freedom to make little adjustments, here and there, just simply as a way of trying to constantly make it better. The luxury of having written it and performing it is that I don't have to get permission to change it." Again, he laughs. "It's a very satisfying thing to be able to do and, in a sense, be constantly working on it."

It must be nice, as an actor, to be holding all the cards, liberated from the playwright. When I comment on this to Zappa, he adds, "That's right. When we're doing other people's plays, they are other people's plays: they're not your own creation. And there is something very satisfying about being able to see how it's going with an audience and to make adjustments each time... there's a fantastic sense of being in the constant life of the piece." He recalls that, in his first public performance of this work at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, "I found myself rewriting it as I was doing it, which got a bit scary. I'd be coming up to a line and, in my mind, I'd go, 'I think I'll just change that...' As I'm actually speaking lines, my mind is thinking slightly ahead." I comment that at least he kept it exciting for everyone, including himself. "Oh yeah, keep myself on my toes."

Drawing our conversation to a close, I ask Zappa about his personal feelings regarding the life that actors lead. He hesitates, then explains, "It's quite a complicated answer, really. I think one of the greatest things generally about being an actor, or being in the business of entertainment, is that you usually work with a fantastic bunch of people. So there's some wonderful people that one gets to work with. You also get to say some of the greatest things that have ever been written - which is a deeply satisfying thing. It's fantastic to have the challenge of great roles, it's a really wonderful wonderful thing to be given the opportunity to do. There's the pros and cons of things like going on tour, where you have the excitement of it, but you also have the...," Zappa dons a woeful tone, "...'I miss my home, I miss my family', and so on and so forth."

"And, this is one thing that I've certainly been told by people that have seen the play, that in a way, yes, the play is about an actor. But Robert Winter is also a kind of everyman character, inasmuch as anybody that's ever had ambition to do anything. It could be you want to be a great carpenter, or you want to be a great doctor, or an engineer, or absolutely anything. But never quite making it. A lot of people identify with that. A lot of people identify with the sacrifices that they make in order to pursue those desires and acknowledging, yeah, they were pretty big sacrifices, and they had ramifications that I didn't anticipate at the time."

Still, I get the sense that Zappa would do it all again in a second.

Images: William Zappa as Robert Winter, or perhaps Monsieur Thénardier