Former rugby clubman star Rick Boyd tackles the role of General Harrison Howell in GSWA’s next big main stage musical, Kiss Me, Kate.
You have a strong background in sports, having played rugby in NZ, Sydney, and Perth. Tell us about your time as a player and how you feel it has influenced you.
I was just an average club hack as a player, in the outside backs, the kind of kid who can run fast but has the ball skills of a drunk wombat, but every club needs some of those. Surprisingly, there are lot of parallels between rugby and theatre. For me, the value in rugby was all about camaraderie, the team working together for a common cause, all the separate components with their own key skills contributing to the greater good. Oh, and the alcoholic beverages obviously. And quite a lot of violence — that is fortunately absent in theatre (although I’m getting a bit worried about Ian Lawrence’s penchant for whips and spanking). But there are differences too. In sport, you win or lose. In theatre, everyone’s a winner. Oh no, I feel a Hot Chocolate song coming on. (Lost on the youngsters unfortunately…)
After a number of featured ensemble roles with recent Gilbert & Sullivan productions, you’re now stepping up to a named part as General Harrison Howell in GSWA’s next big main stage musical, Kiss Me, Kate. Can you tell us a little more about this character?
General Howell is an old, pompous, self-absorbed arse. So naturally I feel I have quite a lot in common with him. He’s powerful, rich and famous and has invested money in the show the troupe is producing, basically all to win the favour of the alluring Miss Vanessi. But will she repay his benevolence by running off with that charming rat, her ex Fred Graham? Leaving poor General Howell with only his power, wealth and fame to console him? Actually, that doesn’t sound so bad…
You were a vocalist with a NZ rock band and also sang as King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar in high school. How has your vocal style developed from then to now?
All that was roughly around the Pleistocene era, when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing but was too naive and foolish to realise it. Now I KNOW I have no idea what I’m doing. I came from a working class background in provincial New Zealand and the chances of getting any sort of musical education were about the same as flying to the moon on a fluorescent mongoose. With maturity, my range has probably extended as my hair has receded, but I’m still just singing by ear and I’m only grateful that Michael (Brett) or Izaak (Wesson) hasn’t marched me to the door of the hall in Nollamara and forbidden me from ever setting foot in these premises again.
As an amateur researcher with an interest in Ancient Rome and Sub-Roman Britain, what is one of your most fascinating findings that you wish more people knew about?
Don’t get me started. Listen people, there was NO KING ARTHUR. The only genuine source contemporary to his supposed lifetime doesn’t mention him at all, his name appears in several dodgy passages hundreds of years after the event, and in all likelihood the whole King Arthur schtick was invented with giddying duplicity by one of history’s greatest liars, Geoffrey of Monmouth, filling a huge gap in his knowledge of British history with a whole bunch of implausible silliness stolen from Welsh bedtime stories. Sorry but there it is.
Finish this sentence: In my kitchen you’ll find…
Me, usually. I do most of the cooking (and dishwashing) because my beloved aka The High Commander is a workaholic hypnotherapist and doesn’t have time for such peripheral inconsequentialities as food. It all started in 1995 when she said, look deep into my eyes and repeat after me … I … will … obey …
My favourite dishes include steak with horseradish sauce, spaghetti bolognaise, and home made beef and Guinness pies. The High Commander will usually insist of some sort of vegetation to spoil the meal. But I can console myself with a good bottle of South Australian red.
