FT Weekend Magazine - 10.19.2019

22 FT.COM/MAGAZINEOCTOBER 19 /2 02019

ActorWendellPierce,best

knownfor‘TheWire’,has

beenwowingLondonin

‘DeathofaSalesman’.

HetalkstoHenry Mance

aboutthepowerof

art, politics,prejudice

andpersonalfailings.

PortraitsbyLola &Pani

H

enry,are youleft-handed?”

“Henry,playasolo... ”

“Hey, Henry,haveyou

read Ta-NehisiCoates’ new

book?”“Henry,nowyou’ve

putsomethingin myhead.”

“Whenyoucometo NewOrleans,Henry...”

Most famouspeopleknowhowto tell

storiesabout themselves.But WendellPierce

knows somethingmore–howto wrapyou, the

listener,intothenarrative.Evenifyou hadnever

seen himon stageor screen, youwouldrealise

within minutes thathe is afirst-classperformer.

Pierce is bestknownas BunkMorelandfrom

theHBOseriesTheWire–aweary,womanising

detectivewhosemouthcould emitcigarsmoke

andblunt bonhomiesimultaneously.“TheBunk

is strictlyashirt-and-tie motherf**ker,”ran one

of hismemorable lines.

Pierce is alsoashirt-and-tieaficionado; when

wemeet,hehas asparetie in hispocketfor good

measure.But if theroleof Bunkhas definedhis

career,itisfar fromthelimitof hisambitions.

Thismonthhe returnsto theLondonstage

as WillyLoman,theleadin ArthurMiller’s

classicDeathofaSalesman.The production,

whichpremiered at theYoungVicin the

summer,ishis firstUKrole –and thefirsttime

thatLondonhashadablackLoman.Its initial

runreceivedahostoffive-starreviews, including

fromtheFinancialTimes.

Seventyyearsaftertheplayfirstappeared,

DeathofaSalesmanremainsacrushingcritique

of Americancapitalism.But withablack

anti-hero,italsobecomesataleof racism–

and“howdestructive that is to thespiritofthe

individual”, says Pierce.

So it makesthe play even moredepressing,

Isuggest.Helaughs. “It canbe.[But]

entertainmentis aby-productofart.It’snot

thepurposeof art.We’ve cometo aplacewhere

it’sanexpectation, ‘I want to be entertained

by apiece of art,insteadof challenged.’”

Thisis thesecondthingyourealiseabout

WendellPierce.Heis notjustcharmanddelivery

andsmartdressing;heistrulyserious.In

Pierce’s vision,art“changespeople’s humanity,

it changesthe airin theroom,it changes▶

‘Fameis

obscurity

inwaiting’