Q&A: Clive Rowe on themes of HADESTOWN and joining cast as Hermes

Photo credit: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg

Besties, we were recently invited along to the media night to welcome the new cast members of Hadestown, which continues to delight audiences at London’s Lyric Theatre. Before the performance, we met with the new principal cast members to talk about the smash hit musical. Next up, we have Clive Rowe who is now playing Hermes in the London production.

WEBF: First question, obviously there's a lot of themes around the seasons and the changing of the seasons in this show… Personally, are you a summer or a winter person?

Clive: I'm going to go summer. I know that's the obvious answer.

WEBF: It's not necessarily - I'm a winter person!

Clive: Yeah, I love snow. I love snow.

WEBF: Getting all cosy by the fire...

Clive: In your big coat, throwing snowballs and then regretting it because your gloves are wet, you know? (chuckles)

WEBF: But you're a summer person?

Clive: I am a summer person.

WEBF: Excellent. So specifically about Hermes – this is a really interesting kind narrator-cum-compare role that's had, we think, probably the most diversity or flexibility in casting (it was Melanie La Barrie last time we saw the show). How did you personally approach this role and your interpretation of this narrator figure?

Clive: For me, I saw the show in rehearsals, and Daniel [Breaker] who was playing the part was fantastic. And I had listened to the album, both albums, the British and the American cast album. And… I don't know if I should say this, but I felt that there was a possibility that, because of the music of the piece, that the narrative was… not ‘missed’, but was underplayed, because you get so involved in the music. In rehearsals myself, I got so involved with the music. And please forgive me, Melanie - I don't mean that in a negative way because the performances were stunning. I mean, they are stunning. They're stunning. But I just felt that there was if I was going to do anything, I was going to try and get that narrative, that storytelling across, because Hermes' emotional journey is heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking, because of his love for Orpheus, and the fact that he is the person that drives them to do it again, and again, and again, and again, because he wants it to work out. So my journey was that pursuit of narrative and trying to get his narrative story across.

WEBF: That's really interesting. And kind of off the back of that, and I don't know if you and the character overlap in this respect, but do you believe that fate is inevitable? Do you think you can escape fate?

Clive: I don't particularly believe in fate, but I do believe that you can only make the choice you make at the time you make it. That is the choice that you are going to make. So if that is fate, then that’s fate, you know? You can't go left and right, you have to go left or right, or forward - you can't do all three at the same time. It’s impossible.

WEBF: And then whatever falls out from that...

CR: (gesturing in different directions) From that, from that, from that, from that, from that.. So, is it predestined? I don't think anything is predestined, but I think within each moment that we live, we can only make the choice we make at that given moment, that is the choice that we.

WEBF: And speaking of choices, do you think that you would have looked back?

Clive: God, that's a great question... No.

WEBF: Really?

Clive: I'm too stubborn. (laughs)

WEBF: Okay, yeah, you've been given a task, and you want to prove yourself!

Clive: And I think the beauty of it is that - and I'm sure that everybody else has picked up on this - is that Hades' test is what he goes through every year. That's why he sees it as the cruellest thing he can possibly do because he does it six months of the year, every year. He doesn't look back, he has to wait. And he has to believe, and he has to trust that this beautiful thing – Persephone - is going to come back to him. And so he can't think of any harder test for somebody than to trust that that person is going to come back.

WEBF: Trust in hope is quite a powerful motivator.

Clive: Interesting, I said stubborn rather than trusting. (laughs)

WEBF: It says a lot about what you think of yourself.

Clive: It does.

Hadestown is currently booking at the Lyric Theatre until 13 December, with tickets available here.