An Interview with Bill Ward on The Shawshank Redemption

Roger Crow speaks to actor and photographer Bill Ward (above, right) about his role in The Shawshank Redemption, which is currently on a UK tour, and can be seen at Hull New Theatre from October 21 to October 25.

Hi Bill. I remember reading Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption a few years before the film came out. And it was just one of those short stories that Stephen King does so well. How was it working on the drama, which is touring the UK?
Yeah, I mean, just it’s fabulous. It’s such a strong piece of writing. Both the original book, exactly as you say, and the adaptation, the stage adaptation. It was adapted, I think, originally back in 2009 and has been touring sort of since off and on every two or three years. It goes out since about 2013. It’s a beautiful piece of work. It is a dark tale. You’ll know from the book. You’ll know from the film. And the play is very similar. The play is based on the book, not the film, in the same way that the film is based on the book.

So there’s one or two things that are different between the play and the film, but not much at all, because they both share the same source material. And essentially, the play is about what the book’s about. It’s about one man’s mission to get out of the penitentiary in which he finds himself incarcerated. And it’s against for all of the wrong reasons. He’s innocent. But what I love about it is that all of the themes are such strong human themes. They’re about resilience. They’re about injustice. It’s about staying true to yourself. It’s about hope. It’s about keeping going, even when all of the odds are stacked against you. So it’s about the very, very best of humanity, but also the very worst.

Tell us about the cast and characters
Andy Dufresne is brilliantly played by Joe McFadden in our play. And Red Redding is played by Ben Onwukwe, also brilliant. So we’ve got some fabulous leads. And it’s about sort of the triumph over evil. And there is evil in that place. There are some pretty unpleasant inmates because it’s the maximum-security prison for Maine in the States. And not only are there some unsavoury characters who are the inmates, the warden and the guards are pretty unpleasant too. I have the joy of playing the warden, Warden Stammas.

What is interesting about this is that in the book, there are three wardens because the book encompasses around 35 years. And so there are three wardens over that time. And in the film, they conflated that into one – Warden Norton in the film. And in our play, we conflate it into one – Warden Stammas. In the book, those three wardens are Dunahee, Stammas, and Norton. Dunahee is a bit of a wheeler-dealer businessman. Stammas is violent, very violent, vicious, nasty. Stephen King specifically says there are more midnight burials during his, I think it’s six years in charge, than any other time with any other warden. And then Norton is a Baptist, a full-on God-fearing Baptist.

What is really exciting and interesting from an acting point of view is how you can make all of those three character traits exist in one human. So bringing those three things together – businessman, wheeler-dealer (corrupt, should you choose to think of it like that), vicious, violent human, massive God-fearing Baptist, bring that all together in one character. And that’s been huge fun. And just trying to find a belief system that would house all three of those kind of quite disparate personality traits. So from an acting point of view, I’ve loved it because there’s so much to get your teeth into really meaty, chunky stuff, and it’s so well-written.

And both the original novella, which is short, it’s only about 110 pages long, the original novella and then the play – they’re both really well-written. So in that kind of a way, you’ve got fabulous source material and it’s great to work with.

To hear the full interview over two parts visit podcasts.apple.com and podcast/jack-klaff-babs-morgan-bill-ward/