Dream role as swashbuckling Highland hero for Inverness actor Malcolm Cumming
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The new production of classic Highland adventure story Kidnapped brings Inverness actor Malcolm Cumming back to Eden Court this week as the romantic hero Alan Breck Stewart.
So far in his career, Eden Court has brought Malcolm more than its fair share of significant moments.
He did drama training here as a youngster, returned in the theatre’s own production with Raw Material of musical The Stamping Ground (back soon!) and played the tragic young Highland clan chief Donald, heir of the Lord Of The Isles, in James IV, the latest of the James Plays by Rona Munro.
Malcolm talks about his latest role as Alan Breck Stewart below:
Q I think you get to bring music on stage again in this play?
A When I was younger I grew up learning guitar and playing a lot of music and at the time it felt like a choice that you wanted to focus on one and not the other.
Now it is such a common thing to have actors that play, even in this show as I wait to come on swinging and throwing a sword about I’m sitting with a little guitar playing along with all the cues.
Q How did you first come across the story of Kidnapped – did you see Michael Caine playing your role in the film!?
A I think he might have had lessons from Sean Connery on the accent! But it’s quite good. It was one of those books between my grandparents’ house and my parents’, there were some different versions. I had vague memories of the story. As soon as I heard that it was happening as a project with Isobel McArthur, it was been interesting to revisit it through that lens. We had both worked on a production of Cyrano De Bergerac a few years ago and ever since I have been desperate to work with her on a piece of her writing!
Q How does Isobel McArthur the director (working with co-director Gareth Nicholls)– having adapted the story with Michael John McCarthy – look at doing the play for the stage?
A With Kidnapped as a an epic adventure book, it has fantastic descriptions over pages and pages of two young men traipsing across the Scottish countryside, great as it is, to sit down and read it all page after page and get all these insights. But if Isobel started trying to bring all of that onto the stage it would become this four-hour epic with us crossing the stage for 10 minutes then walking the other way for another 10 minutes! So it is about keeping it exciting, making it theatrical, entertaining, lively and vibrant and bringing an audience with us, so when we are quiet and emotional they will then come with us.
Q You’ve been playing bigger theatres like the Lyceum in Edinburgh with this production. How will it feel coming back to Eden Court and being in the OneTouch?
A Playing the OneTouch will be the most intimate venue, and it will be the best thing to feel that dynamic shift.
Q So how does it feel to play your third Highlander in a short while (Malcolm in The Stamping Ground), Donald in James IV, now Alan Breck Stewart?
A It’s definitely been interesting playing these Highlanders, similarly with Donald in the James IV play talking about this whole moment, not just in the history of Scotland, but in the Highlands and Alan Breck being one of these characters who is questioning Scottish determinism and what it means to be where you are from, there are certainly aspects of their personal battles that feel very close to home.
Q Do you think you have cornered the market in Highlanders of any description?
A Well, whether they are for the Stuarts or against, I can do it all now! If they want a Pound Shop Jacobite, they know where to look.
The National Theatre of Scotland’s Kidnapped is on at Eden Court until Saturday, times vary. And there are also special inclusive performances too. Thursday, April 27 has a touch tour at 6.30pm, then at 7.30pm the show is audio described and captioned; Friday, April 28 7.30pm show is signed; Saturday's first show at 2.30pm is relaxed. Find the one that's right for you! TICKET INFO:
