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Club Theatre. Robert McQueen, left, originally from the North Shore, plays the writer's boyfriend Saul. John

Ormerod plays writer Rich.

NORTH VAN ACTOR TALKS ABOUT NEW PLAY

A.D.

S...

presented As Is

WEST Vancouver’s Robert McQueen figures there has to be
more to acting than just earning a living.

Currently starring in the Arts
Club Theatre production of As Js,
McQueen says he took on the role
of Saul because he considered the
-play an important one, above the
frivolous and the facile.

‘More importantly, I think it is
an uplifting play that helps to per-
sonalize an illness that is primarily
‘related to the public through
frightening statistics,’’

As is is about AIDS and how it
affects relationships. Saul is the
recently spurned lover of Rich,
whose life takes a temporary
plunge into the abyss of foneliness
and despair after he is diagnosed
as having AIDS.

LOVER LEAVES

Rich’s new lover leaves him and
his friends abandon him when they
discover Rich has the illness.

When Saul returns to settle divi-
sion of the couple's property, he
refuses to let Rich die alone.

In addition to removing AIDS
from the chill emptiness of
statistics, McQueen says the play
also delivers a relationship that is
“different’? from its stereotypical
public image.

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reporter

“People can see what a gay rela-
tionship is like, chat it is a rela-
tionship basically like any other.”

McQueen says he has been
overwhelmed by audience reaction
since As is opened at the Seymour
Street Arts Club on March 26:
“Husbands of friends, a section of
the audience you might think
would be hardest to reach, have
come back stage to express how
moved they have been by the play.
It’s wonderful really.’”

LOCAL ROOTS

Born in North Vancouver, but
raised in West Vancouver, the 27-
year-old McQueen progressed
through local acting schools to
Toronto and, in 1980, to New’
York. ‘

Studying under Carol Rosenfeld
at New York's Herbert Berghoff
Studios, McQueen spent six years
honing his skills in one of the
world’s toughest markeis.

After performing in off-Broad-
way musicals, working in television
commercials, and acting toe-to-toe

with the best in the world, Mc-
Queen ran into a mid-career crisis
of direction.

He decided his motivations for
acting were no fonger personally
valid. He no longer wanted to act
for the sake of acting or the simple
adulation of an audience, ‘'l found
I did not need that any longer."’

Following a period of giddy
freedom from oppressive career
goals, McQueen felt an urge to
return to the West Coast lifestyle
and scenery of his home town.

Back in Vancouver, the As is
role came up. He jumped at the
opportunity.

McQueen says he liked the play
when he saw it in New York,
because it dealt with relationships
set against the backdrep of serious
current illness and did so with
humor.

“People expect people with
AIDS to be wandering around

* depressed and constantly morose,

but that is just not the case.””

A visit to the play’s cast by a
group of people with AIDS made a
deep impression on McQueen.

Rather than bow to the illness,
McQueen says, ‘‘They had decided
to live. And | think the play
focuses on that need te live in the
here and now, it makes you aware
of the moment.”

7 ~ Friday, April 4, 1986 ~ North Shore News

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