Pitch perfect
Clare Grogan has been lured back to the stage to star in the Pitlochry-lyceum co-production of Neil Simon’s feelgood love story Barefoot In The Park
When Barefoot In The
Park first opened in New York in 1963, critics noted that it seemed to have “virtually no plot” and to be “about nothing at all.” Yet the feather-light quality of the storyline – young newlyweds Corie and Paul learn some lessons about how to live together in their little New York apartment, while Corie tries to set up a match between her widowed mother Ethel and their eccentric neighbour – has never stopped audiences from adoring Neil Simon’s beautifully-spun comedy, both on stage, and in the smash-hit 1967 film starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford; and one of the film’s greatest life-long fans is Clare Grogan, the much-loved Scottish singer and actress who first found fame in Bill Forsyth’s iconic 1981 comedy
Gregory’s Girl, and as lead singer with Scottish post-punk band Altered Images.
“It really is one of my favourite films of all time,” explains Grogan, after a long day of rehearsals at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, where she’s preparing – to her own surprise and delight – to play Ethel in the new Pitlochry-lyceum co-production of Simon’s comedy. “It’s a film I would watch several times a year, and always introduce to my friends, if they didn’t know it. So when I read that Pitlochry and the Lyceum were going to stage the play this spring, I immediately tweeted that I loved the play, and couldn’t wait to see it.
“And the next thing, there was a phone call from the director, Elizabeth Newman, asking if I would like to play Ethel – and d’you know, I just somehow felt that the offer had come my way for a reason. My mum and dad both loved the film too, and they’re both gone now – my dad just last year. And I thought, I’m going to do this for mum and dad. I’m a hopeless romantic anyway, and I love that about the play; I also love that it’s all about mothers and daughters.
“And now, going back to it, I’m also finding something different there, a kind of poignancy in the story of a woman not quite knowing what to do next, now that she’s reached a certain age, and her daughter is married. It’s about whether she just accepts that her life is over, in some way; or whether she can find the strength to go ‘No, I’m not going to settle, I’m going to live on, and maybe start a new life.’ And I think people often relate to that kind of story much more than they expect. People say Barefoot
In The Park is like a sitcom; but really it’s like the very best episode of the best sitcom ever, and that’s not a bad thing.”
Alongside Grogan, Newman’s cast includes Olivier Huband as Paul, Hamish Clark of Holby City fame as the neighbour Victor, and
– as Corie – award-winning young Scottish actress Jessica Hardwick, much praised for her performances in shows ranging from the Citizens’
Crime And Punishment back in 2013 (the year she graduated from the
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), to the controversial 2018 Lyceumcitizens’ production of Edwin Morgan’s Cyrano De Bergerac, in which she played a brilliant and pitch-perfect Roxanne. For Hardwick, though, the sheer variety of roles that come her way is one of the joys of the acting life, which she varies by also running her own portrait photography business; and she is revelling in the sheer quality of Neil Simon’s comic writing.
“The play’s all about love and relationships, and that’s a theme that never gets old,” says Hardwick. “And with everything that’s going on in society just now, it’s really lovely to be able to get lost in something lighter and brighter. The writing really is brilliant though – it’s so well-observed that people just can’t help relating to it, and it tells us so much about each character that I think it really satisfies something in us. People are quite nosy, really – and they love a play that gives them so much information about the characters, in such an entertaining way.
“I haven’t really done much outright comedy before; and what I’m finding is that you have to play it as a drama for it to be a comedy. We’re all using American voices for this, and that New York rhythm is just so quick-fire and fast-paced, that you really have to work on it. If you rush it too much, you just lose the detail; and taking it too slow doesn’t work either.”
For both Grogan and Hardwick, though, these are challenges that make an actor’s life worthwhile. Grogan cheerfully describes her busy life as an actor, singer and charity campaigner as “utter chaos,” while Hardwick says she actively enjoys the feeling of not knowing what each year will bring. “I’ve actually been surprised,” she says, “at just how lovely and supportive people usually are in the theatre business. Here at Pitlochry it’s felt like family, doing this play. Sometimes you need that – and I hope the audience feels it too.”
Grogan agrees: “This is my first live theatre role for seven years,” she says, “so there is an element of fear there. But I feel really fortunate still to be doing all the things I love, singing and acting and entertaining; and it’s a wonderful experience to be able to sit and talk and think about a script I’ve always loved so much.
“It’s just so beautiful in Pitlochry, too – I’m loving being here, and fortunately my family in London understand that. The whole experience has been like therapy; and now we just want audiences to engage with this wonderful play, and to love it as much as we do.”
“People say Barefoot In The Park is like a sitcom; but really it’s like the very best episode of the best sitcom ever”
Barefoot In The Park is at Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 29 March, and at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh,
from 3-25 April.