Mark Rylance: Theatre saved me and has power to save others

Mark Rylance believes theatre delivered him from a world of addiction and that it has the power to save lives.

The 55-year-old Wolf Hall star feels the medium is as powerful as the Alcoholics Anonymous programme because it encourages people to discuss and share their stories.

He told the Standard: “What’s interesting about alcohol and other addictions is that the cure that really works is the AA programme, which is very much to do with bearing witness and speaking your story. There’s something about getting something off your chest.

“I feel in my life, theatre saved me as a young person. I would have been very prone to addiction. I’m a person who loves a lot of sensation, and I get it in the theatre. I get all kinds of sensation. You play Hamlet, you get to sword fight, you get to do all kinds of things.

“I think that if I hadn’t found theatre, I would have been very prone to getting into difficult addiction. So I think it does save lives.”

Rylance is an associate director of Outside Edge, a charity which helps people overcome addiction through theatre and counts Jimmy Page, Gary Oldman and Pierce Brosnan among its supporters. They are putting on their first commercial show, Rockston Stories, at Hoxton Hall.

Rylance added: “These performers have gone to the edge, and outside the edge, and they have survived. It’s something unique and a rare treat.”

Until 17 October. Tickets at hoxtonhall.co.uk/rockston-stories