To a menagerie of 26 characters, he adds Dr. Perry, a marriage counselor, and Beeno, an underworld kingpin — and he plays both characters.
Now it looks like Jack and Jill are set to follow him into multiplexes, with Adam Sandler signing up to play both characters – now twin siblings – in a new romantic comedy.
Not only does it play like a long, improvised riff – despite being filmed over the course of several days – but it takes a couple of watches to even figure out that Murphy plays both characters.
Then Hitler came to the rescue: Alexander Korda in 1937 had suggested I should do a Hitler story based on mistaken identity, Hitler having the same moustache as the tramp: I could play both characters, he said.
It may be hard to love the characters, but there is a great deal to like in a play that keeps you wanting to know, which flashes its heart, is non-judgmental, and craftily plays both characters and audience with many layers of ambiguity around exactly who is behaving most badly.
This was a dazzling piece of virtuosity, in which he played both characters, separating them by a small screen and changing from one to the other with such rapidity that the story seemed to flow as smoothly as if there were two actors on stage.
It was also decided that having Gillan play both characters would be more believable.
Well, he's about to demonstrate his range by playing both the title character in Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya," which opens on Sept. 17, and Malvolio in "Twelfth Night," opening Oct. 22.
In cases where one actor was playing both roles, Egeus' character would probably have filled both roles in this scene, absorbing Philostrate's lines into his own.
