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Final orders with the Wild Thing

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THE story of a hell-raising actor will be told in Glór on May 10 in Rob Crouch and Mike Davis’ show Oliver Reed-Wild Thing.

The two co-wrote what is a one-man show, and it is performed by Crouch.

Speaking to The Clare Champion last week, Crouch said Reed had a lot of ties to Ireland and actually spent a lot of time in Clare.

“He was probably one of Britain’s most successful movie stars for a time. Then he became more famous for just being drunk and appearing on various chat shows in the US and the UK and behaving badly.

“He ended up in Ireland and all his life he had quite a strong affinity with Ireland, he had a house in Clare in the mid-to-late ’60s and he ended up living in North Cork in Churchtown, and that is where he’s now buried. His first wife was from Dublin so there were a lot of Irish connections.”

While Reed did plenty of hard living, Crouch puts him into a different category to some of the other raucous stars of his time.

“He always liked the drink. I don’t think he was ever a vodka on the Cornflakes kind of drinker, he just loved being in the pub, but he would stay in the pub for five days rather than just an afternoon.

“In the early part of his career he was very, very professional and he was never drunk when he was working but when he was playing he played very, very hard. I think that’s where he was slightly different from people like Richard Harris or Richard Burton.”

Reed died in Malta 14 years ago and the play shows him on his final booze up, with the actor reflecting on his life, going back to his childhood, his prime and subsequent decline.

Obviously Reed is very much in Crouch’s head, and he says he has something of a complex relationship with him. “Most of the time I feel like he’s a fictional character because I think that’s the only way I can cope with going on stage and doing it. I also think of him maybe as an uncle, who sometimes behaved badly and sometimes his behaviour wasn’t particularly glorious but I can also appreciate his extraordinary talent. I have quite a complicated relationship with him, he’s with me a lot when I’m doing this.”

Getting feedback from the Reed family was frightening, but they were pleased with it. “His son came from out of the blue really to see the show. He heard it was on, tracked it down and came to see it and then he approached us. That was really scary knowing that he’d be there. But he was complimentary, I think he liked it, he felt it was quite respectful. We don’t shy away from some of the darker moments, but basically it’s quite a respectful and truthful telling of his life. There is a lot of sensationalisation and a lot of people have focused on the hell raising and the bad behaviour rather than the whole story, but we did the whole story really.”

Doing a one-man show is quite intimidating but it does have rewards. “In terms of just doing a thing on your own it can be lonely. In the moments just before you go on stage you miss the companionship of somebody else you can look at and go ‘it’s going to be okay’. But you don’t have to share the glory when there is some!”

 

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