Acting a part is all about sharing
WE may be used to job shares in the office but actor Tristan Sturrock is now trying it on stage.
A member of Cornish theatre company Kneehigh for more than 20 years, Tristan takes over the role of Don John in the play of the same name at Birmingham Repertory Theatre next week.
And during the show’s tour across the UK, Tristan will be swopping and changing the role with fellow actor Gisli Orn Garoarsson who premiered the play at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Courtyard Theatre last autumn.
Job sharing a character is a new experience for Tristan.
“I have never done this before but because both Gisli and I are also involved in other projects it is ideal,” he says. “And because Kneehigh has grown so much and has so many different projects on the go I think it will increasingly be the way we work.”
So audiences who saw the laconic John created by Gisli may be in for a surprise if they catch the show again in Birmingham or Warwick.
“Because we knew all along that the role would be a job share it has been created with a lot of flexibility,” Tristan says. “We are both free to interpret the role.
“The play remains the same, mainly because Don John is a catalyst for what is happening and the focus is really on the way the women respond to him, but his character is different.
“In fact apart from one part of choreography we have been free to develop that character and mine even has some different songs and lyrics.
“We couldn’t play the same character as Gisli is a tall Viking and I am much shorter. Because it is set in 1970s England I have gone for the punk aspect. My character is quite wired and ‘cokey’. He is like quicksilver.”
In between his appearances as the famous lover, Tristan has been busy with television and other Kneehigh work.
“I have been doing a docudrama for Channel Four on the Queen,” he says. “There are five episodes, each one looking at a different event in the Queen’s life and in each one the Queen is played by a different actress. I am in the first part and I play Peter Townsend.”
Tristan has plenty of television experience having appeared in shows such as The Bill, Bad Girls and Doc Martin but admits his real love is stage – particularly with Kneehigh.
“I didn’t go to drama school, I joined Kneehigh when I was 18 and I learned everything touring shows with them,” he says. “It was really liberating to learn in that way and it gives you so much artistic freedom.
“I think what makes Kneehigh so special is that freedom of expression and input but also its sense of fun. “Sometimes people who are creating plays forget that their purpose is to entertain. I think Kneehigh has always managed to keep that sense of fun. There is a bit of naughtiness to their productions even in this show which is quite dark.
“I have been with them for more than 20 years now and am very fortunate that I am paid to do something I enjoy so much. It is the kind of theatre which I enjoy seeing and being involved in.”
Ticket Info
Don John plays Birmingham Repertory Theatre Feb 17-21 (0121 236 4455, www.birmingham-rep.co.uk) and Warwick Arts Centre Feb 24-28 (024 7652 4524, www.
warwickartscentre.co.uk).
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