Katherine MacAlister talks to actor Stephen Arden about the toughest role he has ever been given – playing a puppet monster in the hit show Avenue Q

Most actors revel in the applause and recognition, the fame and fortune, that playing a lead part brings.

But for Stephen Arden such plaudits would mean that he’s failed, because as Trekkie The Monster in Avenue Q he needs to remain entirely anonymous throughout the hilarious show and as unobtrusive as possible.

“My job is to make it look easy, allowing the audience to sit back and enjoy the story. Because you are relying on suspended disbelief where puppetry is concerned,” he says. “So you hope to get ignored and that the audience does underestimate you as an actor.”

Stephen is four months into the UK tour, currently en route to Oxford’s New Theatre, and says that practice makes perfect. If you haven’t seen Avenue Q, it’s a grown up puppet show, and an enormous success in both the West End and on Broadway telling the story of a group of muppets moving to the big smoke. “Think Sesame Street meets Friends,” Stephen explains.

There’s Brian the out-of-work comedian and his therapist fiancée Christmas Eve; Nicky the good-hearted slacker and his closet gay Republican roommate Rod, a very cute kindergarten teacher named Kate Monster, the building’s superintendent Gary Coleman, and of course internet ‘sexpert’ Trekkie Monster.

The resulting show is hilarious and includes cult songs The Internet is for Porn and Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist, but laughs aside, what is the reality? “I was really amazed with how the puppeteering worked, the skill involved and how they work together to get the characters to come to life, that was really amazing,” the 31-year-old Glaswegian explains.

“But as a skill it’s quite different. Only repetition improves puppeteering and to begin with your arm is really sore from holding up the puppet. But also you are trying to translate all your singing and dancing skills as an actor through your hand, into just one body part, so you have to get it right. Put it this way, it was a path to enlightenment,” Stephen laughs.

And what about being cast as Trekkie? “I love the way Trekkie’s so inappropriate and oblivious to everything and everyone around him unless its part of his own filthy world. And it’s a great way to introduce musical theatre to an audience who might not ordinarily come along.

“So even though it is one of the hardest shows I have ever been in, it’s all worth it because the audience laugh their heads off, so I know I’m doing my job right and am delighted that Trekkie is getting all the glory.”

SEE IT
Avenue Q returns to Oxford’s New Theatre from August 11-16. 
Call the box office on 0844 871 3020 or see atgtickets.com/ oxford

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