Breaking Baz: Why Ian McKellen Was Right When He Told David Shields, Star Of James Graham’s ‘Punch,’ He Should Have His Name Up In Lights

EXCLUSIVE: The actor David Shields (Masters of the Air, Black Mirror) gives a word-perfect impersonation of Ian McKellen. The theatrical knight saw Shields backstage following a performance of James Graham’s compelling show Punch when it was playing off-West End at the Young Vic.

Mimicking the McKellen, Shields recalls The Lord of the Rings star bellowing at him in Falstaffian fashion: “Dear boy, who’s your agent?!”

Told that it’s Dallas Smith, the canny, veteran agent at United Talent, McKellen continued: “Well, tell him you must have your name up in lights!” Shields says: “I was like, ’Of course, Sir Ian, why else do we do what we do?’”

McKellen rounded on him. “No, no, my darling boy, because if I hadn’t bought this £5 ($6.50) program I wouldn’t know who you were!”

Punchdirected by Adam Penford, is based on a tragic incident involving Jacob Dunne, then a soccer-loving teenager from Nottingham who, while on a night on the town, impulsively punched 28-year-old James Hodgkinson, killing him with that one blow.

Dunne served a prison term and, upon release, met his victim’s family through a process known as Restorative Justice. It’s a beautifully told story of heartbreak, forgiveness, and masculinity.

Now on at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue (the limited season ends on Saturday), an illuminated image of Shields as Dunne adorns the marquee.

However, his name is absent and Shields couldn’t be happier. “I’m part of an ensemble,” that includes the great actress Julie Hesmondhalgh (Mr Bates vs the Post Office) he says proudly. It’s not in his nature to seek glory for himself.

At street level though, Shields’s name is emblazoned in a blowup of a quote about his performance that ran in this column.

But, in a sense, McKellen’s right because people should know about this 32-year-old who read Theology at  Oxford and who later excelled at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, where he won a coveted annual prize for acting.

Legendary producer Thelma Holt spotted him at Oxford, cast him in A Comedy of Errors and sent the troupe to Tokyo. And Shields went on to perform in several other plays, including Tom Stoppard’s Acadia.

However, as a professional, he was only in two other stage shows prior to Punchand one of those, James P. Mansion’s spikey Hedgehogs and Porcupines, was above a pub in Islington.

That’s why his appearance in Punch took so many of us by surprise. Yes, we knew him from roles on television; he played the aristocratic rascal, Colin Tennant, in The Crownand the immoral Michael Smart in Black Mirrorbut there was little sense that he would emerge as a theater god in the making.

His Jacob in Punch is one of those rare performances that heralds the arrival of a major thespian talent. It’s exciting going to see a play or a musical, and then emerge a couple of hours later having seen a relative unknown command a stage as if he’d been born on it.

Like, who really knew of Jonathan Pryce before Richard Eyre directed him in the landmark production of Hamlet at the Royal Court in 1980? Or, for that matter, who could’ve predicted that Ben Whishaw, straight out of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, would rocket to stardom when his own portrait of the Danish prince in Trevor Nunn’s memorable Hamlet opened at the Old Vic two decades ago?

James Corden caught my attention when he appeared in Mike Leigh’s All or Nothing in 2002, but it was a role four years later on stage in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, directed by Nicholas Hytner, at the National Theatre that ensured I paid further attention.

The History Boys catapulted Corden into a new realm of visibility. I followed the show to Broadway, and watched up close Corden and his co-stars Dominic Cooper, Russell Tovey, Samuel Barnett, Jamie Parker, and Sacha Dhawan take Manhattan.

Corden returned to the boards six years later in Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnorswith Hytner once more at the helm as director. Corden won every award going in London and on Broadway. Yes, he was already a star then, due to fame he’d accrued thanks to Gavin & Staceybut I would argue, it was One Man, Two Guvnors that propelled him into the host’s chair of the Late Late Show, and on into Hollywood’s embrace. I know because I was in the audience on opening night on Broadway, where folks were up on murder charges to secure tickets.

I could go on … and I will because I want to give a nod to Cynthia Erivo, another RADA graduate, who achieved gold-plated recognition following her role as Celie in The Color Purple when it reached New York. She’s pretty darn Wicked now!

And please allow me to mention Denise Gough whom I’d noticed in a short-lived Wyndham’s Theatre production of Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats (starring Holly Hunter, no less), but it took a decade before she was truly discovered in Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places and Things directed by Jeremy Herrin at the National. She was luminous. That play opened all manner of doors for her.

While I’m at it, a quick nod to James McAvoy: I remember receiving an invitation to attend rehearsals from Michael Grandage, then artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, because he wanted to introduce me to a lad he’d cast in a revival of the Peter Nichols play Privates on Parade. “I think we’re looking at a star of the future,” I recall Grandage telling me.

He wasn’t wrong.

It happens less nowadays, which is why I feel it’s important to laud Shields.

Lucy Bevan, who cast him as Captain Everett Blakely in Masters of the Airsaw Punch when it played the Young Vic and hasn’t stopped telling all who will listen not to miss seeing Shields.

And producer Finola Dwyer (An Education, Brooklyn) is another big fan of his, too, and he’s definitely on her radar for possible future screen roles.

And Almeida Theatre artistic director Rupert Goold (soon to take over the running of the Old Vic) is another supporter, having cast Shields in a small role in the film Judywhich he directed with Reneé Zellweger portraying Judy Garland.

Shields reunited with Goold – and James Graham – for the BBC/ Left Bank Pictures television adaptation of the dramatist’s National Theatre hit, the Olivier award-winning Dear Englandabout Gareth Southgate’s revolutionary tenure as England’s men’s team manager. Joseph Fiennes is Southgate, a role he originated at the National.

The mini-series cast also includes Jodie Whittaker, Jason Watkins, Daniel Ryan, Adam Hugill, Bobby Schofield, Jacob Greenway, Francis Lovehall, Will Antenbring, with Shields cast as Jordan Henderson, veteran Three Lions midfielder who plays for Brentford. Prior to that, he was at Ajax and Liverpool.

Shields says he enjoyed studying Henderson’s playing style and going on a boot camp to improve his footballing skills. Shields reckons that on a good day, he can whack one into the back of the net.

Each time I’ve watched Shields in PunchI could feel this energy force leap from the stage, and as I looked around the auditorium, I became aware that we, all of us, were under his spell.

“ That’s the power of theater, I think,” he suggests, blushing shyly. “And what theater has at its disposal over and above anything…over and above television and film, is that you can feel the breath, you can hear the breath, you can see the sweat. It’s visceral for you and the audience, and this play, especially because there’s so much direct speech…that also helps that kind of audience connection.“

I returned to something he’d mentioned earlier about the stage being his first love. Did that come from his parents or grandparents, or a sibling?

“None of them,” he replies. “I did Joseph in the Nativity play. That was my first big break at school. I think I was seven. That was my first big role. And I always thought for years it was because they’d spotted a raw talent. But relatively recently, my mum was like, ’No, no, no, you’re the youngest of five and you were the last coming through school. And the teachers were just saying thank you to mum… And they gave you the lead role. So it was nothing to do with anything. But then I think just after that, I sort of fell in love with it. And then I did plays at school and the university. “

Punch poses the question: Can parents forgive the person who killed their child?

It’s interesting, Shields observes, “Seeing the reaction of people who come in and people who are parents. And some parents, they just can’t do that. I’ve seen a lot of people say, ‘I just couldn’t do that.’ And in a way, you’ve got to respect that. And that’s completely understandable, for some people, it’s beyond them. But I do think that hopefully we might raise the questions in people’s minds about whether forgiveness might be beneficial to both yourself as well as the other party…It might not be something as grievous as what goes on in this play. And then also more practically about the question of restorative justice and how beneficial that could be to people on both ends of the criminal justice system.”

Punch has a lot to say about the UK. And it has made a star out of David Shields.