“In the past, not so much now, we used to get Coronation Street Shakespeare or eh by gum Shakespeare which is all bollocks.”
That was what theatre veteran Barrie Rutter was up against when he created Northern Broadsides so theatre goers could hear classic plays delivered in Northern accents.
It seems bizarre in 2012 that anyone would ever have questioned Northern actors doing the Bard, but when Barrie founded his company twenty years ago it seems you still had to sound like Larry Olivier to play Hamlet or Othello.
It was a tough battle early on to keep his Halifax based company alive so does Barrie think he has reclaimed theatre from the RP mafia?
“I think other people have to answer that better than me otherwise it sounds like boasting, or look at me haven’t I done well,” he says modestly.
“It was never meant to be like that and I’m surprised that we went to year two, never mind a year twenty, because I thought I had one great idea back in ‘92 which was to do a classic play with an all Northern cast.
“The idea took off, and here we are celebrating 20 years, and just keeping going was hard because we’ve only been regularly funded since 2000, so the first eight years were very hand to mouth.”
It was a combination of the prejudice he suffered, and a collaboration with legendary Leeds poet Tony Harrison that provided the final kick up the backside he needed to so something brave and very Northern. But, yet again, Barrie denies this was the plan
“It’s something you can say rather than me because it would sound a bit pompous coming from me as I never set out to change anything.
“I was simply taught the dignity of my own voice in a classical way by Tony, who writes everything in verse whether he writes opera or poems.
“The plays I did with him taught me a new dignity which I had a burning ambition or desire to manifest, and that was in the one production in ‘92.
“What happened from there is a slightly different story, but that’s where it came from and Tony writes in two wonderful sonnets called Them and Us about how he had the Yorkshire voice, so he was given the comic bits to do in Shakespeare.
“He played the drunken porter in Macbeth and it was that sort of comment that I had as an actor, especially at Strafford in the RSC, that I rebelled against.”
Barrie may claim that this wasn’t a typical Yorkshire two fingers to the acting establishment, but it was. Since then he has created a nationally renowned company that has been a regular source of work for Northern actors across a challenging body of work.
To mark their 20th birthday the company are at West Yorkshire Playhouse for their traditional Easter run with another bold choice, Love’s Labour’s Lost, one of Shakespeare’s lesser known comedies.
“It will be a new play for 95% of the audience because it is not done that much as it is only the RSC and the National Theatre that really do it, I don’t know why, as it is a finer play that that.
“However, what we’re finding on this tour is that there no big lines in it, not one line in the play you can quote, and that goes for 95% of the audience. It’s not in the top 10 of plays that attract audiences yet the bookings at the Playhouse are already healthy. There’s lot more to do as it is a big house, it is a 700 house, so I’m hoping more and more people will come.
“There is genuine warmth and lots of music in it. Shakespeare wrote six songs within it, all of which are composed by my colleague Conrad Nelson, and played by the cast. At one point every member of the cast plays a musical instrument. Even me, on the bells.
“I’ve always liked it because it’s a great company play as it’s got a lot characters and I wanted to do a big play for our 20th of 16 or 17 actors, so we went for this one.
“I’ve always enjoyed comedy and it’s also the romance of it as well which I’ve always encouraged and its led by a young octet – four young men and four young women in the lead parts – with a bunch of crazies at their rear as it were. It’s been a delight to do and offering a lot of delight to audiences.
“The pleasure level for this play, if the last six weeks is any guide, are immense and everyone can have just have a bloody good time from laughter to tears. It really does pull the heartstrings as great comedies do.
But after two decades running one of Britain’s best companies you might expect Barrie to be sitting on his laurels. Nope, he’s not only directing Love’s Labour Lost, but he’s playing Holofemes on this tour, and feeding off the energy off a mainly young cast.
“I’ve not cast young people because they are young, the text demands it. Their inspiration is great, as is the testosterone inherent in the lads and a sense of humour and wit inherent in the ladies comes to the fore, so it’s been a pleasure from day one.
“I love it and you can’t do this job without loving it. I know people might read that as an indulgence, but you cannot, cannot tout yourself round the country encouraging audiences to come and see you when you don’t actually love it. I would have been found out as a fraud years ago if that was the case.
“I’m not an absentee landlord. I travel around with my company because I love it and love being on the stage. I love the idea of pleasure in a house where people come and see my work so it’s still a delight.”
- All photos courtesy of Nobby Clarke.
- Love’s Labour’s Lost runs from April 3 until April 14 and tickets can be reserved by calling West Yorkshire Playhouse Box Office on 0113 213 7700 or by visiting www.wyp.org.uk