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Dan Ryan on why clocking on in Stratford is like coming home... Although his name’s not instantly recognisable, Dan Ryan is nonetheless an actor whose CV boasts a vast and eclectic array of TV, film and stage work, including Skins, The Street, Linda Green and, more recently, Mount Pleasant. This month sees Dan returning to Stratford-upon- Avon and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre - the venue where he started his career over twenty years ago - to don whiskers and a tail for the RSC’s Christmas production of The Mouse And His Child. What’s On caught up with him to find out what audiences can expect...... The Royal Shakespeare Company has produced some great Christmas classics in the past, not least among which is the multi-award-winning Matilda. So how will this year’s show compare? No pressure there, eh?! But, as with Matilda, The Mouse And His Child is one of those great epic productions. It’s huge-scale, and is a journeying play about a clockwork mouse and his child who get left on a rubbish dump where all the rats live. One of the main rats, Manny rat, becomes obsessed with them and they end up going on this huge voyage which sees them trying to find their way back to the toy shop. There’s so much to the story - it’s very funny, it’s got singing, has absolutely beautiful music and is also very moving at times. I think it’s 8 www.whatsonlive.co.uk classically Christmas and classically a family show. There have been very few things that I’ve done that my kids have been able to come and see, but I’m thrilled that they’ll be able to come and see this. For one of them, it’ll be the first thing he’s ever seen me in... So have your kids given you any tips on how you should approach the role? Well, they sort of creep up on me when I’m learning lines at home and ask: “is that how you’re going to do it, dad?”. My fourteenyear-old thinks he’s a bit smart, and he’s commented that he’s not sure this is really for him. But I’ve assured him that he’s going to be absolutely captivated by it. I really do think it has something very special, and I don’t think there’s an age group that it “ There have been very few things that I’ve done that my kids have been able to come and see, but I’m thrilled that they’ll be able to come and see this. ” wouldn’t appeal to. Tamsin (Oglesby) has come up with a great adaptation. Also, we’ve got the benefit of the genius of Paul Hunter (Co-Artistic Director), who I think is an extraordinary deviser of this kind of work. Is it a story that you were familiar with as a child? No, I didn’t know it at all. It’s funny, I’ve spoken to a lot of people about this and I don’t know how well it travelled from the States to over here, being an American book. I know for sure that people will be going out and buying the book after they’ve seen this, because it’s just one of those perfect bedtime stories. I remember when Harry Potter came out and I was reading my kids the story; when they dropped off, I’d be
absolutely furious, because I needed to get to the end of the chapter. So I’d carry on sitting there reading the story out loud, doing all the voices. When I first read this, I remember thinking it had the same sort of feel to it. It’s the sort of story where you want to get to the end of each chapter and find out what happens next. For adults, there are some great themes that we can relate to, and it’s all beautifully portrayed in the book. So what was the initial appeal of appearing as a clockwork mouse? I was offered another play somewhere else at the same time, but what this clarified for me - when I was approached for the role - was that I wanted a different sort of challenge. A lot of the plays which I’ve done have been fairly political or to do with race. They’ve all been brilliant productions but Posh, which has just been in the West End, I did originally at The Royal Court, and Number Eleven and Fallout, which I did at the Donmar - are all quite challenging pieces for an audience to watch. What I decided here was that I wanted a challenge for me, and when this came up, it felt like exactly the right thing to do. The other piece that I was offered was very similar to something I’d done before, and I’d gotten to the point, at forty-four, where I’d started thinking ‘what’s next?... What do I want to do next?’. I haven’t sung on stage for probably twenty years, and I realised it was something that I wanted to do. I wanted to be involved in something where people left the theatre feeling upbeat, and this will certainly put audiences in the Christmas spirit. So have there been any new disciplines that you’ve had to master for the role? Well, there’s dancing. I’m not a great mover, but that’s part of the challenge. I’m loving the singing and I’m loving the dancing. We’re just working on the finale piece at the moment, and it’s all very exciting... Is it a fully costumed role, or is it a case of just donning some ears and painting some whiskers on your face? The amount of characters that everyone is playing is extraordinary, so there are quick changes galore going on, because you’ve got rats, you’ve got shrews and probably about six different types of birds depicted in the show. A lot of it is done symbolically, and you have no doubt as to what the characters are, but it’s not going to have that Beatrix Potter sort of look. When we started rehearsals we had racks and racks of ex- RSC costumes around and hundreds of props, so the way that it’s been brought together is very organic. The costume design has come very much from what feels right - the shrews are all at war, so they’ve got army fatigues on, but you’ll know that they’re shrews and you’ll know that the rats are rats. Myself and Bettrys Jones, who plays the child, have certainly got very challenging costumes, being clockwork toys. I had my first fitting yesterday and thought, ‘well that’s going to be rather warm for two hours a night’. It’s twelve years since you last performed in Stratford. What does it mean to you to be back working for the RSC? My very first time on the stage was at Stratford, and me wanting to become an actor came from visiting Stratford on a school trip. I’ve done Richard III there, which toured and then returned, and I also played Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream there, which is still one of my favourite on-stage memories. So it really does feel like a home to me, and I’m so pleased to be coming to the new theatre, and trying to make my mark there. So much has happened in the last twelve years, both personally and professionally, and I’ve always been gutted not to be asked back, but hopefully this will be the first return of many. Your repertoire includes stage, TV and film. How easy is it to adapt from one to the other? Friends who aren’t actors often ask which I prefer, but I find it very difficult to say, because they each involve different disciplines. For me, what drags me from one to the other is the writing. In terms of the skills involved, I don’t really think about going from one to the other. That said, if I go onto the telly after doing this, I’ll probably be asked, “can you stop doing that ridiculous walk”, or, “can you stop twitching your nose, and make your ears a bit smaller”. You’ve played both lighthearted and darker roles during your career, so is it always just about the script? I suppose I’m very lucky regarding the variety of stuff that comes my way. I guess there are certain casting directors who think of me as ‘nice dad’, or as ‘the nice bloke who lives up the road’. And then there’s another group who think of me as this horrible murdering person. And then there are those who think, ‘Dan Ryan, oh he’s funny’. So I guess I’m in the middle of this and get taken along in different directions. I certainly think that I’m very lucky to be able to do that. Professionally, where do you see yourself long-term? I’ve never really held any strong ambitions, apart from wanting to play King Lear, which is something I’ve wanted to do since leaving drama school at twenty-one. That text had a huge impact on me when I was younger, and it’s just gone on from there. Generally, I like being taken wherever the wind blows me, and I’m fortunate that it keeps blowing me to really nice places. You say, apart from King Lear, there aren’t any roles that you’ve hankered after. But isn’t it true that you once begged Russell T Davies for a part in Doctor Who? Yes, I pretty much did. It was when my boys were little - both were at the perfect age for watching Doctor Who, and they were both absolutely obsessed with it. I went to an awards thing in Monte Carlo and the producer, who I knew, was there, so I said, “if you don’t get me in this show, I will haunt you”. I’d worked with both Russell and Phil Collinson, the producer, before. Three of my best friends had already appeared in the series, and I saw my involvement as a way of earning the respect I deserved from my kids. Then, when I did get a part, they were all “great, dad, what are you playing? Are you playing an alien?”. When I said, “no, I’m just a human”, they were, “oh, that’s a bit disappointing”. You can’t win, can you? How did your role in Mount Pleasant, currently being screened on Sky, come about? When I first got approached, Sally Lindsay had already been cast and they were looking for the Dan character. Originally it was a half- interview... hour sitcom which we had to take to the BBC in order to do a table read - that’s basically where the powers-that-be come in and have a listen. They really liked the essence of it, and they really liked the relationship, but they didn’t think it was BBC One material. They weren’t sure if it was BBC Two material either, and they didn’t think it was suitable for BBC Three. In the end they decided not to take it. At that point, BBC’s head of comedy got offered the job of head of comedy at Sky, and it was the first thing she commissioned, because she loved it so much. However, she thought it needed a different format. It took two years to get from that first table read to us finishing the first series. But I’m really proud to be part of it. It’s got a great cast - I love working with Pauline Collins and Bobby Ball - and it’s got a great heart. It’s not strictly a family show, but it’s got a hugely loyal following who love the relationships in it. I don’t think there’s been a show like it since Cold Feet; a show in which people are so drawn to the characters, and interested in what’s going to happen to them next. Are there plans for any more? We hope to do more, but there’s been no decision made by Sky yet. They’re so prolific with what they’re making at the moment. There’s so much new stuff all the time, but I do think they could be swayed by the diehard Mount Pleasant fans who are constantly on at me on Twitter to see if there’s going to be a new series. Truth is, I really don’t know. What have you got lined up when The Mouse And His Child finishes its Stratford run early next year? In an ideal world we’d see Mount Pleasant start filming in February. It would be great to finish this, have a few weeks off, and then go on and shoot another series. I’m under option to do it, but at the moment the diary is blank. But it could just as easily end up being full. Do you find it unnerving that you don’t have anything lined up? Not really. I guess it’s all part and parcel of being an actor. It’s funny, because I do seem to be someone who works an awful lot, but I often finish a job with nothing to start. That’s normally the way it works. With TV these days, you audition on the Tuesday and the show starts shooting on the Sunday. It’s a very quick turnaround. I’ve got to the point now where I finish a job and think, ‘right, what’s next?’. I’m not one of those actors who has jobs lined up. I probably had the worst year I’ve ever had about five years ago, when nothing was coming in. Suddenly, you think, ‘wow, what have I done wrong?’, but it’s just the nature of the business. I guess one of the things about not being placed in a particular box is that it means you’re never the obvious choice. So you may end up being out of work for a little while. It may look like I’m working constantly, but it’s certainly not the case. Dan Ryan appears in The Mouse And His Child at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, from Saturday 17 November to Saturday 12 January 2013 www.whatsonlive.co.uk 9
Page 1 and 2: THE MIDLANDS ESSENTIAL ENTERTAINMEN
Page 3 and 4: Editor: Davina Evans davina@whatson
Page 5 and 6: Spoken Word artist to share his nea
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Page 15 and 16: Music PREVIEWS Madina Lake Kasbah,
Page 17 and 18: Music PREVIEWS The Civil Wars Warwi
Page 19 and 20: Music GIG REVIEWS For further revie
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Page 25 and 26: Classical LISTINGS For full listing
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Page 33 and 34: Theatre PREVIEWS L.O.V.E Arena Thea
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Page 45 and 46: Theatre WEST END Douglas Hodge to s
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novel Before I Die. Showing at Ludl
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VisualArts PREVIEWS Ongoing exhibit
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CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL 24 - 25 NOV, 10A
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Variety is the Life Of Spice.. Come
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Christmas countdown... As preparati
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THE Great Barr HOTEL Christmas Part
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Clubbing BIRMINGHAM AIR Heath Mill
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Eating Out Restaurant in search of
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PURNELL’S 55 Cornwall St, B3 2DH
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Nov 2012 - View Online - Whats On Live

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