Interview with John Partridge (Hannibal Lecter): The Silence of the Lambs

What did you think when you heard The Silence of the Lambs was coming to the stage? 

John Partridge: When I first heard about it being put on, I thought, “Ooh, that would be fantastic!” Ahead of my audition, they very kindly sent me the script and told me to pick two scenes, so I said to my good friend [actress] Tamzin Outhwaite, “I need you to read with me”, and when she found out what it was, she said, “Oh my god!” I feel very lucky this has come my way. 

Is it intimidating to take on Hannibal Lecter? 

Partridge: I did wonder, “How do you do something that is so ingrained in pop culture?” I’m a child of the 70s, so when the film came out in 1991, I was one of those core Silence viewers. It lives in our zeitgeist. Then I read about Anthony Hopkins choosing three quite surprising inspirations for Lecter: Truman Capote, Katharine Hepburn, and the computer HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey.  

That really gave me the freedom to do my own version of that process. My three are Cary Grant, Elizabeth Taylor, and John Malkovich. Lecter is intelligent, mocking and acerbic, but also serious and malevolent. Now, I try to forget any other version of Lecter and just put myself firmly in that cell.

Physically, Lecter is very still. Lots of the roles I’m known for are quite gregarious: I’ve played a lot of larger-than-life characters. Lecter is larger-than-life, but it’s very, very different. If you’re lucky enough to be in this business for a long time – I’m 55 now, I went into Cats when I was 16 – parts like this come along where you can roll up everything you’ve done, and colour with all the crayons in your colouring box. That’s what I’m able to do here: pull out all of my best bits and put them in this character. I can use my dance background, my physicality, in a new way to inhabit Lecter, while hopefully using the actor I am now, with all my experience, to bring him to life. 

Does it feel like an unexpected character for you? 

Partridge: I think these roles often come along when you least expect them. That’s definitely true for me. I recently emigrated to Canada, and a sure way to get a job as an actor is to move 3,000 miles away! But weirdly, it’s helped prepare me for this part. I feel like I’ve moved my life into a very different direction personally, and now I’ve got a very different opportunity professionally too. 

What are you most excited to play? 

Partridge: I was slightly panicking about the fava beans and chianti line, because how do you top that iconic version, but it’s not in our play, thankfully! Already, though, if I had a pound for every person who’s come up to me and done that line, I’d be a rich man! But there are plenty of other iconic set-pieces that people will recognise in our show. 

I’m most excited about doing the part where Lecter is in the cell and he attacks the guards. I shouldn’t say I’m looking forward to ripping people’s faces off, but you know what I mean! I love all the stunts, getting stuck into those shocking moments of sudden, dynamic physicality. Our production is very visual and striking. 

Gina [Gionfriddo] has written a brilliant script. She’s managed to weave her words in with Thomas Harris so seamlessly – it as if Buffalo Bill has stitched it together himself! That gives us so much to play with. It’s a genuinely gripping thriller – you need to know what’s coming next. We use all these theatrical tricks to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Which of the show’s ideas or themes have you found most interesting? 

Partridge: There’s so much social commentary in this. It’s set in the 80s, when women were viewed very differently – or perhaps not, I’m actually not so sure half the time. If you look at American culture then and now, with Trump in power, in some ways, we’ve regressed. Our attitudes to lots of things, be it same-sex marriage, gay and trans rights, the rise of toxic masculinity, we’re actually not that far from the 1980s. As a gay man, I see my hard-earned freedoms rolled back every day. 

We were talking in rehearsal about the attitudes of men and police officers at the time, the rampant misogyny, but look at where we are now with the likes of Andrew Tate. Or look at the gender pay gap, the glass ceiling that’s still there. It’s pretty sobering seeing where we’ve progressed and where we have so much more work to do. Weirdly, Lecter is a psychopath but not a misogynist. He treats Clarice seriously. 

The one big change we’ve made in our production is with the Buffalo Bill [serial killer] character, who in the original believes himself to be transsexual and is seeking gender reassignment surgery. We do not need to be villainising our trans brothers and sisters in that way, and our story is much stronger for the changes we’ve made. 

How key is the rise of behavioural science to this story? 

Partridge: It’s enormous, both in the story and in real life. That science changed the world. In our play, in that era, the detectives who believe in it are very much stuck in the basement. Everyone dismisses them. Lecter says it’s a junk science “on a level with phrenology”. But profiling, understanding the mind of a killer, was a game-changer. 

Where are you most looking forward to visiting on tour? 

Partridge: I’m a Manchester boy, so I always love going home to the Lowry. I’ve got Scottish heritage too, my dad’s from Glasgow, and my mum’s from Dublin, so I always like to go back to the motherland and the fatherland. With this tour, I get to do Manchester, Scotland and Ireland, so that makes me a very happy Hannibal. 

John will appear in The Silence of the Lambs at New Theatre, Peterborough from Tuesday 27th – Saturday 31st October.