by In the past five weeks, Joshua McGuire has been in a white whitewashed room in North -London, which pretended to be Rhinoceros. The 37-year-old actor is not in a performance game or a strange social experiment, but in director Omar Elerian through the new production of Eugene Ionèsco’s absurd play from 1959. rhino; It is his first stage in seven years. “It sounds mentally, but it is the theater of the absurd, so it should be confusing at points,” he says with a smile, again in a human form in a white t-shirt and a hat, while during a break he clearly enjoys taking up the story of a small French city, the inhabitants of which are gradually transformed into Thinos.
If you have seen a British comedy in the past decade, you have probably seen McGuire in it. The endlessly energetic actor is usually next to the main actor, who wears a crowd of hair and delivers anxious one-part or slapstick prate. He presented in everything from the Netflix series Love disease To Richard Curtis Over time and Emerald Fennell Salzburn. On stage he had his breakthrough in Laura Wades satire from 2010 in the British upper classes. PoshA member of a fictionalized version of the Bulllingdon Club and has played 50th anniversary production from the leading role since then with Daniel Radcliffe in David Leveaux’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
“I was a class clown, so it is not surprising that so many of my roles were strange,” he says and speaks in the fast nasal tone of his many characters. “But in recent years the work has become darker, which is welcome because it is nice to be morally doubtful.” In 2022, McGuire played Chris Clarke in Downing Street Thriller as a “clever asshole” Anatomy of a scandalWhile in rhino He deals with material that has been read as a criticism of post -war fascism and challenges the audience and its central figure Bérenger to ask how many people believe and participate – even if this means to succumb to an accident from rhinos who stroke the stage.
I was dressed by fraudsters because everyone committed a betrayal in it, but they are also sensitive and lovable
“The piece is about Grouthink and the dangers behind the ideas that we may be shopping into,” says McGuire. “You can read it as a comment on social media and how we can be indoctrinated to follow the crowd, even if we initially do not agree where we go. But in the end it is the cast in a white box without props – the audience can fill with everything you can see, and that is the most confronting.”
While his role as Jean in rhino He sees how he shows a darker side of his usual playfulness. It was McGuires Top billing in the BBC series 2022 cheater This has done more than anything to transform him out of a lively buddy into an unlikely leading man.
Main role next to Susan Wokoma, cheater sees McGuire Josh, a oppressed sound engineer, whose adulterous one-night stand with fola (WOOMA) follows him home when he realizes that she has just moved across the street.
“I was dressed cheater Because everyone committed a betrayal, but they are also sensitive and lovable, “he says.
Created by Oliver Lyttelton, cheater offers many well -observed relational dynamics and a lot of sex. In the 18 10-minute episodes of the first series, characters masturbate, become naked, carry out oral sex and experience several orgasms. “It was my first experience to make intimate scenes on the screen and it was a gift to perform together with Susie [Wokoma]Not least because we both were on Rada in the same year, I knew them forever, “he says.
The show became a sleeper hit and last year a second series came out. With increasing popularity, however, it must have been a challenge to prepare his family for the steaming content of the show? “I had to say to my mother that there was nudity in episode 1 and that it was pretty quick,” laughs McGuire. “It’s like five minutes and BAM – there is my full butt! There was no easy way to tell her, but she saw everything and she is proud of me.”
McGuire grew up as the youngest of three siblings in Warwick and apparently fell into acting. “I did not have a particularly thespea because my mother is a pediatric nurse and my father worked for IBM,” he says. “However, we were only a 10-minute drive from the RSC in Stratford-on-Avon and my mother would always make me see new productions and the good as well as not so good.”
In 2001, at the age of 13, McGuire was occupied as one of the young actors in Gregory Doran’s King John At the RSC and soon caught the mistake for performance. “They would only make local boys from the nearby schools to fill as young parts for some of the RSC appearances, and I thought it was a fun thing,” he says. “I was suddenly a part of this crazy world in which people were paid to have fun every evening and then go for drinks. I was enchanted and to this day, when I smell frankincense, I lead myself directly to the Swan stage and the cardinal in the play over the boards.”
McGuire rose at 19 at 19 on the rada and competed in a mighty talented cohort, including Woma, Daisy May Cooper, James Norton, Cynthia Erivo and Phoebe Fox. “It was a magical time, because they would simply play and discover every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” he says. “I would laugh what my older brother could have thought if he could see how I could spend water or jelly all day.”
Last year McGuire was occupied by Norton to play members of the Riot Club in Wades Royal Court. Posh. “His talent was immediately obvious” observer Theater critic Susannah Clapp says about his performance in the ensemble. “He shimmered in an excellent line -up and has been a good picker from good pieces since then – matured in James Graham’s Privacy (2014) and chatty and herral in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. “”
While McGuire says his experience of Posh Was overwhelming – “I thought all jobs would be just as funny, so popular and so relevant for the moment” – future stage rolls were less uncomplicated. “I had the opening line of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead And one night I started to completely skip the first two sides of the script. Fortunately, I don’t think anyone noticed it because Dan [Radcliffe] is so famous that at least in the first five minutes of this show nobody looked at me. “
Did he want his career to have brought himself to similar heights instead of being largely known for the support of roles? “God no. I have friends who have all lost anonymity and it is really difficult, especially when they have children,” he says. “I now have a two -year -old son and I love to be able to go to work, but then come home, bring him to bed and let everything at the door.”
In 2022, McGuire married the actor Amy Morgan and the couple share their parents’ responsibility in their house in London next to their work. “We live the dream because we were able to work and have our boy and not sacrifice roles,” he says. “A village is needed and we are very happy to have so many friends and grandmas for baby finish!”
At least McGuire’s current rehearsal plan means that he can be at home for the bedtime and as soon as the run of the piece begins, he can spend the day with his son instead. “As a father, this show takes on a further response and thinks about how social media groups could affect his life in the future,” he says. “But he can’t even read, so there is no worry that I was too worried – I am desperate to be in one of these Christmas adjustments by Julia Donaldson, which he might only understand!” Until then, it is a welcome return for McGuire to the London stage, which brings its comedic excitement and recently presented susceptible to both rhinos and humans.
