SALEM — It doesn't sound like a good fit: a tough Navy reservist and Afghan War veteran becoming an actor and playing in the drawing room comedy "The Real Thing" by Britain's top playwright, Tom Stoppard.
But take another listen, and Mark O'Donald, 48, sounds exactly like the real thing. The fact is his "posh" English accent isn't an affectation — it's simply the way he talks.
O'Donald grew up in various parts of the United Kingdom, the son of an English mother and an American father serving in the U.S. Air Force, and attended good schools. Not that he can't convincingly "put on" other accents, including those from almost any part of the United Kingdom, from working-class Devon to Birmingham.
He has a supporting role as a betrayed husband in the Salem Theatre Company's production, which runs through Feb. 18.
Directing is North Shore theater mainstay John Fogle, a Vietnam veteran himself, with performers also including Joseph O'Meara, Sarah Carlin, Audrey Claire, Will Neely, Sebastian Konarski and Jenn Parkos.
Fogle sees the play as a departure for Stoppard, known in the 1960s and '70s for plays that relied on wit and wordplay and became almost intellectual exercises. His first hit, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," was built around two ill-fated but minor characters in Shakespeare's "Hamlet."
For most, Stoppard is probably best known for his screenplays, including a co-credit for "Shakespeare in Love" (1998).
"The Real Thing," Fogle said, was Stoppard's reply to critics who found his work too cerebral.
"Much of it is very funny," he said.
And it deals with issues reflecting Stoppard's own life and his doomed marriage to an actress.
Fogle never considered transforming the setting of the play to a more accent-friendly United States. He is happy to take Stoppard, considered one of the great living playwrights, as written. And actors like O'Donald have helped avoid the trap of the distracting bad accent.
O'Donald is also a fan of Stoppard's work, which even in this comedy is layered with meaning.
"A lot of things in the play you're not going to get until well after it's over," he said. "Stoppard put so much into it." He recommends seeing "The Real Thing" more than once.
As a member of a U.S. Navy public relations office in Bagram, Afghanistan, O'Donald's experience includes being near center stage for a very real drama. Chosen as the controversial U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McCrystal's personal photographer, he remained on the scene as Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hasting conducted interviews with the general and his staff.
That story — which O'Donald believes was "over the top," quoted unflattering remarks made at McCrystal's headquarters about the nation's civilian leaders, and led to the general's firing and the end of his career.
O'Donald's photograph of the general pecking on his computer aboard a C130 cargo plane was the signature image of the Rolling Stone piece. He's proud of that, but he added, "I'm really surprised the editor didn't receive a big thank-you from Osama bin Laden. It was not good for our mission."
Despite his wartime background, O'Donald drops into the world of the drawing-room comedy with its oh-so-civilized conventions rather easily. His character, Max, is a good person, if a bit unconscious of what's happening around him. "He might be a little clueless," O'Donald said.
Overall, the lives of Stoppard's "Real Thing" characters, theater people who fall in and out of love with one another, are a dizzying mirror of the parts they play on stage.
It's not surprising O'Donald can adapt to such varied characters. He's had an incredibly varied life. For a time, he resided in California and appeared as an extra in movies like "Volcano" (1997) with Tommy Lee Jones.
Trained as a journalist, he has also worked as an architect. O'Donald joined the Navy Reserve in the mid-'90s and enjoyed a life where, he says happily, you never have to worry over what you're going to wear.
He has since used his military training to win a job as a lab technician in the biotech field. He's married "with five cats" and cites the links to his wife as one of the factors helping him survive his seven months in Afghanistan.
"You know you're getting shot at," he recalled.
Which has got to be a lot tougher than facing theater critics.
'THE REAL THING'
What: A play by Tom Stoppard
When: Thursday through Sundays, now through Feb. 18
Where: Salem Theatre Company, 90 Lafayette St., Salem
Times: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m.
Cost: Students $12, seniors $18, adults $22
Tickets: www.salemtheatre.com
