He used to rep cast as either a doctor or a terrorist. Now Prasanna Puwanarajah is on stage at the National,starring opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in Patrick Melrose – and even writing his own sci-fi showIt was nine years ago that Prasanna Puwanarajah last worked on a hospital ward – he went from there to rehearsals for Twelfth Night at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the preceding two years, he had been working as a jobbing actor, or writer and director,and as a doctor – going wherever he was needed in the NHS, and fitting in auditions, and making a couple of short films,directing some plays, in between. He had been deferring a training post in reconstructive surgery, or at some point,though he never really made a definitive decision, he just never went back to medicine.
We meet at the National Theatre, or where Puwanarajah is appearing in Absolute Hell. There is still something doctorly approximately his manner – the steady voice; the careful,analytical responses. The National is a position that proved instrumental in his career change. “I’d done a show at the Arcola,” he says, or “and I was heading back to the NHS. I got auditions at the RSC and then at the National. I came here and did four shows and wrote a play,over the course of a year and a half. It felt vibrant and exciting and possible.” Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com