“That very silent protest, it wasn’t even noticed on opening night. Really, it wasn’t. I was there. I didn’t notice the keffiyeh. It was the fact that it was attacked the next morning in the national newspaper [The Australian] and that those three actors were called junior actors, when two of them were playing two of the lead roles. And they were vilified and called antisemites, and they were asked to resign. That is so deliberately divisive, and it’s appalling. The outcry was appalling.”

Power, and those who wield it, is something Weaving has been studying closely with The President, in which he plays the president of an unnamed European country who, with the first lady beside him (acclaimed Irish actor Olwen Fouere), has survived an assassination attempt.

“This play was written in the ’70s and first performed in 1975, but really, in some ways, it’s very prescient,” said Weaving. “It talks to the performative nature of politics in a really big way. And if you look at someone like [Donald] Trump and how performative he is, and he is purely performative, it’s a fascinatingly timely piece.

“There’s so many wannabe dictators, or dictators actually operating on the world stage at the moment, all over the world. We’re living in a time where, unfortunately, the desire for dictatorships or the ability of dictators to operate ... seems to be easier than it ever has been, or certainly for some time.”

Written by Austrian Thomas Bernhardt, The President is Weaving’s first production with the STC for three years. He last appeared in Angus Cerrini’s haunting murder mystery Wonnangatta, which was the first work staged after the first lockdown in 2020.

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Social-distancing regulations meant only a handful of people were in the audience each night. This time, when he performed The President to sold-out audiences at Dublin’s Gate Theatre, he enjoyed a Guinness at the theatre bar at the end of each evening’s show.

“[Bernhard] he’s an incredible man who spoke a lot of uncomfortable truths to his own country,” said Weaving. “So he was much revered and reviled in his own lifetime … He was put on a pedestal; he was given every award. But at the same time, he consistently, constantly attacked the organs of the state.”

The President is at the Roslyn Packer Theatre Company from April 13 to May 19.