Simon Callow is bringing his one man show 'The Man Jesus' to Oxford Playhouse

As the play reached its climax, Simon Callow visibly paled under the lights, sweating, swaying and appearing ill-at-ease. Was this just Jesus’ demise, part of the act? Or was the acting great actually in trouble, the Belfast audience wondered on the opening night of Callow’s latest one-man-show. Did this herald Callow’s own end as well as his biblical characters?

“The lights were blurring in and out and I called out to the audience and told them I felt unwell and would have to stop,” Callow remembers. “A woman leapt up on stage as if her life depended on it and led me off.

“They called an ambulance; the paramedics arrived. Turned out it was food poisoning,” Simon Callow laughs in that deep, baritone timbre we’ve all come to know and love.

“What’s more, having complained bitterly my show hadn’t got any press coverage, it was front-page news the next day,” he cries in delight. Never a dull moment for Simon Callow then, although Oxford marks the end of his metamorphosis as Jesus, a part which has proved a huge success despite its controversial subject matter.

Never one to do things by halves, and having already taken on Oscar Wilde, Dickens, Wagner and Shakespeare, Jesus was next on the 65-year-old’s hit list, and a character he has immersed himself in for the past few months.

“It’s been a long series of one-night stands, travelling, and getting to know new towns, some of which I’ve never been to before, which is exciting, and part of what acting is all about - spreading the word, which is singularly appropriate in this case.”

As if the topic wasn’t hot enough, and the character sizeable to an extreme, Callow also took it upon himself to perform The Man Jesus on his own, therefore absorbing the pressure of the entire tour himself, this being his fifth foray into the solo arena. “Well, when I started my cycle of one man shows I was looking at these huge, cultural figures in the landscape of our minds, and knew that I would inevitably come to Jesus in one way or another,” he says theatrically.

“And while I love working with other actors [his films Four Weddings and a Funeral and Amadeus would suggest so], I have lots of people with me — my stage manager, the tech guy, and I have the audience, plus my 10 characters to keep me company, because I don’t play Jesus, I play 10 characters including his mother, Herod, Pontius Pilate, Lazarus, Simon and Judas, people who related to him in different ways,” he pauses, knowing he’s avoiding the question, “or maybe because I’m an only child from a single-parent family I’m quite used to being in my own world.”

Either way, it’s working, Callow having won an Outstanding Contribution award at the 2013 UK Theatre Awards and being awarded a CBE in 1999 for his services to acting. That he is beloved by the nation goes unchallenged, and yet Callow’s work ethic seems to become more, not less, ferocious, as if his time is running out.

So what fires him up? Is it a need to educate the masses, to ensure we don’t forget these key figures? “It only works if I’m absolutely passionate about the characters involved, people I have engaged with, and Jesus was right up there in my personal fascinations.”

His decision to become an actor then, rather than an academic, is interesting, given the depth of his research and the resulting biographies, although his acting success speaks for itself. For example, Callow’s next project is to direct A Christmas Carol in Texas, before racing home to London to complete part 3 of his biography of Orson Welles. “It’s my personal Moby Dick,” he says. “I’ve done books 1 and 2 but the last 15 years of his life are proving a killer.”

Will Orson Welles be his next transformation on stage then? “Not for me,” he says jumping up in horror. “I would not be able to convince myself that I was him anyway.”

How that could be worse than taking on Jesus I can’t imagine. “The stories about Jesus are buried deep in our minds, whether you are religious, or a Dawkins or Hitchens, it’s part of our DNA, that’s been the most interesting thing of all. Because Jesus is so stereotypically depicted, either on the cross or in a ‘sweetiepie’ way with a long beard, but this gives us a sense of his world, of his present day, where murderous crews roamed around in an expanding empire trying to get to grips with the feuding ethnics, and an overwhelming sense of doom and impending cataclysm, which many people feel today, that we are heading towards a Titanic in terms of climate change or getting our throats slit by fundamentalists, and that’s what they felt then,” Callow says warming to his theme.

“Because what Jesus said was totally radical — forgive thy neighbour, love thy enemy — spectacular,” he nods in excitement, “and an unbelievable thing to adhere to. So there has certainly been a current of excitement about the show,” he says “although fundamentally we are trying to relate the story in a real and comprehensive way. There is something very simple, direct and straightforward in storytelling in a vivid and recognisable form, and that really unleashes emotions in people, which is very pleasing to me.”

Have Callow’s own views of Jesus changed then as a result? “No, I was brought up as a devout Catholic until I was 13 or 14, when I began to think for myself, although I remember seeing Pasolini’s wonderful film which suggested that Jesus was a firebrand who, in his very brief ministry, was like a hurricane.

“Now, I think Jesus was one of the great creations of the human imagination and a great repository of the truth in the culture of our society. It wasn’t for nothing that he dominated the western hemisphere.”

It is this passion, this focus, that has ensured Simon Callow’s longevity, that and his shining talent. “I don’t know how else you can do it,” he says shrugging. “A part has to completely pervade to work and that’s exciting and thrilling.”

So will he miss his biblical pal once the curtain falls in Oxford? “I’m sure he will rise again, hopefully in the West End and then the US, but to be honest my overriding emotion is one of relief. It could have gone horribly wrong.”

Simon Callow appears in The Man Jesus at Oxford Playhouse on Tuesday November 4.
Box Office on 01865 305305 or book online at www.oxfordplayhouse.com