You know instantly from his smile and friendly manner that you will like George Fouracres – The Shakespearean actor with a name that could just as well be of a Shakespearean character. But becoming a member of The Globe’s ensemble did not come by any of the regular routes, writes Michael Holland.
Born in the Black Country to a Shakespeare-loving librarian father and a mum with whom he watched Dad’s Army and Only Fools and Horses, you could say George had the best of both worlds and was quite theatrical at an early age: ‘I spent half my time dressed as Captain Hook or recreating Frollo’s key songs from the Hunchback of Notre Dame in front of the gas fireplace,’ he recalls.
Academic acumen shot him to Cambridge to study Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, but it wasn’t a place that he enjoyed. It was, though, a place where his love of comedy found an outlet via Cambridge Footlights, and George has since gone on to stand-up comedy, being part of acclaimed comedy trio Daphne (with Jason Forbes and Phil Wang) and become a highly-respected comedic writer and performer.
Comedy, however, was not an early goal set in the Wolverhampton of his childhood but something he feels is an intrinsic part of life: ‘I never really thought about comedy as any different to being alive,’ he says. ‘Laughter and life are interwoven. If you’re not laughing something absolutely terrible has happened.’
Yet, with a myriad of comedy shows to his credit, here he is playing in Much Ado About Nothing(until 23rd October), and The Tempest(until 22nd October) at The Globe where he is attracting most of the favourable reviews and having the time of his life. To be fair, though, George has not just come to The Bard’s works: ‘It was performing his plays that made me properly aware of them, and performed my first one in Year 10, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which I have since performed another two times.’
Talking about the plays is a top topic for Mr Fouracres, he becomes instantly enthused: ‘I think it’s the chance to play these larger than life, open characters that I love. There’s also some, dare I say, mystical, element of time travel to it. Trying to plumb how someone felt and thought 400 years ago, and discovering which bits match up with how we think and feel today.’
And if these golden opportunities dried up? ‘I’d go back to university to study palaeontology somewhere. Dinosaurs are my first and true love, I have a very, very minor diploma in Palaeobiology from the University of Alberta and I could never be bored doing that.’
I don’t think George Fouracres will be disappearing from the stage any time soon and can be seen at The Globe right now.
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