• October 09, 1978
• Vol. 10
• No. 15

From Equus to St. Mark's Gospel, When Alec McCowen Performs, It's Worth a Gander

By Kristin McMurran

As an actor, Alec McCowen is among Britain's great classicists, but his personal tastes are perversely eclectic. He says he hates ballet, Mozart and Billie Holiday, but is mad about Saturday Night Fever, Sibelius and Henry Winkler. "All the things you have to like are BORRRING!" he snorts. "It is lovely to go against the rules and do material that is not obvious." Now, at 53, the iconoclastic McCowen has confounded his world of admirers once again, creating a one-man stage piece out of St. Mark's Gospel. It was a succès fou in London and a sellout last month in New York despite the newspaper strike, and still would be except that Alec committed himself to 12 more U.S. cities in the next 10 weeks.

"My friends were horrified," McCowen laughs, when he first revealed he was embarked on a 16-month project to memorize the 678 verses of the King James version. "Some thought it was for the Guinness Book of World Records, but after I had read the first three chapters I knew it was the best script I'd ever had." He performs on a bare stage with a table, three chairs, a pitcher of water, a glass and a minuscule copy of the Testament which he can refer to should his memory fail (it never has). "I wanted to get away from any churchy atmosphere," he explains, "away from the overreverent approach to the Bible." A nonchurchgoer, Alec reports, "I have tended to worship God in fields, and the story of Jesus takes place in the terrific heat of the country. That is why I wear a blazer and an open-neck shirt. I like to get the feeling of the sun, dust and long walks." When McCowen finishes a performance, he's thirsty, he says—preferably for dry martinis.

"The English simply cannot make them," he finds, which is one reason why Alec enjoyed his tour last week in Hartford and was looking forward to Cambridge this week and Cleveland next. Wherever he visits, McCowen sports an artificial daisy in his lapel and wears—the natives should be warned—a red sweater on "aggressive" days and a blue one when he's serene. It's just a defense. His longtime friend Nancy (Lou Grant) Marchand confides that the stage transforms Alec: "He's painfully shy, but the stage unlocks a personality full of dimension, humanity and wit."

The only son of a pram shop proprietor and a retired ballerina, McCowen almost stayed locked in his native Kent. "I always wanted to be an actor, but I didn't want to disappoint my parents." At 16, however, he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts where he lasted for 18 shaky months before making his name in provincial rep and with the Old Vic. Alec is best known internationally for his portrayal of the crazed Pope in Hadrian VII and the brooding psychiatrist in Equus. His movies include Hitchcock's Frenzy and Travels with My Aunt.

Not married, he divides his time between a Kensington penthouse and a flat overlooking the English Channel. A traitor to his British heritage, he mutters, "I loathe pets. I'm my own pet." He likes to "bash out" show tunes on his upright piano and reads George Eliot, but as to true avocations, McCowen concedes, "I really did St. Mark's Gospel because I didn't have a hobby. Most actors, it seems to me, are happiest working."