The Crown Star Tobias Menzies Talks About His Role in David Farr’s Chilling Play The Hunt

Tobias Menzies, who stars in the new Apple TV+ series Manhunt, is a master at playing characters engulfed in inner turmoil. Cases in point: He won an Emmy as Britain’s conflicted Prince Philip opposite Olivia Colman’s Queen Elizabeth in The Crown, and spent three seasons wreaking havoc as the sadistic villain Black Jack Randall on Outlander.

In The Hunt, his New York stage debut, Menzies portrays Lucas, an elementary school teacher whose world crumbles when a young girl falsely accuses him of sexual abuse. Already lonely after splitting from his wife, Lucas finds himself ostracized by and even imperiled in the close-knit community where he’s always lived — and where hunting is part of the social fabric. The dark drama, adapted by David Farr from the 2012 Danish film and directed by Rupert Goold, originated at London’s Almeida Theatre in 2019 before arriving at St. Ann’s Warehouse in February.

 TheaterMania recently caught up with Menzies and talked to him about what got him interested in The Hunt and what it’s like returning to the play five years later.

The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What drew you to the play the first time around?
I liked the themes. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is one of my favorite pieces of literature. This play feels like it’s in a similar area: a central character wrestling with profound moral dilemmas.

Lucas is a compelling character. Why isn’t he more vehement about proclaiming his innocence?
There’s a science at the heart of it. I was talking recently to Tobias Lindholm, who wrote the film [with Thomas Vinterberg]. In the research that he did he came across a lot of cases of people who have been falsely accused who had been surprisingly silent. When some people are accused, they go into a kind of frozen state. People who were innocent found it hard to defend themselves, and people who were guilty were much more vehement in their defense. I think if I spent the whole play just telling everyone that I hadn’t done it, that probably would lack a little tension. Also, he comes to understand that if he exonerates himself, the guilt will land on the child. And so in that kind of Greek [tragedy way], he comes to feel that he has to carry this guilt.

 What was it like returning to this play after five years?
I’ve really enjoyed it. It gave us a chance to make some changes and it felt different. It was a lot closer to #MeToo when we did it the first time around. Bringing it to St. Ann’s has been a really fruitful enterprise.

Was there some pushback at the time because this is a story about a child making a false accusation?
We didn’t receive too much pushback, but I think there was concern about doing it for those reasons. It wasn’t the thing that we were interested in, that she tells a lie. It’s more about how a group then digests those events — that did feel relevant to the moment, both then and now: the story about the group that turns on an individual, and there isn’t a space or an ability to heal. That does feel like an important conversation to have.

How do you prepare for such a rigorous performance?
Try to get as much sleep as I can. [laughs]

Have you ever hunted?
No, I don’t run with that kind of crowd. In Denmark, hunting is much more a working man’s activity, whereas in the UK it’s linked with the upper class, and I’m not particularly upper class.

W.C. Fields had a famous line about not working with animals and children. You have four children splitting two roles and a dog in this show. Does that create some challenges?
Absolutely, but I think they contribute hugely to the success of the play. Both pairs of children have done great and are actually the heart of the drama. We also have an amazing dog. I’m very in love with Jethro, who plays [Lucas’s dog] Max.

It’s a shame Jethro doesn’t come out for the curtain call.
[laughs] He goes home once he’s done. He’s tucked up in bed.

Rupert Goold also directed you as Hamlet almost 20 years ago. What appeals to you about working with him?
We’ve done five plays over the years together. He’s someone I met in the beginning, when he was starting out. I did my first play with him. I guess we’ve [developed] kind of a language together. He has one of the best theater brains around. He’s very brilliant along story, narrative and how to build it. We can get far quickly because we know how the other thinks.

 Are the audiences different here than in London?
It’s hard to tell. I’ve been very moved by how engaged they’ve been. And it’s quite variable. Sometimes the audience can be quite quiet and other times they can start off with nervous laughter. I remember that variety of response from London as well.

 What are you doing after this?
I’m going to lie in a dark room for a bit. [laughs] I started a film [about Formula One racing, with Brad Pitt] that got interrupted by the SAG strike, so I’ll complete that over the summer. Then at the end of the year I’m doing another play at the National Theatre in London, a version of Antigone. So having not done a play for almost five years, I’m going to do a couple in a row.

Even though your film and TV career is thriving, you still want to keep those stage muscles flexed?
Yes, I don’t think so much of the wages, but I do like to get back to the stage, especially if the material is kind of interesting.

Where do you keep the Emmy you won for The Crown?
It’s in my house in London. I haven’t put mine in the [bathroom], where most people seem to put it.