The True History of the Life and Death of King Lear and his Three Daughters<\/a>, in which he plays the title role, will 100% be his last time on stage. Probably.<\/p>\n\u201cMy problem is I can\u2019t say no,\u201d he chuckles as we set out from Belvoir\u2019s rehearsal room on a walk around Sydney\u2019s Surry Hills, an intermittent stomping ground for Friels since his NIDA student days in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmployment comes to 73-year-olds quite rarely,\u201d he says. \u201cSo when someone offers me a job and I think, \u2018Oh, yeah\u2019 \u2013 you do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friels walks by the light rail line in Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I know it\u2019ll end. I\u2019ve always thought of myself as just a local actor who got a few jobs from time to time. I wouldn\u2019t call it a career. I\u2019ve always thought the job I\u2019m doing could be my last. Just like this walk I\u2019m doing could well be my last.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m thinking let\u2019s make this a short walk. I don\u2019t want to be the journalist who was interviewing one of Australia\u2019s beloved veteran actors on his final stroll.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s late in the day and we\u2019re walking along Belvoir Street, a buzzing inner-city street on a gently sloping hill. Friels is wiry, bristling with nervous energy, hyper-alert to everything around him. He\u2019s excellent company but it\u2019s a challenge to connect beyond his self-deprecating humour, Shakespeare recitations and long tales of his beloved stock horses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to put my hand on a horse\u2019s wither just to calm me down,\u201d he whispers as if someone might hear. \u201cBecause I\u2019m finding this rehearsal period quite traumatic. King Lear \u2026 I\u2019m not up to it yet. I\u2019m trying too hard. I think I\u2019m flying a bit close to the sun. But it\u2019s a beautiful play, I love the play.\u201d<\/p>\n
We walk past a large housing commission estate and low-rise brick apartment buildings with balconies packed with pot plants, bicycles and laundry drying.<\/p>\n
\u2018Employment comes to 73-year-olds quite rarely.\u2019 Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Surry Hills has changed a lot \u2013 and not much, Friels says. He lived in rented digs here when he was a student and later when he was acting in his first Sydney Opera House show, a 1979 production of Brecht\u2019s The Caucasian Chalk Circle.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould we go this way?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
We veer past Ward Park toward Devonshire Street, a light rail thoroughfare. \u201cWhen I was here doing Death of a Salesman, they hadn\u2019t started laying the tracks,\u201d he muses. We pause. \u201cJust here I remember because I had an incredible attack of pancreatitis.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was in 2012. Friels was starring in director Simon Stone\u2019s staging of Arthur Miller\u2019s tragedy, one that hit the headlines first when Miller\u2019s estate insisted Stone reverse his cuts to the text (he lopped off the epitaph); and second when Friels collapsed on stage during the play\u2019s second act.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started to hit me as I was walking along here going back to the theatre,\u201d Friels recalls. \u201cBut I pushed on, I got through about three-quarters of the show \u2026 and that was it. I collapsed. I went out like a light. All I remember is waking up, vomit all over me, bile and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I try to treat my kids with respect, and I\u2019ve tried to lead by example.\u2019 Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
That and \u201ca medic with beautiful auburn hair\u201d, Friels smiles. \u201cI said to him, \u2018What do you want, mate?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Come on, I\u2019ll to take you to hospital.\u2019 I said, \u2018Alright, let\u2019s walk through the park. I\u2019ll be right. I can walk\u2019 \u2026 I didn\u2019t know where I was, really. But that medic, he looked like one of those angels out of Wings of Desire. I remember thinking, wow, Belvoir is amazing \u2026 It\u2019s got ambulances standing by 24 hours a day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, health-wise, Friels is doing fine. \u201cYeah, no complaints. You get a bit banged up and stuff \u2013 knees, shoulders, tendons, but they nail you back together again.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s go hard or go home. I don\u2019t quite know how to relaxColin Friels<\/p>\n
He suggests we sit down on a low brick fence for a while. We enjoy the pink hibiscus, late flowering star jasmine and the yellow flame trees blowing in the breeze. A storm is brewing.<\/p>\n
As well as working with old colleague Peter Carroll, Friels is performing in King Lear alongside his daughter Charlotte, making her Belvoir debut as Goneril, Lear\u2019s eldest daughter and one of the play\u2019s principal villains. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit mind-bending that I have to curse my own daughter on stage, but she doesn\u2019t mind a bit,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Rehearsals have given him pause to think about his own fatherhood. He has two children, Jack and Charlotte, with fellow actor Judy Davis.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019ve never done yoga and I\u2019ve never studied under a swami.\u2019 Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
There are no perfect dads, he says. \u201cI try to treat my kids with respect, and I\u2019ve tried to lead by example. I didn\u2019t push them in any ambitious way. I didn\u2019t set rules to live by \u2026 I probably never had the wherewithal to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
His own parents were \u201cpeasants\u201d, he says. \u201cI don\u2019t mean that in a derogatory way, but they were peasants in that, they worked hard but earned nothing. I was a migrant in the middle 60s with these two Glaswegian parents, and we got on well. I respected the hell out of them, so I was never going to do them any harm, and I\u2019d try and look after myself. So that\u2019s how I go as a father too.\u201d<\/p>\n
And what is the secret to his strong marriage? \u201cFriendship,\u201d he says without hesitation. \u201cAnd respect. You get through the good times and the bad times. You stick. We\u2019ve been married over 40 years, Judy and I, and I\u2019m real glad about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
I ask what he does to conserve his energy. \u201cI don\u2019t. That\u2019s my problem, it\u2019s go hard or go home. I don\u2019t quite know how to relax. My mind is too busy.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear he has no plans to retire. Why should he? \u201cI\u2019ve never done yoga and I\u2019ve never studied under a swami or anything like that, but I do understand the concept of pulling back from things. You know, come on, we all have sorrows. We all have this. But we\u2019re only here for a very brief time, so you may as well enjoy the living daylights out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what he values most, he says \u201ca reverence for life\u201d. <\/p>\n
Looking down the street to the theatre where we started, he says: \u201cI have deference for the warm breeze coming up the hill, the peppermint gum leaves above me and the beautiful blue up in the sky \u2026 and the knowledge that some people around you are simply, precious. I have gratitude, more than most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time I spoke to Colin Friels, he swore blind he was giving up the business of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-329887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}