Rory Bremner: West End stage debut is a privilege

Comedian Rory Bremner has said it is “a massive privilege” to be making his West End stage debut at the age of 53.

The actor, who is playing a butler alongside Caroline Quentin and Patricia Hodge in Noël Coward’s comedy Relative Values, said: “I feel incredibly lucky and have been genuinely moved by the whole thing. It has been one of the great professional experiences of my life.

“I’ve come away with great respect for Noël Coward. People come to the theatre and laugh again and again and again. It’s a delight.”

Coward, who wrote the play in 1951, was clearly as “fascinated and amused” by the class system and relations between upstairs and downstairs as fans of Downton Abbey were today, Bremner said.

And he admitted: “I’ve never felt entirely comfortable in high society. I’m more comfortable talking to the bar staff than the super-rich. I don’t really get what makes them tick.”

Speaking after the first night at the Harold Pinter theatre, Quentin said she had never seen or read a Coward play until Sir Trevor Nunn said he would direct this one only if she appeared as the lady’s maid.

She feared it would be “lots of people walking around with cigarette holders — but I’m so loving it”.

She said: “There’s still an ugly side to the class system. But the heroes are the butler and the maid. They start the play and they end the play. They were the driving forces of English country houses.”

She added class still played a role in British society, even in acting.

“If you look at television now, people are still cast by class,” she said.

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