Damian Lewis Says New Role Ideal for Era of Brexit and Trump

by Jill Lawless – Associated Press – April 6, 2017

LONDON (AP) — British actor Damian Lewis says his latest role as a man in love with a goat is perfect for our unsettled times.

The “Homeland” and “Billions” star is back on the London stage in Edward Albee’s “The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia,” a tragicomedy about a successful, happily married architect whose sudden passion for a farmyard animal has devastating consequences.

A verbally dazzling, emotionally draining exploration of love and the limits of tolerance, the play’s new London production drew laughter and shocked gasps from its opening-night audience Wednesday.

After the show, Lewis said the play suits a time when “we feel generally more uncertainty and more absurdity in our politics at the moment, both here and in the U.S.”

“And this is a play where something drops out of the blue sky that’s utterly shocking, that’s unexpected and it causes great uncertainty and not a little trauma through the course of the play,” he said.

Lewis said the shock “feels a little bit like we’re experiencing now” after upheavals including the election of President Donald Trump and Britain’s vote to leave the EU.

“I think we’re all feeling a bit battered at the moment,” he said.

Lewis, 46, last appeared in the West End in David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” in 2015. He’s tackling “The Goat” — first staged in New York in 2002 — during the summer break from his role as a hedge-fund financier in the Showtime drama “Billions.”

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