Cathy
Tyson wasn’t overly familiar with Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels when she was cast
as DI Siobhan Clarke in Rona Munro’s new stage play penned in association with
Rankin. Rebus: Long Shadows, which arrived in Edinburgh this week as part of a
UK tour, makes up the latest episode of the now retired Edinburgh detective’s
dissection of the city’s underbelly. Coming to a fictional icon who has already
been immortalised on TV and radio cold had its advantages for Tyson.
“At
the beginning of rehearsal I’d only read the one book,” she says shortly after
Long Shadows opened at Birmingham Rep, one of the show’s co-producers. “John
Stahl who’s in the show had read all twenty-one.”
This
didn’t stop Tyson getting stuck in to a relationship between the characters
that’s likely to be scrutinised closely by diehard fans in a way that those in
other plays might not.
“I
knew there was a relationship there between Rebus and Siobhan, where he was the
maverick and she did things by the book, says Tyson. “As we went on I had to
adjust how I was doing it, just to get some level of affection and authenticity
rather than just telling Rebus off all the time.”
While
Rebus, played onstage by Charles Lawson, is a classic unreconstructed male,
Siobhan is a voice of progress that seems tailor-made for Tyson.
“I
guess I’m still getting to know her,” Tyson says. “I struggled with her at
first, because I was either one extreme or the other, but she’s a team player,
and that’s an amazing value to have. It lends a humility to her that is very
appealing. She has integrity, but she isn’t sentimental, because she can’t
afford to be.”
This
was something reflected in Tyson’s researches.
“I
spoke to one woman DI,” she says, “and it’s a world where she’s surrounded by
men, and for her to get that far at all in that world has probably been really
hard, just in terms of the perception of a female DI by some of her colleagues.
It’s a physical job. She has to chase people and handcuff them. I’ve been
called brave sometimes, but it’s not that kind of brave, when she’s putting
herself on the frontline in that way.”
Munro’s
play is looking at some very contemporary mores, with Siobhan providing a moral
centre.
“One
of the things I identify with Siobhan,” says Tyson, “is when Rebus says that
people who attack young women should all be put away, and Siobhan’s response is
to say we need to create a world where no-one would attack a young woman at
all. Her job would kill me. I thought actors were committed, but this is an
eye-opener. To have that level of commitment to get a case solved, they seem to
be working all the time.”
Tyson
hasn’t exactly been slacking over the last thirty-odd years since she first
became involved in drama in Liverpool as a schoolgirl.
“We
did drama three hours a week, and it was about learning in a different way,”
she remembers. “I was discovering this ability to express myself and tell
stories, and I improvised a lot, and I enjoyed that, learning on my feet, but
it was also about getting to talk to people as you did all this.”
Tyson
went on to join the Everyman Youth Theatre, the breeding ground for a
generation of Liverpool actors, including David Morrissey, all four McGann
brothers and Ian Hart.
“I
was there four nights a week,” says Tyson. “I was learning so much, and that
definitely played a part in me wanting to take it further.”
Tyson
joined the professional Everyman company as part of the government-backed Youth
Opportunities Programme, which later morphed into the Youth Training Scheme.
This may have been a cynical attempt to massage unemployment figures to less
than what they actually were, but for Tyson and others it paid dividends. She
was soon playing Miranda in the Everyman’s production of The Tempest. Within a
few months she was acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and in another
two years was onscreen starring opposite Bob Hoskins in Neil Jordan’s film,
Mona Lisa. If this sounds precocious, the roots of Tyson’s move into acting go
back even earlier.
“My
mother took me to see Swan Lake when I as seven or eight,” she says, “so I was
aware of theatre from an early age. I remember being in Rhyl in this big
proscenium arch theatre, and the spotlight came on me sitting in the audience,
and they asked me to come onstage. I went up, and I felt the light on me, and
it was lovely. I just felt special. They gave me a gold chocolate coin, and I
kept the foil from that for years. I felt like I’d just done something that was
a big achievement, and if you’re a shy person it is a big thing, having people
watch you like that. I never want to forget how special that is.”
Tyson’s
profile was raised through a lead role in Band of Gold and other mainstream TV
and film roles. These sit alongside an impressively huge stage CV that features
stints with most leading theatres. At some points, however, things didn’t always
feel special. With this in mind, Tyson took time out from acting to take an
access course before embarking on degree in English and Drama at Brunel
University in Bristol.
“I
felt jaded,” says Tyson. “Some of the parts coming my way were pointless. They
left me with very little to do, and I wasn’t interested in that. I thought, is
that it? But doing an English and drama degree gave me back my love of theatre.
Although I wasn’t acting, I was seeing loads of plays and writing about them,
and I’m very grateful for that.”
Since
returning to stage and screen, Tyson’s enthusiasm is evident in everything she
says, particularly in relation to Long Shadows and Siobhan.
“We
had a post-show discussion in Birmingham,” says Tyson, “and we asked what
people thought of Siobhan’s part, and someone said how wonderful it was to see
a woman of colour playing Siobhan. I loved that. Hats off to Birmingham Rep.
It’s a very diverse theatre, and to see that in a great story like this with
characters like Rebus and Siobhan who everybody knows is really important. To
then see those characters bounce off each other is also good. It’s a good story
with a great plot and a little bit of social comment, and it should keep the
audience wondering what’s going to happen next.”
Rebus:
Long Shadows, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, October 8-13. His Majesty’s Theatre,
Aberdeen, November 12-17;
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