Our Press Officer, Steve Pratt caught up with Gray O’Brien ahead of his performance as titular character, John Rebus in Rebus: A Game Called Malice.
Gray O’Brien isn’t the first actor to play Ian Rankin’s detective John Rebus and almost certainly won’t be the last.
The character is an established fan favourite who has been portrayed on stage, radio, TV and online by a range of actors including Ken Scott, Brian Cox, Charles Lawson, John Hannah and, in the most recent TV series, Richard Rankin. They’ve had varying degrees of success. John Hannah for instance, declared himself ‘miscast’ and handed over to a more downbeat Ken Scott in the ITV series. Richard Rankin, the incarnation in the new BBC-TV series and younger than some of his predecessors, has been given the thumbs up.
Gray – best known for stints in TV series Coronation Street, Casualty and Peak Practice – hasn’t read the Rebus books but has spoken at length to their author who has said that different actors bring out different aspects of Rebus and help him learn more about the character for the next book.
O’Brien sees the Rebus book series – the 25th is published in October – as “one of those things you get into or which just pass you by”. As he prepared to play Rebus, he asked the writer which books he should read to gain an insight into the character. Rankin’s reply was a surprise. “He said don’t read them, you don’t need to because this man is completely on his own. He’s now at a certain age where he’s retired. What’s been in the past is the past,” recalls Gray.
In the new play Rebus: A Game Called Malice the retired detective finds himself at a posh dinner party where guests play a murder mystery game. “He’s sitting there, a fish out of water thinking, ‘what the heck have I got myself into?’. Then we discover why he’s really there, something happens and the real Rebus bounces back.”
O’Brien also liked the way the whodunnit aspect was handled by Rankin (who co-wrote the play with Simon Reade after writing the first draft). The genre demands a denouement where the suspects are gathered together and the guilty party exposed. “We do it differently in this play,” he says without giving too much away.
As his books are read worldwide, Rankin was also keen to write a play that could be staged around the globe – another reason he didn’t want to place any constraints on the portrayal of the stage Rebus. “It’s not Ken Stott’s Rebus or John Hannah’s Rebus. Your reading of the book is different to my reading of the book,” O’Brien continues.
“You read something like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones and you have the characters very much set in your head. Then you see it televised and go, ‘that’s the character I’m seeing in my head’.
“I can’t mimic or can’t try to copy someone else’s Rebus because we’re all made up completely differently. I can’t hold myself the way Ken Stott’s holds himself. We’re all different shapes, different sizes, we’re educated differently, we’re from different regions.”
Rebus’s accent was important to O’Brien, who grew up in Ayreshire, Rebus comes from Fife. Both men have Scottish accents but not necessarily the same sounding accent. The actor was keen to pay homage to the Edinburgh accent when the production played in the city and not resort to a generic Scottish accent.
“To English listeners it probably won’t matter as much. Some people thought I was crazy doing an Edinburgh accent because I’m Scottish and I have a Scottish accent. I found the rhythms difficult because it’s a bit like getting someone from Milwaukee to do a Minnesota accent. They’re quite different. The Edinburgh vowel sounds and the line endings are completely different from the West Coast of Scotland.”
It’s not long since O’Brien was seen in York in a touring production of the classic play 12 Angry Men. Although written in 1954, he found this courtroom drama still worked well. Before that he was toured with Dallas star Patrick Duffy in an American caper Catch Me If You Can.
He has continuing roles in three big TV series behind him but theatre remains an essential part of his work. “Theatre is a necessity because TV work stops and sometimes it doesn’t stop forever but there are certainly long hiatuses. New people come into TV – casting directors who championed you leave, the new ones don’t know you, and young people come in and don’t know my work. So you can get overlooked. Many careers crash and burn.
“I’ve been very, very lucky with the loyalty of (the late) producer Bill Kenwright. He’s always wanted me on stage if I’m available. Pretty much every year I get asked to do one of these stage tours. I jump at the challenge each time.”
He takes seriously the responsibility of touring theatre. “People are paying their hard-earned cash to come and have an experience in theatre. I would always encourage people to come and see a live play.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s always a jeopardy moment on stage. It could be performance 100 or performance 24 where things don’t go fully as expected. Maybe an actor tries something slightly different and says a line with a different inflection. It can change the dynamic of the piece and it’s very exciting,” he explains.
So what’s the worse thing that’s happened to him on stage? “Drying is terrible, just literally dropping the ball for half a second,” he says referring to an actor forgetting their lines.
“People don’t realise the concentration that’s involved in a play. You’ve got o be completely on the moment and be listening to everything. You cannot for a second think ‘I wonder if I should have fish fingers tonight’. As soon as that happens you’re left with a cue but don’t know what you’re saying. That happens all the time and it’s just how quickly you can pick it up.”
Let’s hope he doesn’t forget the name of the person whodunnit in A Game Called Malice.
Rebus: A Game Called Malice is at York Theatre Royal 15-19 October.
Post-show discussion with Ian Rankin and members of the company on Friday October 18
Find out more information and book your tickets here.
Box office 01904 623568 / yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
