Like any classic you hope to get rid of all the varnish that's built up over the centuries where people expect it to be in a certain way. It's a mighty play. It's about a very old king who also happens to be a very old father, so you've got the state and the domestic levels in there together. It's a story in extremis. Everyone knows the end, there's only two people left alive.

I think that Ionesco's greatest weapon is that he's able to make us laugh at the darkest corners of our souls.

Someone told me that there's a connection to Superman, that in an early edition of the Green Lantern comics, Tomar Re was the envoy to Krypton. That was fascinating to me.

I suddenly became aware over the last couple of years that I'm in my sixties. I never thought about it. I thought I'd better start acting my age or find roles that are going to be interesting to me in the sexagenarian repertoire, because it's not what you do in your forties or fifties.

I always had a fantasy of being a chef, because I like kitchen life.

What I appreciated was the fact that the script delved into how Australians were - and still are - condescended to by the English.

You had to be into sport and, sad to say, I'm a traitor to my country because I don't have a sporting bone in my body.