Copyright 1995 Southam Inc.   The Ottawa Citizen February 1, 1995, Wednesday, FINAL EDITION SECTION: ENTERTAINMENT; Pg. B6 LENGTH: 484 words HEADLINE: Veteran actor Brent Carver couldn't resist Citadel offering BYLINE: LIZ NICHOLLS; THE EDMONTON JOURNAL DATELINE: EDMONTON BODY: Brent Carver, remarkably blue-eyed, benign and good-natured, grins his gentle grin, toys with a peppermint tea, and contemplates . . . evil. We're not talking mischief here, or maladjustment, or the odd misdemeanor. Cheap sociology won't account for the spectacular villainy of Shakespeare's Richard III. Every night at the Citadel theatre for the next few weeks, the rather shy man from Cranbrook, B.C., will be the target of some of the juiciest invective ever hurled across any stage. Last season, Carver made the Citadel's Cyrano de Bergerac his first theatrical stop after 18 months of electrifying Broadway and London audiences in the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman. His performance as Molina, the gay window dresser who conjures old movies for his cellmate, won him a 1993 Tony award for best actor. Typically, the Americans figured they'd "discovered" Carver, now 43. Millions who watched the televised Tony gala likely had no idea the Canadian actor was a veteran stage actor, with 20 years standing in theatre companies across the country. He played Hamlet at Ontario's Stratford Festival. His supple talent easily embraced Romeo, Robin Hood and The Rocky Horror Show. Since last year's Cyrano, Carver he has done an AIDS benefit in Vancouver. He has worked in Montreal with the dancer Margie Gillis. He played a young man dying of AIDS in the Street Legal finale ("it felt good to throw my little color into the vastness of this outrageous thing called AIDS"). He has two film deals in the works, and plans to workshop more plays. So why is one of North America's most sought-after leading men back at the Citadel, working once again with director Robin Phillips? Carver cites "the combination of Robin, Shakespeare, and the role . . . an offering I can't pass up." He's not worried about tackling such famous speeches as "Now is the winter of our discontent . . ." As Carver says, "People think the speeches are familiar, but they're not. You still have to explore what they mean -- for you." It's clear Carver relishes that exploratory work, especially with director Phillips. Their collaborations -- including The Doctor's Dilemma, The Prisoner of Zenda and the film version of Timothy Findley's The Wars -- have been unusually harmonious. Phillips, who has directed Carver nine times (starting with his singing Hark Hark The Lark for a Stratford production of Cymbeline) feels that Carver "has truly come into his time, in an amazing way . . . He's firing with immense power." For Carver, at the heart of Richard III is the fact that evil, at its fullest, can be enormously powerful -- and sexually appealing. "Women are attracted against their better judgment, or they test their better judgment," he says. "It is a sexy play. Language is a turn-on . . . It touches you everywhere: your heart, your head, under your skin. It creeps in and caresses you." GRAPHIC: Steve Simon, Edmonton Journal/ AT THE CITADEL: Brent Carver takes on Richard III LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: February 2, 1995