GLASGOW’S great Citizens Theatre Company hasn’t been short of its own off-stage drama in recent years. Forced to move out of its famous home in the Gorbals, to allow contractors to carry out a massive, multi-million pound redevelopment of the theatre building, the company took up temporary residence in the Tramway arts venue.
Then, of course, the Covid-19 pandemic struck, meaning, not only that the theatres closed, but also that the work on the company’s playhouse was disrupted. Goodness knows when audiences will once again see the company strut its stuff on the hallowed boards of its home theatre.
None of which means that artistic director Dominic Hill’s company has been idle during the public health crisis. Like so many other Scottish theatre organisations, the Citz, as the company is affectionately known, has offered audiences online work in lieu of live performance; the recently streamed film version of The Macbeths, Hill’s abridged rendering of Shakespeare’s Scottish play, was a particular highlight.
Now, however, as the vaccination programme gathers apace, the opportunity to play live to (carefully physically distanced) audiences becomes an increasingly realistic prospect. In the case of the Citz, that means being part of Scottish Opera’s Live at No. 40 season at its Glasgow production studios.
Hill directs The Comedy Of Errors, Shakespeare’s uproarious play of misunderstandings and mistaken identities. As ever, he has assembled an impressive cast, including such excellent actors as Karen Fishwick, Lorraine M Mcintosh and the ever superb Jessica Hardwick.
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Followers of the Citizens will know Hardwick for her numerous roles for the company over the years, ranging from a heartbreaking Sonya in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment to a very modern, wonderfully intrepid Rapunzel. Now she’s back with the Citz, playing the role of Adriana, the bewildered wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, who, unbeknownst to her, has a twin brother.
The actor has, she tells me, been fortunate to have had work throughout the pandemic, ranging from audio dramas to voiceovers. However, her relief to be back on stage is palpable.
“It’s quite extraordinary that we are back and theatres are making work,” she says. “I think it’s going to be quite moving for everybody – the audiences, the performers and everybody who works in the theatre – for us to be doing live theatre again.”
Making theatre in the Covid era is a constant reminder that we’re not yet back to normal. Certain pandemic protocols have to be observed, including less physical contact between actors than audiences would usually expect.
However, Hardwick is quick to reassure us, “we’re not just sort of standing around saying the words. We’re very much doing a play.”
Audiences can expect, “live music, all of the actors being on stage all the time, and all the sort of stuff you would usually see at the Citz”.
Fortunately for the company, Hardwick explains, the key pairings in the comedy – between the two sets of twins, the Dromios of Ephesus and Syracuse, and the Antipholuses of Ephesus and Syracuse – are not affected by physical distancing requirements. The actors playing the roles, recent Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) graduates Michael Guest and Ewan Miller, live in the same abode, and are therefore part of a Covid “bubble”.
This is a real boon for the production, the actor says. “With The Comedy of Errors there’s so much physical comedy, especially in the relationship between the twins.”
Hardwick, is full of praise for Guest and Miller. “They’re so great,” she says of the young actors. “They’ve just thrown themselves into it.”
That’s no small endorsement. Hardwick is, by popular acclaim, one of the finest actors on the Scottish stage. A graduate of the RCS herself, she has wowed critics and audiences alike with her playing of a startlingly diverse array of characters.
She excelled as Mathilde Mauté, wife of the poet Paul Verlaine, in Stewart Laing’s re-staging of Pamela Carter’s drama Slope, in a production created to be played simultaneously on stage and online. She also gave an unforgettable performance as Roxanne in Edwin Morgan’s wonderful Scots version of Edmond Rostand’s classic Cyrano de Bergerac (below).
Regularly acclaimed by reviewers, she received the Best Female Performance gong in the 2017-18 Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland for her lead role in Perth Theatre’s production of David Harrower’s great play Knives in Hens.
Hardwick is enjoying playing Adriana. It is, the actor says, a “meaty” role, and one that poses difficult questions regarding the deep misogyny of Shakespeare’s day. “She thinks her husband’s having an affair, but she, as a woman, can’t do anything about it. The guys can go out and live their lives, whereas she’s tied to the home.”
As one might expect of a Dominic Hill production, such issues are not being ignored. “The women in The Comedy of Errors can be quite difficult, because they’re of a different time. But we’re pulling them into the modern world as best we can.
“The way Dominic’s been helping me find my way into the character is to play it for real. She really loves this guy who she thinks is having an affair, and it’s driven her a bit mad.”
Adriana expresses her jealousy with a melodramatic energy that is very much at odds with Hardwick’s own personality.
“As a person, I’m a bit more quiet and reserved,” says the actor.
“Adriana’s definitely not that. It’s quite lovely to be a bit ‘out there’, especially after a year of lockdown. It’s been really fun.”
Hardwick is looking forward to playing on the newly-built wooden stage on which Scottish Opera is currently performing Verdi’s Falstaff. Not to be upstaged by David McVicar’s excellent, Jacobean designs for the opera, the Citz show, designed by Jessica Worrall, promises, Hardwick tells me, to be inspired by the Moulin Rouge.
Modern sexual politics, the flamboyance of French cabaret – it’s good to have the Citizens Theatre Company back on stage.
The initial performances of The Comedy of Errors have had to be cancelled, in line with Covid protocols. The company hopes to present the remaining shows at Scottish Opera Studios, Glasgow, July 20-24: citz.co.uk
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