Meet Antony Jardine – the professional actor set to bring to life the legacy of one of York’s most influential figures: Seebohm Rowntree.
Antony will star in His Last Report at York Theatre Royal, alongside a community ensemble of over 80 local people, as the pioneering social reformer whose groundbreaking investigation into poverty illuminated the struggles of the working class and laid the foundation for the welfare state.
Written by Misha Duncan-Barry and Bridget Foreman, and also starring Amelia Donkor as Gulie Harlock, the powerful play will take place from Saturday 19 July to Sunday 3 August.
Antony grew up in York and has starred in a previous York Theatre Royal production of Secret Garden in 2018 (co-produced with Theatre by the Lake.)
Antony’s other theatre credits include Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution (West End), Pocket Dream (Propeller), Still Life/Twelfth Night (The Mill at Sonning)and We’re Going On A Bear Hunt (International Tour).
YorkMix chatted with Antony to find out more about his connections to Seebohm Rowntree, how the play will resonate with audiences, and the importance of making theatre accessible to everyone.
Tickets for His Last Report start from £15, and are available via the York Theatre Royal website.
Q&A with Antony Jardine
Are you looking forward to His Last Report and playing a pioneering icon like Seebohm Rowntree?
It’s quite a daunting thing to take on, especially when you know the history of the character in the area and his standing culturally and in society, but I’m really excited about it. Coming back to the theatre and with the cast around me as well, I think it’s going to be a really great show. I’m really excited to get going!
You’ve performed at York Theatre Royal before – are you looking forward to being back?
Yes it’s so nice. There’s so many familiar faces and it’s such a friendly and buzzing building. It’s great to be back in the city I grew up in, and I’m very much looking forward to bringing my family up here to spend some time here and get some Yorkshire into them! It’ll be brilliant.
You have similar connections to York as Seebohm Rowntree himself – does that help you connect to the character?
He’s quite a difficult character not to connect to. What he was striving to achieve is, on the whole I think, a universal goal for many people – to try and eradicate poverty and help people pull themselves out of poverty. He was a Quaker, which I am, I went to New Earswick Primary School. I learned to swim in the swimming pool that the play mentions. I performed at Joseph Rowntree Theatre as well when I was a kid, and then went to Bootham – so it’s quite interesting, that really doesn’t happen as an actor very often. My dad actually worked for the Rowntree Foundation as well and the Rowntree Trust. So it really did feel very comfortable taking it on – daunting, I want to do a good job and try and get everything right – but very comfortable. I think it really does help give me a shorthand into the character, knowing his convictions and where he came from.
Is it a play and a character that means a lot to you?
Yes. I know he means an awful lot to York, so there is a lot of pressure to get it right and do good job. He’s a great example of, thinking locally, acting nationally. When I read the play, I certainly reflected on myself a little bit and thought, maybe I could be doing more to help people around me, and to think of the bigger picture, which sometimes it’s quite hard to do.
Do you hope audiences will come away from the play inspired to help the people in their lives too?
I very much hope that by telling the story that the audience that come in are able to understand the history. What the play does very brilliantly, is the first half really focuses on the publishing of the report, and the second half, the timeline jumps around a little bit, and we begin to see more of the modern world appearing around Seebohm, what maybe he would have made of the changes that have happened since his reports were published. One of the key themes of the play is that he thought that by understanding the issue of poverty, that will be enough to help solve poverty and to help bring everybody out of poverty – and yet, here we are. A number of years later, we’re still struggling with the cost of living crisis. People still having difficulty paying their bills, people are not being paid as fairly as they might be being paid, particularly in jobs that we should be praising, like teachers, medical staff, cleaners and so on. So I very much hope that people do come to the play, watch it and enjoy it. It’s very funny in parts, but it is very poignant. There is a lot of space for a bit of reflection in it. What would be great is if some of our politicians came along to see it as well, I think they could really learn something.
What do you think Seebohm’s reaction to seeing the play would be?
I’d love to say that he would find it funny, I think he’d be very entertained by it. I also think that potentially he might feel a little bit sad that perhaps the changes that he was hoping would come about from his work haven’t been fully implemented, but I think he would also find an awful lot of hope in it. I think he’d be able to look at New Earwswick village and see that his changes were successful. He did an awful lot of good and I think he set a template that people could follow. Sadly, the way big business has gone, they’re looking at the margins and they’re making cuts and slashing budgets and so on. It’s very easy to forget about the human cost involved – so I think he would be really pleased that the play was being put on.
The show features a community ensemble of over 80 local people – are you looking forward to working with such a big cast?
It’s going to be absolutely wonderful. Particularly since Covid, cast sizes have reduced slightly to balance the books, which is understandable. So when a job like this comes along and you get an opportunity to work with people that are fulfilling their passion and expressing their creativity with a commitment that possibly a professional doesn’t have. It’s a big thing to take on a project like this when you have other commitments, a full time job, or you have caring commitments elsewhere. So what they’re doing it’s a remarkable thing. And what the theatre is doing, bringing everything together in a community show with the community, telling a story that resonates with the community – it’s a rare thing. I really can’t wait to get in the room and get going.
There’s a special ‘pay what you can’ performance on Saturday 19 July – how important do you think it is, especially now, making sure that theatre is accessible to everyone?
I think it’s fundamental for the theatres to be able to reach out to to audiences that potentially might not consider a night at the theatre as a possibility. And that may be because ticket prices are very high at the moment, particularly for West End shows with hot young actors that everybody wants to get a ticket for. That’s absolutely great in its own right, bringing a new audience in that maybe haven’t been to the theatre before and they then fall in love with theatre and go and buy more tickets. But there has to be accessibility for everyone, and unfortunately, with the cuts the arts have had over the last few years, that gulf seems to be getting wider. Particularly taking a family out to see a show, it’s prohibitively expensive sometimes. So for a theatre to be able to roll out a performance, where people can go and be comfortable with the price entry points – I think it’s remarkable. I hope it’s hugely successful.
If you haven’t convinced audiences already, why should they come and see His Last Report?
I think it’s going to be joyous! It’s just a wonderful play, and beautifully written. It’s got everything. I think it will be a really great night out.