It’s sunny in Hull, I’m told. Ireland is overcast but that doesn’t dampen the spirit of Darren Bennett, star of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which flies into Grand Canal Theatre later this month. He’s been to the theatre and like almost everyone else I’ve met has marvelled at it. Now he’s gearing up to wow Irish audiences with the classic and much loved musical about a flying car.
Totally Dublin got the chance to exchange a few words with Darren prior to his trip to Ireland with Chitty.
So Darren, you’re all set to hit Ireland the end of the month?
Yes, we’re looking forward to it. I came over two months ago and visited the Grand Canal Theatre to see where we were going to be and it’s phenomenal. The whole cast are very excited about coming over.
It’s a fantastic venue to be performing in.
Yeah, it’s wonderful. I mean, we’re putting new elements of the show back into this production because the theatres can cope with it. It’s very exciting.
Can you tell us a bit about the character you play and the plot of the show?
I play Caractacus Potts, an eccentric inventor that has two children and his wife has died. But basically his children play in this broken down old car that they call Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which is an old racing car. He wants to buy the car for them just to play in but he can’t afford to so he sells his inventions to come up with the money and then creates this flying car. In the process, he flies to Bulgaria, saves the children from the evil Child-Catcher and the Baron and Baroness and puts the world right. So it’s a good, good and evil kind of story on stage.
The Child-Catcher is one of those terrifying villains. He was voted one of the most evil villains of all time in a film or musical.
Yeah he’s a terrifying character, he’s always plotting. Stephen Gately played the character in London. He’s a very eerie character, he’s dressed in black, he’s sinewy and has this big hook that he catches children with. It’s a terrifying image. And it’s interesting that in this hi-tech age, children are still frightened by that dark figure.
It’s a very different musical in the sense that you’ve got a flying car on the stage. What’s it like acting opposite something inanimate but it’s really a character in itself?
Well I’m under no illusions who the star of the show is. It’s the car. Then you have the children, the dogs and then the actors afterwards so the actors are quite low down in the pecking order. Chitty itself, the car is spectacular, one of the most expensive stage props ever. I think it cost ¾ million pound to build. It’s a big hung of metal and wood and it’s basically a car. But when it flies it’s wonderful to see the looks of amazement on the audience’s faces. And you get adults with tears in their eyes because it brings back childhood memories from when they first saw the film!
The age old mantra of “Never work with children or animals” isn’t applying at the moment then?
Well no, it does! I mean, we’ve got 40 children, 12 dogs and a car so as an actor I’m fighting a losing battle!
I have a pup I wanted to put forward at the audition but I think he’d have caused mayhem.
Well the dogs do cause havoc. They are trained but they’re still animals so you’re never sure what they’re going to do.
Coming back to yourself, you’ve had a lot of great roles, the one that struck me was Don Lockwood in Singing In The Rain which is one of my favourite musicals. But you’ve also had roles in 42nd Street and Hot Shoe Shuffle, how does Chitty differ from them?
On paper, it’s not a difficult role or a tiring role to play. But the difference is, when I played Don Lockwood, I was younger. I’m playing a dad with two children on the stage in this so obviously I’ve gotten older. When you go back and do it, it’s a very high energy and physical performance so it is quite tiring. I’m obviously getting old! But having said that, once the audience responds, it’s a breath of fresh air and I love it.
How did you get in musical theatre then? Was it in you childhood or later?
In infant school. We had drama clubs and things like that. When I was in school the English teacher used to drama with us and obviously my English teacher at that time thought I had a flair for performing so I went through school doing all the school productions: Shakespeare and that. So I got the bug as early as the age of 7, one of my first roles was as one of the seven dwarves. I’ve been doing it ever since. It was there inherently.
Coming back to what we were saying then about the great roles you’ve had, are there any dream roles that you would love to play? Or maybe that you would love to have played but have unfortunately missed out on?
I was always desperate to play Kipps in Half A Sixpence because it’s a great role. When I started out in theatre they were casting 35 year old people in 20 year old roles so when I got to that age I thought ‘great I can start playing these roles now’ and then they flipped the coin and they were casting people the right age. So I missed the boat in that respect. It’s weird, you can aspire to play certain roles but theatre is run in such an erratic nature nowadays that you just go with the flow. I’ve been quite lucky in the sense that things have managed to land in my lap. I’ve tried to plan for certain role but they’ve never happened and then roles that I wasn’t really hankering after have just come to me so I’ve been very lucky.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang runs from the 21st July to the 14th of August in Grand Canal Theatre. Tickets are available now.
Words: Anna Hayes
