Treat Williams, the actor known for his roles in the movies “Hair” and “Deep Rising” and the TV show “Everwood,” has died. An S.U.V. crashed into his motorcycle in Dorset, Vt. He was 71.
We spoke with him in 2013 following a performance as King Henry in The Lion in Winter. There was an after-party in a tent that included Jayne Atkinson his co-star.
Williams appeared to be in an upbeat mood after a superb and successful performance. He was chatting with Aaron Costa Ganis who played young Prince Richard to his King Henry while I was photographing.
“You always seem to catch me with a drink in my hand,” Williams said playfully. “Why are you taking so many pictures?”
“I’m a critic,” I said, introducing myself.
He laughed and said “I’ve never had anyone say that to my face. I’m a critic.”
I turned on a recorder to discuss the play and his ever-more-visible involvement in Berkshire theater. For this Stockbridge production he is commuting from a home in Manchester, Vermont. Charles Giuliano: Was it your idea to do Lion in Winter? CG: Why this particular play? CG: Lion in Winter is Shakespearean.
Williams: It’s Shakespearean but it’s also summer theater-y. It’s very funny. I wanted to so something period, and it’s very theatrical. It’s weird. I just threw a bunch of stuff out, and she threw a bunch of stuff out. When I said Lion in Winter, we both said “oh, great.” I have worked with [Lion author] James Goldman’s wife in Follies. When I called her, she said “sure” and here we are.
CG: How challenging is this? CG: You have, what, three weeks of rehearsal time? CG: What’s that like? CG: Unlike your work in film and television, you can’t ask for another take. CG: (noting Aaron Costa Ganis who plays Richard) Anthony Hopkins made his first film in your role as Richard. Those are tough shoes to fill. CG: Are you going to do more theatre here in the Berkshires? CG: You did a reading for Williamstown Theater Festival this past winter. (Shorts in Winter March 11 at Clark Art Institute.) CG: Was Fugard there? CG: Today we don’t hear much about him. CG: Is he in South Africa? CG: I can’t stand the useless Royals. What’s redeeming about the characters in Lion in Winter? CG: Back then, royalty actually seemed to do things. CG: Most parents don’t lock the kids in the basement. [END]
Perhaps, given his proximity, and the success of this initial collaboration, we will anticipate seeing more of him at Berkshire Theater Group.
Treat Williams: No, Kate (Maguire artistic director of BTG) and I sat down over dinner and talked about some possibilities.
Williams: In a perfect world I would have said let’s do Shakespeare. But there’s a lot of Shakespeare here.
Williams: Very.
Williams: Yes.
Williams: Very difficult. It’s great for your muscles. It’s like football.
Williams: No. So we made a lot of things up (laughs). No. It’s been great. Everybody has been very focused. We worked really, really hard and ran lines whenever we could. It’s summer theater. You know what you’re getting yourself into. I had three months to work on lines before I started rehearsals, so I was pretty much off-book. I thought I was off-book until we started, and everything fell apart and I forgot everything. I broke it down and started up again.
Williams: How about this? I did “Hair” the movie. Hair was written by Jerry Ragni and Jim Rado. In the original production (stage), Rado played Richard with Robert Preston as Henry. Philip, the King of France, was played by Christopher Walken. He and I worked together in Six Degrees.
Williams: Oh, yeah. I’m back. I moved back and have been working with the Berkshire Playwrights Lab. I did a play down in North Carolina.
Williams: I did, and I did a two-day reading down in North Carolina with Athol Fugard (Born 11 June 1932 a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English. Of his plays, he is perhaps best known for 1982’s Master Harold…and the Boys.)
Williams: Yes, he directed me. It’s a beautiful play called The Train Driver. (In it, the train driver, Roelf, searches for the identities of a mother and child he unintentionally killed with his train. It is the final production in Signature's Residency One: Athol Fugard Series.) It’s a beautiful, haunting play. John Beasley and I did a reading of it at the University of North Carolina. He’s a beautiful man and a wonderful playwright.
Williams: He lives his life. He’s got a girlfriend. He’s in his 80s. He gets around. He’s writing beautiful plays.
Williams: I believe he’s between there and Los Angeles. He’s a wonderful man. We wanted to do something together, and we will. It’s a matter of timing. It’s tough. I’m raising a teenaged daughter . . . with my beautiful wife in Vermont, but it’s hard to get to New York to do things. It has to be something quite special.
Williams: What’s redeeming? They are us.
Williams: They’re us. They’re a family at Christmas. That’s why I think the audience finds it funny. It’s really about a family at Christmas with all the problems that families have.
Williams: They happen to be royalty, and it happens to be 1183. But they have all of the needs and sense of loss. They are dysfunctional in a way that all families have problems and issues.
