by Priscilla

Sep.06, 2010, under Cast Blog

We asked you to send in your questions for John. Here are the third set of them and his answers.

Are you at all mechanical in real life?

I can do the DIY. I do painting, decorating, plumbing and electrical stuff. My father taught me quite a bit of DIY. I’m quite handy around the house.

What is the key to your relationship with Bernadette on stage?

John Bowe

Companionship. For years Bob’s gone around chasing women or falling in love, which has turned out to have been a complete disaster and a lot of men do do that. You have to nurture a friendship with someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with. In Bernadette, irrespective of her sexuality or her past, he actually finds someone with whom he can be a friend and that is what is crucial. Don, the way he plays it is so lovely. He combines such strength in that he’s able to walk into Coober Pedy and knee the guy in the groin to protect his friend, but he also has a great softness, gentleness and understanding nature which comes from those first beautiful lines of the song when we sit down by the camp fire. So friendship is the key to their relationship. The key to why it works so well for us, as actors, is that Don is a very good actor, as well as singer and performer and we have a very good simpatico of what the story is and how to play it.

What it you favourite part of being Bob?

I love the stuff with Cynthia. It is always a joy with Kanako, she’s such a lovely girl. When I first saw it I was ill with giggles and laughter. I just couldn’t believe that someone had put that moment on the London stage. I also love my little song as well. It stands out, because in the middle of all this fun and We Will Survive, this man is going through this tragedy, the breakdown of his marriage and he’s actually in pain.