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Tutti Frutti back to majestic best IN Scottish theatre, there are few directors more sought after than Tony Cownie. Next week the Edinburgh-born actor turned director will begin work
on the Royal Lyceum's forthcoming production of Mrs Warren's Profession,
by George Bernard Shaw. Last week, it was his direction of Jim Cartwright's bittersweet comedy Two, starring Andy Gray and Elaine C Smith, that had audiences laughing and crying at the King's. And come Christmas he will take the reins for a production of Aladdin in Glasgow. It is a heavy workload by anyone's standards, only Cownie has also spent the last four months bringing the National Theatre of Scotland's most ambitious work yet to the stage - John Byrne's iconic comedy Tutti Frutti. "It would be nice to have a little break," admits the self-confessed workaholic, a couple of days after the show's triumphant premiere at Aberdeen's His Majesty's Theatre. "But to be honest I can't complain. It's a brilliant job to have - there's not a better job in the world." No better, and no more challenging a job either, he reveals. "Tutti Frutti was an enormous challenge. I've been working on it for the last four months solid - it's completely overtaken my life. But then if something is going to overtake your life, Tutti Frutti's not a bad thing to do it." It was 1987 when John Byrne's award-winning comedy-drama first burst into the nation's consciousness. Screened on BBC1 in six, one-hour episodes, Tutti Frutti told the story of the Majestics - the Scottish kings of rock. Twenty three years on from their slightly dodgy, single foray into the charts, the Scottish pop sensations are mourning the loss of Big Jazza, their charismatic frontman, whose Ford Sierra just collided with a bus shelter via an unwelcome late night kebab. With a Silver Jubilee Tour booked, an album to cut and a TV documentary in the offing, will Jazza's brother, Danny, just washed up from New York with only four dollars to his name, save the day? Next week Capital audiences will be reacquainted with characters like Vinnie, Eddie Clockerty, Miss Toner, Suzi Kettles and Bomba when the show tours to the King's Theatre. But how do you transfer such an iconic series from the small screen to the stage? "If you are a Scottish director and you are not going to accept Tutti Frutti then you are in the wrong job," says Cownie, when asked if he had any reservations when first approached about the show. "I was absolutely delighted to be asked because I love John Byrne's writing - and it was a great challenge. That's the thing about it. You need to have a challenge that keeps you motivated. To put it bluntly, this had to be a success. There was no other option. That helps you in a way, it fires you up. "I didn't sleep for the last three days before it went on because I still felt there were little bits and pieces that needed to be fixed and sorted. But it's been worth it to get the reaction we got in Aberdeen last Friday night and to realise that all that work has paid off." For the NToS stage production Byrne has adapted his own original script to produce a hilarious yet touching musical, jam-packed with 60s hits that are guaranteed to have audiences young and old rocking in the aisles. However, Cownie reveals that before tackling the stage version, he first revisited the original TV series to capture the essence of the piece. "The stage play differs from the TV show in as much as the narrative is much stronger. In six hours of television you can afford to be a bit more meandering in how you get from one situation to the next. In the stage version you rely on the narrative to keep the story interesting. You can't afford to confuse an audience or lose them for a second." Dark and funny, Tutti Frutti captured the public's imagination instantly when it was first shown on TV screens, helped in no little way by magnificent performances from some of Scotland's best known actors. Robbie Coltrane, later to be loved by a new generation of Harry Potter fans as Hagrid, was the rotund but sexy Danny; Richard Wilson, now best known as Victor Meldrew, remained true to type as the band's ever-dour manager Eddie Clockerty, and Katy Murphy positively bristled as his lippy secretary Miss Toner. Not to mention film star Emma Thomson who played Suzi Kettles. Recasting those roles successfully was integral to the success of the stageplay. "I tried my hardest to have no fixed idea about who I wanted until I saw people at the auditions," reveals Cownie. "Seeing people was a real revelation. Sometimes you know who you want, but in the interviews we did for Tutti Frutti I really did feel that I was discovering things I didn't know about actors. Dawn Steele, for example, just walked into the room and I just knew she had the essence of Suzi Kettles. "Similarly, Tom Urie wasn't an actor I had ever come across. I didn't know him at all, but I kept getting all these message from his agent saying: 'See him, see him, see him.' Eventually he wore me down and I went to see him one lunchtime. He came with an acoustic guitar and sang Love Hurts, and that was it really. Now when I think about it, Tom Urie is probably the only man alive who could play Danny McGlone." As The Majestics must play live during the show, another vital part of the casting process was finding actors who were also musicians. "It was totally vital they be able to play an instrument, because the whole thing is about a band. If you are going to care about them and follow their story off stage, it's going to be because of what they can do when they are on stage. "In fact, the actors in the band actually did a gig in Aberdeen, in a club across the road from the theatre. That was great for them because after that they felt like they had a bit of a history together as a band." Born and bred in Edinburgh, Cownie, who attended Prestonfield Primary and Boroughmuir High before studying to be an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy, discovered his love of theatre while a teenager. He recalls, "At school went to see an amateur production called the golden age at the Churchill set in 1750. I'd always loved history, it was the first thing I ever seen. They were walking around in costumes of the period and I thought: 'Oh my God, here is history come back to life again'. That really left an impression on me, and from there on I started reading plays." On leaving the RSAMD Cownie worked as an actor for ten years, appearing on TV in series such as Doctor Finlay and Taggart before turning to directing. "The minute I started to direct I knew that what I wanted to do. The great thing about being the director is that you can be everybody. Why would you want to be one character when you can be them all," he laughs. • Tutti Frutti, King's Theatre, Leven Street, 7.30pm Tuesday-Saturday (matinee 2.30pm), £10-£21, 0131-529 6000 From here |