What to do…with my anger at events in the world?  What to do with my sorrow and sadness?  What to do with my frustration at politicians? What to do with the fury I feel towards the arms manufacturers who will be rubbing their hands in glee (though trying to remember not to do so in public)?  What to do with the voice inside me that wants to shout at the instigators of conflicts, this conflict and all conflicts in the world right now: ‘Have you forgotten the climate crisis?  Or do you simply not care?’

Our thoughts are with those, particularly the innocent, caught up in this and all conflicts.  There are many small things we can or could do.  Donations, financial or otherwise.  Prayers, vigils, protests.  Providing refuge.  And much more.  But for myself, the main thing I have decided, and this decision was taken weeks ago, before any actual invasion of Ukraine seemed likely, is to take my play THE MISTAKE – about Hiroshima and the first atomic bomb – to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year.  This is a risk for all kinds of reasons, but if not now, then when?  The subject matter has always seemed of the utmost importance.  But how could I know that in these grim times it would seem even more urgent and relevant?

So this will be my modest contribution to peace, justice and understanding in the world.  Next year I plan to take the play round the country more widely and get it into schools. 

There are two of us performing in the play.  I will portray numerous people involved in events preceding the dropping of the bomb – in particular, one of the scientists involved, Leo Szilard, who did all he could to stop the bomb being deployed and subsequently worked for peace and disarmament.  And an English-speaking female Japanese performer will portray a young woman who survives the blast and then goes in search of her parents in the devastated city. Some verbatim testimonies are used in the play.    

If you know of anyone going to the Festival this August or have any friends or family there or nearby we would greatly welcome their support.  The play runs from Aug 5-27 (not 14^th) at Venue 36, the Space on North Bridge, Edinburgh, at 10.45 in the morning.  There will also be performances in London at some point which I will let you know about.  Should anyone wish to contribute something, however small, to our crowd-funding for this non-profit making venture, it would be most gratefully received – but with so many other demands on people’s pockets, I don’t expect it.                                         

The play’s title refers to the inscription on the memorial to the victims of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima Peace Park.  ‘Rest in peace, for the mistake will not be repeated.’   We have to do whatever we can, in whatever way we can, to ensure that the mistake will indeed NOT be repeated.   

It’s been a little while since I updated my acting showreel – but having appeared in The Crown and BBC’s Ghosts in the last year or so, I felt it was time to add these clips – and generally give the showreel a ‘spring clean’. This was managed thanks to the excellent work of Sarah Agha at ‘Killer Showreels’, who I can highly recommend to any performers looking to create or update a showreel. ( info@killershowreels.com )

I asked Sarah whether I should still have the clip from Four Weddings and a Funeral in the reel, as it was from a time when I was looking just a little younger than I do now? (The same goes for Hugh Grant! ) But she felt it was worth keeping in as it was such an iconic film. If you have three minutes to spare (well, three minutes and eleven seconds), do take a look.

My new three minute film – shot on my i-phone during the 2nd lockdown in November 2020 – including footage of an empty central London…

Taking his cue from Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, an actor wrestles with the new realities of COVID and the closure of all theatres for the foreseeable future.  Is there any point in carrying on at all?  But actors have worn masks (comic and tragic) since plays were first performed in ancient Greece; and on a journey through a deserted capital city, the actor sees something that encourages a fragile optimism.

Please enjoy this three-minute diversion and feel free to share far and wide! And consider making a donation, however small, for performers and creative workers suffering hardship at: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/equity-benevolentfund

I’ve been working as a professional actor for over 40 years now – just writing
that sentence fills me with a certain sense of awe and wonder as well as an
undertow of where have all the years gone?
‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have
their entrances and their exits, and one man in his time plays many parts.’
Thus says Jaques in Shakespeare’s As You Like It.
Looking back now, I’ve played a goodly number of parts: various lawyers,
doctors, politicians – not forgetting a trio of different undertakers (because of
my tall lugubrious looks?) – oh and once I even played an exorcist!
But it sometimes seems to me that the majority of the parts this ‘one man in his
time’ has been called upon to play, have been members of the clergy. The one with the highest status was probably the Inquisitor in Shaw’s SAINT JOAN.

I’ve yet to be asked to play the Pope however. Any Pope. Though last year I did play an Italian priest sent by the Pope (to investigate alleged miracles occurring in Rwanda).
Usually it’s been a humble vicar or reverend that I’ve been asked to don a dog-collar for. And most of these parts have been played onstage.

But about thirty years ago I was called upon to play my first on-screen priest.
An Italian one, and a young one (well, I was young then) – in a charming film
about the Italian community in London called QUEEN OF HEARTS. One of
my scenes involved me presiding at a baptism, which was filmed in St. Peter’s
Church in Clerkenwell, and one of the priests there was on hand to ‘give me
advice’.
He was a short, stout, keen-eyed Italian man, who gave me tips on how to hold
the baby. He watched me closely and after I had successfully finished shooting
the scene, he came up to me and said, ‘You should be a priest.’
I laughed and thanked him.
‘No, I’m serious,’ he went on. ‘You should become a priest.’
‘Well,’ I responded, ‘There are similarities between acting and the priesthood,
I suppose. You know, standing in front of a crowd of people, addressing
them from a pulpit or ‘stage’. Needing to have a decent voice, being able to
project…there are similarities…’ I tapered off as I noticed him waiting for me to finish. ‘I am serious. You should become a priest.’
‘But I love acting and I’m only in the early years of my career…’
‘Think about what I say,’ were his final words as he ambled off back to his
office.
Two years later I was walking from my then home in Streatham to Tooting Bec
tube station. As I approached a bus-stop near the tube I saw him – he was
unmistakable.
‘Father! It’s me! Do you remember? The actor you gave advice to for the film
a couple of years ago.’
He looked at me keenly. ‘Oh yes, I remember you well.’
‘What are you doing here in south London?’ I asked.
‘Visiting Catholic prisoners at Wandsworth Prison.’
‘Ah yes.’
He then scrutinised me for a moment before saying, ‘So, are you a priest yet?’

I didn’t succumb to his ‘hard-sell’ then or at any other time, but in a sense I did
fulfil his almost-command to ‘become a priest’ – by portraying so many of them
on stage and screen through the subsequent years.
My latest incarnation, a German Jesuit priest, an atomic-bomb survivor in
Hiroshima, is one that I have worked on during lockdown – it’s an extraordinary
story and he comes across as a very special priest, not that he would ever have
described himself as such.

This performance, THE PRIEST’S TALE, was
filmed and livestreamed on August 6th but is still available to view on Vimeo at
https://vimeo.com/438259377 or by going to http://www.sandsfilms.co.uk and
clicking on theatre events. (There’s also a wonderful Japanese violinist, Chihiro Ono, who provides musical interludes.)

But why? Why all these priests? A chap I met and talked to about this a few
years back, and who claimed to be psychic, said it was obvious.
‘You must have been a priest in a past life.’
Of course! That’s the answer I should have given to the priest advising me on
the film.
‘You should become a priest.’ ‘No need, I’ve already done that – in a previous life.’

I was told by someone in the know the other day that if I wanted to record THE PRIEST’s TALE for BBC Radio next year that it would sort of be out of date – as the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings is this year. Hmm. So nuclear weapons won’t exist in 2021? First I’ve heard of it…
Here are the four dramatic online perspectives on war and nuclear weapons, put together this year with Jatinder Verma, You-Ri Yamanaka, Chihiro Ono, Rosamunde Hutt, Leo Ashizawa and Olivier Stockman (of Sands Films) :
THE PRIEST’S TALE https://vimeo.com/438259377
THE MISTAKE film-collage https://youtu.be/QURQZ6WUU_g (screenshot below) THIS EVIL THING https://michaelmears.org/this-evil-thing
THE DOCTOR’S TALE https://vimeo.com/438273483

From 8.15 am in the morning of the Thursday August 6th, exactly 75 years since the first atomic bomb was dropped,
you can see our 15 minute collage of extracts and images from my postponed theatre play THE MISTAKE, on Youtube: at that time and anytime thereafter…
at the new link (posted 3/8/20): https://youtu.be/QURQZ6WUU_g

Then that evening…

THE PRIEST’S TALE is an adaptation by myself of one of the survivor’s accounts from John Hersey’s classic book HIROSHIMA.
Father Wilhelm was a German Jesuit priest living in Hiroshima at the time of the first atomic bombing.

At 7.30pm on August 6th, I will perform this story live,
from the stage of Sands Films Studios Theatre, Rotherhithe, London…
with live violin accompaniment by Chihiro Ono. (Duration approx. 55 mins.)
Directorial supervision by Rosamunde Hutt.
This event is co-hosted by the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre.

Go to Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/114935906390

or https://www.facebook.com/events/934559037019595/

Hope you might be able to join us…

…in livestreamed performances from the stage of Sands Films Studios Theatre, Rotherhithe, London…

AUGUST 6th
THE PRIEST’S TALE is an adaptation by actor/playwright Michael Mears of one of the survivor’s accounts from John Hersey’s classic book HIROSHIMA.
Father Wilhelm was a German Jesuit priest living in Hiroshima at the time of the first atomic bombing. His account is a compelling and clear-eyed description of his experiences that day and in the subsequent months and years – told with compassion and warmth.
At 7.30pm on August 6th, the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb, Michael Mears will perform this story live, with live violin accompaniment by Chihiro Ono. (Duration approx. 55 mins.) Directorial supervision by Rosamunde Hutt. This event is co-hosted by the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre.
https://vimeo.com/438259377 or https://www.facebook.com/events/934559037019595/

AUGUST 9th

THE DOCTOR’S TALE is a version by actor/playwright Michael Mears of NAGASAKI 1945, an account by a young doctor working in a small hospital in Nagasaki at the time of the second atomic bomb, detailing how he and his few staff, with very limited supplies, survived that day and the following weeks.

At 7.30pm on August 9th, the 75th anniversary of the Nagasaki bomb,
Japanese actor Leo Ashizawa will give a livestreamed reading of this story, with support from Michael Mears and with live musical accompaniment by Chihiro Ono.
(Duration approx. 75 minutes.)
https://vimeo.com/438273483 or https://www.facebook.com/events/3587327054630140/

We hope to raise money through donations to offer the two Japanese performers payment, for Sands Films streaming the event, and for CND.

These performances will be available for a while afterwards as well…

I had been hard at work on my new project, a play about Hiroshima – which was due to be performed by myself and UK-based Japanese actress You-Ri Yamanaka, and all set to be directed by Jatinder Verma, and I’d spent a good chunk of time trying to secure a venue for the play at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as a tour of the play in the autumn to many parts of the UK…when along came a certain virus…

Like everybody, I was knocked for six when lockdown was introduced. The previous week, I had been sent reeling by the closure of the theatres and all other live performance venues; festivals began to be cancelled one by one and soon it was the turn of Edinburgh to suffer this fate.
Continue reading →

Just over 100 years ago, British conscientious objectors were locked down in this country against their will because of the ‘virus’ it was feared they were spreading- the virus of pacifism and anti-militarism.

Now as we are all locked down against our will for several weeks, I have made a home movie version of my solo stage play THIS EVIL THING, (which I have now performed over 100 times in the UK and in the USA) which portrays the compelling and inspiring story of Britain’s WW1 conscientious objectors.

Using just my i-phone and its excellent ‘movie’ features and using every available corner of my two-bedroom flat in SW London, I have recreated my performance of all 52 roles (some with only 1 line, granted) as well as performing all the roles within a film crew! (Including doing my own catering…)

This lockdown offering is in 6 x 15 minute ‘chapters’ – it premiered on Friday May 15th, 2020, International Conscientious Objectors’Day and will remain online until further notice at the link below…please tell your friends! Thank you!

‘Magnificent storytelling’ (Amnesty International judges at Edinburgh 2016)

Every year on May 15th we remember those who have established and are maintaining the right to refuse to kill, both in the past and today. Hundreds of people across the world are imprisoned or forced to flee their home countries for refusing to join the armed forces. On May 15th we stand in solidarity with them, as well as celebrating the memory of all those throughout history who have resisted conscription.

This year on May 15th there will be several events, open to anyone in the UK or abroad. Usually ceremonies are held around the UK, but this year due to the Coronavirus outbreak the ceremonies will happen online.

NATIONAL CEREMONY – FRIDAY MAY 15TH – 12 MIDDAY

Join us for a minute’s silence, songs and speeches. I will read testimonies from Second World War conscientious objectors. Niat Chefena Hailemariam from Network of Eritrean Women will speak about military service in Eritrea, which is compulsory for both men and women.

Here’s my one minute trailer for this event…

Visit this page https://www.ppu.org.uk/international-conscientious-objectors-day
for updates and how to join closer to the time…
or go to http://www.co-day.org