John Tufts, Actor

John Tufts is an actor at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. His roles include Parolles in All’s Well That Ends Well.

Interview Excerpts

ON THE TOPICALITY OF SHAKESPEARE

JOHN TUFTS: Well, I guess I don’t separate Shakespeare and contemporary theater. I mean, Shakespeare is about topical things in the same way that Angels in America is about topical things, but Shakespeare, like Angels in America is about a lot more than topical things. People still perform Angels in America even though Reagan is not president, nor was he, I guess, at the time that the play came out. Even though Roy Cohn is long dead. Even though AIDS—we have a lot more distance from AIDS than we did in 1991. We can now observe it a little bit more coolly. But the play still resonates.

Shakespeare, you know—Shakespeare is—is extremely topical when you consider the history plays. At least for when he was writing. But there are larger themes that permeate, in spite of its topicality.

Actually, because of its topicality, I think. I think sometimes things being so topical and so specific allow us a context and can give us a chance to see things as more universal.

Ultimately, though, the reason why I like Shakespeare and the reason why I think people go to Shakespeare—or if people enjoy it, why they enjoy it—is because of the characters. I think the characters are the strongest thing in Shakespeare.

You have people that are so highly realized, they have so many facets and so many nuances. They are beautiful and they’re grotesque. They are charming and they are repulsive. And sometimes they’re all of those things at the same time, when you have brilliant characters, like Falstaff, for example, who at times your heart breaks for him; he’s endearing, you want to hug him; you loath him, you think he’s repulsive. Maybe he reminds you of somebody. That kind of stuff.

I also like the characters in Shakespeare because they have an intense awareness of their own fate and of who they are. I—we just did All’s Well That Ends Well and I played Parolles and I—and I loved Parolles so much because he had—there’s a moment after he’s betrayed his entire army, to itself, thinking that it’s the enemy—he thinks he’s telling the enemy secrets when in fact he’s blindfolded and telling his own army, his own army’s secrets, as a kind of test.

Well, he fails the test miserably, his best friend leaves him, and the rest of the army leaves him and they say not only basically are we leaving you but when we get back to your home, we’re going to tell everybody what you did.

And in a moment of utter despair and humiliation, he has this realization that in fact, his despairing state will be the thing that saves him and keeps him alive. And he has this line that I think I love. He says—or that I loved—that he says that is, “Simply the thing I am shall make me live.”

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF CHARACTERS

JOHN TUFTS: A good production, you come away thinking about every choice that all of those characters made. A good production of King Lear, you’re not thinking about—initially, at least—you’re not thinking about the themes of the play and—and you know, power and all of that kind of stuff, you’re thinking about every step in King Lear’s journey.

You’re thinking about how devastating it was to learn that the fool has been hanged.  You don’t even get to see it but you’re thinking about how horrifying it was that you didn’t get to see it. You’re thinking about Goneril and Regan’s death and how humiliating their own death is. You’re—you’re thinking about what possible hope there could be with Edgar taking over, after Lear’s death.

You’re exhausted because of every choice that those characters have made. You know, it’s almost like imagine—imagine sitting at a Thanksgiving dinner with a family that’s on the verge of exploding, or imploding. And that’s what that play should at least feel like. And—and then through that you think about the themes and all of those academic Shakespearean things. But I think it’s only through the characters that that happens.