Snippitty-Snip... David, This Won't Hurt At All!

There's taking art to its very extremes - and there's living your character - just ask Daniel Day-Lewis. Okay, maybe Cheriton isn't quite as big, but the sentiment is the same, and David Cradduck of the Cheriton Players is doing both too.

He's about to play a bald person in the Players' forthcoming production 'A Bolt From The Blue'  - and has taken the decision to shave his head to enjoy the role to the full and raise money for a worthy cause at the same time:

"I absolutely intended to go down the false latex bald cap route. But they only last one or two performances. It also takes an hour to do, you have to cut them to shape, then you have to do the make-up as well. Now, on a big stage, that's fine. But when you're sitting on top of the audience, like we are, they're going to see the join! Besides which - it's actually quite expensive and would probably have reached about £150 for all the performances. So I kept thinking about it, and that maybe one option was shaving my head. I discounted that immediately, but then kept coming back round in a loop over and over, so there we were."

David Cradduck goes under the shaver!
Kirsty Attrill from Chaps does the honours.
Picture: Miranda Johnson RM Communications

Winchester Today is of course delighted that David is raising money for Naomi House and jacksplace - which is the newspaper's nominated charity: "It costs millions of pounds a year to run the charity and it takes lots of little events like this to raise the money."

I ask David if he's regretting the decision: "Of course! Hugely. I've regretted it since I made it! But I can't let people down. My own daughter is sponsoring me, and I can't back out. I can't let her down; I just think that she wants to see what I look like bald! I don't think my wife is particularly enamoured about living with a snooker ball. But everyone in the play is proud of what I'm doing. The cast and crew, that is. Some have yet to dig deep. Come on guys!"

He explains why being bald is particular to his character: "That's the big joke... he's a hair specialist - and he's bald! You can actually have the character not being bald; the author has very kindly written the play with this opt-out. But then you lose all the good lines."
David has no idea how long it will take to grow back: "Just as long as it does!"

'A Bolt From The Blue' can be seen at Cheriton Village Hall from 24-27 April 2013 at 7.30pm. www.ticketsource.co.uk/cheritonplayers