RYAN TAKES A TIME TRIP
SPANKY Farrell sums up life in 1957 – and John Byrne’s classic carpet factory play Cuttin’ A Rug – with one line. “I’m 19 with a wardrobe full of clothes. I’ve got everything to live for.”
Former River City star Ryan Fletcher plays 19-year-old Phil McCann in this Slab Boys followup, being staged at the Citizens Theatre.
Phil, despite losing his job at the carpet factory and being rejected by art school, still goes along to the work’s dance.
That’s because 1957 represented a time of optimism, and excitement. Elvis was at No1 with All Shook Up. STV arrived. And now anything was possible.
“In Paisley in 1957, there wasn’t a lot material wealth,” says 34-year-old Ryan.
“But what young people had was music and the cinema, two or three times a week, because it was so cheap back then.
“They would drink, but they couldn’t afford to drink every night. But what they had was hope. Hope for a bright future.
“And they had real sense of something happening. At one point in the play, an electric guitar comes into the building and people are desperate to see it.”
Young Scots were witnessing the American dream, of cars, telephones and fridges. They came to live in cafes and dreamed of being American.
“There is a real contrast to what young people do then and now,” says Ryan. “I think back then it was a lot classier.
“But those who see the play will see there are aspects of teen life which remain the same. Even though there is the bravado and optimism in the carpet factory, we see the same insecurities.”
The insecurities usual emerge when teenagers are confronted with someone they fancy.
“At that age you don’t really know who you are,” says Ryan with a wry smile.
“You’re goal in life is to speak to the good-looking girl you see at the party. But trying to talk to girls is really hard.”
The 17-year-old Ryan was no different. The fairer sex were aliens.
“I was clueless about girls until I went to drama school,” he says, grinning. “That was my key to life.”
But what he also has in common with his stage character Phil (who is based loosely on John Byrne) is Ryan knew exactly where he wanted to be.
Ryan, who has just completed a stint in BBC Scotland’s Outlander, in which he appears as a Redcoat, was desperate to join the RSAMD in Glasgow.
“Phil McCann is trying desperately hard to get into art school. And I know what this feels like. I was so desperate to get into drama school. I had been to the RSAMD junior academy on Saturdays. I knew then where I wanted to be. When I was sixteen I knew I needed to speak to someone and tell them I wanted to come here.”
But there was a major hurdle to leap over.
“There was no drama department in my school (Blantyre High) so I begged the headmaster to let me go to Hamilton Grammar to take lessons. I knew I had to study drama at high school or there was no way I’d get into drama school. And so I taxied back and forwards all the time, with my mother paying the fares.”
It was rare for the RSAMD to