Brian Cox Feature

THE ARTS 10 GLASGOW HERALD MONDA Y JUL Y 15 1991 ALAN WYLIE • Scottish Youth Theatre patron Brian Cox (left) with BP scholarship winner Paul Nolan: a chance for the youngsters to find out about themselves as well as others. Brian Cox's Scottish reconnection " HA VE a great time in Sin City )ears. Later ox. who was in Cox wa born and brought up in Company and to ured with the over the next four weeks."' the town to present the BP-SYT , Theatre a working-class Catholic family. to ew York and to the ROJ actor Brian Cox told an audience £ 1000 'cholarship to 21-year-old Early this year he plit up from ational Theatre in London, a of more than 100 members of the Glaswegian drama student Pa ul hi s companion Irina Brook. the was in Annexe Theatre Comr Scottish Youth Theatre o n Fri Nolan. said he felt the time had actress daughter of the director ny's Boothies And Vodka A day afternoon before they hied come to reconnect himself with JACKIE ·McGLONE Peter Brook. He is divorced from Daisie s as well a appearing themselves off to rehearsal and cotland. his !irst wife. Caroline. the mo th Taggart a nd with Tom Conti worksho ps for the YT ' summer The greater part of 45-year-old meets two award er of his 2 1-year-old actor son the film Hea\enly Pursuit . festi val produ ti on ' of Tam o' Cox's career has been spent in Alan and daughter Margaret. Shanter and icholas I kleby. and now li ves alone and is likely The ,on of a painter and de, England. where he has won gold winning actors - a rator in the outh Side, 01 A. ox made hi s pronounce- en opinions as both an actor and to do so for a very long time, he ment. a rumbling sound effect said . has been working nights in a p director. He has been garlanded star of today and a to pay his way through the :lca( from the Glasgow Underground wi th awards. and early this year ox has many career ambi beneath the Old Athenaeum. the m y. Hi s flOO~ cholarsh published his first boo". the prospect for the future. tions, however. The most burn SYT's permanent home. added a cheque will just about keep I splendid Salem To Mo. co\\ : An ing being to play Antony in head above water, he said. It portentous \ eight to hi ' word~. ctor's Odysse). about hi s expe Antony And Cleopatra and to Was the earth mo\ ing: The ne\\ Iy a lready earmarked to pay his n ri ences directing rthur Miller', was being told he was " too The o ther day he had been to direct The Cherry Orchard or appointed patron of the YT had and buy some food. Many of The Crucible with an all-Ru sian Scutli~h". Highbury to see Footsbarn's bril John Bull's Other Island. He fellow student5 arc in real de just fini shed telling the assembled "That has been the trouble a ll cast. All of II hich. according to liant production of A Midsum would do a nything. he said. wi th either to their parents or th company that. as a Dundonian. along. I have never been able to his big ~ister Betty. who attended mer ight's Dream in a tent (in hi s fa mous crooked grin. to re bank managers. he said. becal he had long felt Glasgoll to been throw ofr my roots in England. I Friday's award, ceremony \\ ith Glasgow until tomorrow evening turn to those roles with the Roval this is the first year students h. an alien place. " It was Sodom have always felt a complete him and his teenage daughter as part of the Glasgow Fair - Shake,peare ompany in Strat not been able to claim housi and Gomorrah; it was a den of Margaret, means he has done stranger there. They - the theat and not to be missed). The critics ford, where he was happier than iniquity when I was growing up." benefit and ,ome arc even exen "no' bad" for a wee boy from rical establi~hment - have sim had slammed it in Lo ndon. he he ha, ever been before or ince from being awarded grants. But as a boy he would have Dundee. ply tolerated me in the south." said. " It was certainly crude. not when he played an acclaimed sea been prepared to make the mo He ha has no grant because M ost recently he was seen in lOW he wants to direct - par wonderfully spoken all they son topped by hi s stunning T itus mentous journey to such a n evil ticularly movies. He hopes to have to do is trust the language: Andronicus. But they haven't worked for two years in a sup place for the opportunity to work cotland with the Royal ation market, stacking shelves. and, a l Theatre as a truly great King direct ;1 {ilm of Shaw's Mrs War nothing I couldn' t have sorted asked him. Perhaps they ought with an organisation such as the ren'5 P rofession with Anjelica a cabaret double act round Lear. 0\\ Cox is boxing clever out by spending a morning with to. fore he gets too o ld for the SYT, he said." o thing like thi pubs to raise the money to and planning a total change of Il uston a5 Mr Warren. He has them. But it was also full of in one other Shakespearean role exi ted when I was growing up found a 5criptwriter. the novelist credible energy and raw enthu that also might have been written nance hi s st udies. " I don't W I and wanting to become an actor directio n. " I'm trying to cut bac" to get too hea\y about it, I on the acting: I relt I had to get fay Weldon, and is currently siasm and real physicality." for hi m - Coriolanus. - how I wish it had." every time you turn around I away from it after Lear," he said. deep in di cussion with the mon He had then gone to see hi s old A man with little time o n his Make the most of your oppor ey men. He a lso has a producer. King Lear and Richard III com hands. Cox dispatches daughter Government is tightening tunities with the SYT. Cox urged Although he is still doing the odd 5crew on every aspect of a telly "it pay ' well" - and had Ann Skinner, who did the movie pany, led by Sir Ian McKellen, in Margaret a nd sister Betty to the hi s young audience, who had ear funding. ow they arc even 111 : just come back from Amsterdam adaptation of Rebecca West's Eduardo de Fillipo' apoli shops to buy him a . uit "size lier been chanting "Brian, Brian, ing it dilTicuit for us to stu where he was filming an episode The Return Of The Soldier with Milionaria at the ational. "It 36 to 38 waist. 31 in ide leg." he Bria n" as if they \\ere on the Thi, award i, an absolute g' of Van Der al". Glenda Jackson and Julie Chris was awful, really terrible. The call after them as they head for terraces at Ibrox. This was the tie. critics raved. It really does eem Princes quare. Cox affectionate send for me." youngsters' chance to find out The director had ~aid to him, " I am going into films because that the meek shall inherit the ly says his farewell to Paul olan. about themselves a well as oth "Can we do sumething about the I have got to get away from the earth in Engla nd," he said. who I<,)ok utterly dazed as he • The S YT's prodllctioll of : ers. " I want them to grab it wi th accent. lovey?" T o which ox rr cnglish theatre. I am very impa La ter in the year Cox will ap murmurs: " All this and Brian Ufc' Alld Adl'('lIll1res Of' Niche both hands," he said. plied: "What accent'}" Can you tient with it after my experiences pear in The Philanderer at ox too ." icAlehl' if (/I Ihe Old Alhelille He had been very flattered. he imagine, he a,k . any director with the ational. The time has Hampstead Theatre and is much olan. a former member of Thc(J/r(;. BIIChllllllll S/rCCI. 6', said, to be asked to become the saying that to Scan Connery,? come for theatre in England to intrigued by a Brian Eastman SYT and a first year diploma gOIl,/i'om AlIglI~1 4 10 10. aile) SYT's patron becau. e he has There he was. fresh from pia) ing gro\~ up. And something has also project called Big Battalions. " It student at the RSAMD. tarted performlillce of Tam o· Shlll worked only occasionally in Lear a ll over the world with a got to be done ahout the bloody is about religion - a subject acting when he was 15. He has lI 'ill he gil'ell (i, Ihe ['cop Ie 's I Scotland and not at all in recent broad Scot accent, and now he nitics - they a re so awful." which fascinates me." he said. worked with the SYT's Xsyt lice al 11 0011 Oil .1111.1' 27. .

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