The Half

ACCLAIMED actor Guy Masterson returns to the Welwyn Garden City stage next month in new play The Half at the Hawthorne Theatre.

AN actor’s life is frequently a solitary one – and one that can flirt with madness.

Night after night, putting yourself in someone else’s life, putting your body and mind through concentrated experiences, it can take its toll.

In The Half, the latest play from award-winning actor Guy Masterson, these concerns are all too apparent.

Set backstage in the 35-minute period before a show – known to actors as the ‘half’ – the play explores the loneliness, fear and weird backstage world of an actor preparing to perform in a one-man show about Hamlet.

Beyond the stage, his life is collapsing – he’s sold his house, his car, and his wife has left him – but the actor strives to carry on and deliver the killer final role.

A cleverly crafted script by Richard Dormer, at times ferociously funny, moving and bleak, gives Masterson the chance to really flex his acting muscles, taking the audience on a fascinating journey into the mind of a man at the end of his tether but at the start of a performance.

If you saw any of the performances in Masterson’s recent one-man season at the Hawthorne Theatre, you’ll know how good he can be.

Theatre Tours International presents The Half at the Hawthorne Theatre, Campus West, in WGC, on Monday, February 13.

Tickets cost £10.