Bertie Carvel: Hairy Ape role 'is my Kilimanjaro'

Bertie Carvel as Yank in The Hairy Ape

Bertie Carvel, most recently seen on TV as the cheating husband in BBC One's Dr Foster, is starring in The Hairy Ape at the Old Vic.

Eugene O'Neill's expressionist drama - first performed in 1922 - tells the story of Yank, a stoker on a transatlantic ocean liner who questions his place in the world when he is called a "filthy beast" by the daughter of a steel merchant.

Carvel's other recent TV credits include BBC One's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and Channel 4's Coalition, in which he played Nick Clegg.

His stage career includes Bakkhai (Almeida Theatre), The Man of Mode (National Theatre) and Parade (Donmar Warehouse), although he is best known for his Olivier Award-winning role as the terrifying Miss Trunchbull in the RSC's Matilda The Musical.

How well did you know The Hairy Ape?

I read it at drama school. They do these showcase evenings where you get a minute and a half to strut your stuff. Everyone trawled the library for speeches that haven't been done in the last 20 years and I looked at The Hairy Ape because someone had told me it had these fantastic "arias" in it - but they are about eight minutes long so none of that would do!

What do you like about the play?

It's got political DNA which floats my boat.

I think a certain kind of political thinking has been swept under the carpet by the prevailing neoliberal, relatively conservative narrative which says that capitalism has been a successful economic model.

But a bunch of thinkers and writers 100 years ago challenged that notion. They have been sidelined or made to seem old-fashioned. And then you dust these plays off and read them and they seem incredibly potent and prescient. Just very alive.

Who is Yank?

My character Yank is an uneducated and unsophisticated worker: a proto-American who regards himself as being in the engine room of the universe.

And he's literally in the engine room stoking the fires of this transatlantic liner.

He revels in his own physical strength. He can see the ship he drives would be nothing without his efforts. He buys the idea that makes him the king of the world.

Eugene O'Neill's expressionist drama is directed at the Old Vic by Richard Jones

He discovers a kind of Marxist critique and realises that his effort is exploited and his entire identity in fact is founded on a sham principle.

You've hardly been off TV screens this year. Why did Doctor Foster strike such a chord?

I think the great British Bake Off was a good bit of linear programming - we seemed to inherit an audience there but then we had to keep them.

I suppose it's near to a lot of people's experience. Although it was a thriller [writer] Mike [Bartlett] actually did the opposite to what you would expect from a thriller which is to pull toward real life.

Has it lead to you being more recognised when you walk down the street?

More from Dr Foster than anything else. I've always tried to play characters who are different from the last.

It just so happens that the one that attracted the biggest audience - and in which I am playing someone that people maybe have less than ambivalent feelings towards - is the one that superficially resembles me quite a lot.

How much do you miss Miss Trunchbull?

I was involved in Matilda for three years. I'm hugely proud to have been a small part of an amazing phenomenon.

I don't miss Miss Trunchbull, but she did give me a leg up to the next phase of my career.

How is 2016 looking?

This role is the Kilimanjaro of the roles I've played this year. I'm going to need a bit of a break and then I don't know.

I think people think that when successful things happen that your phone is ringing off the hook, but it's generally not.

The Hairy Ape, directed by Richard Jones, runs until Sat 21 November.