David Troughton ‘The world is still medieval, in so many ways’
Stage veteran David Troughton talks to Ben Lawrence ahead of his latest Shakespearean lead
David Troughton doesn’t read what critics say about his performances. It’s a habit that goes back years, ever since he appeared at the Shaw Theatre in a cricketing play called White Game.
“Frank Keating, the sports writer, wrote that ‘David Troughton was about as wooden as the Duncan Fearnley bat’,” he says with just a residual hint of pride.
I tell the 67-year-old actor that the critics have almost always been kind: that he secured raves for his Richard III at Stratford, for his leading role opposite Kevin Spacey in Inherit the
Wind, and for his Duke of Vienna in Measure for Measure with Simon Mcburney’s company, Complicité.
“Well, that was a brilliant production,” he says of the latter, “but I loathed every minute of it. I was in another play at the Young Vic when I was rehearsing for Measure for
Measure and so I had to leave at four every day.
“Well, we were playing games until three and only then would we get down to the text. I was like, ‘for Christ’s sake’. And after the performances, people would come over and say [affects gushy voice] ‘Oh, you’re so great’.” So he’s not gracious with theatregoers? “Well, I think I am now,” he replies. “As my wife [fellow actor Alison Groves] tells me: ‘They are the paying public. Be nice to them.’ But, you know, sometimes they will come up to you after you know you’ve been s---. You just have to say thank you very much.”
There is a touch of Eeyore about Troughton, bolstered by his wonderfully craggy face, large doleful blue eyes and slightly perturbed mouth, which turns down at the edges. Furthermore,
I get the feeling that he is one of those actors who would rather just get on with the job than talk about his craft. Certainly, he has a strong work ethic and scores of theatre credits to his name – including more than 20 productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
We meet in Stratford during rehearsals for Titus Andronicus, in which he takes on the title role of the army general who returns to Rome after 10 years of military campaigning against the Goths and is soon caught up in a horrific cycle of violence.
It is a role he has always wanted to play. “Titus Andronicus is an early play, and you can see that Shakespeare was starting to flex his muscles. It was a crowd-pleaser, and you can understand why. It has got everything – blood, horror, sorrow. It’s life’s rich pageant in one play.”
That said, some would argue that Titus Andronicus is a crude, workmanlike effort from an artist still learning his craft – but Troughton disagrees. “You can actually pick out bits of the text that he squirrels away and uses later – in King Lear, for example. It has a muscular language, even though it is easy to understand. And I think its simplicity gives it an energy and drive.”
The play is also famous for its violence, notably the rape and mutilation of Titus’s daughter, Lavinia. This happens offstage, but we see the full extent of her horrific injuries. Troughton feels that we shouldn’t make apologies for the blood and gore.
“Look at the world now. We haven’t changed. We are still medieval in so many ways. Look at video games, look at what’s happening in Syria. We are still violent. We’re not a clean society.”
Troughton’s years as a Shakespearean actor would make you assume that he is a purist when it comes to the text – but not so. “I’m all in favour of Shakespeare being cut,” he says. “I think he can be too long for a modern audience. You have to remember that Shakespeare’s society was a listening society.
“They went to the theatre to listen rather than to see, so the language was important to them. Language was changing all the time and Shakespeare was at the vanguard of that, creating new words.”
Troughton is more traditional when it comes to the idea of women taking on male roles in Shakespeare. “I’m not saying it shouldn’t happen. After all, boys played women on stage for years so it’s about time they got their own back, but…”
Is he against it? “Well,” he says carefully, “let’s say it’s just not for me.”
Troughton’s greatest success has been on stage, but he is busy in all mediums. He is the voice of Tony Archer (alongside real-life son Sam as son Tom) on the long-running Radio 4 soap opera The Archers and has recently scored a rare film success in another rural drama, The Levelling.
TV, however, is more problematic. He became well-known for his role as the bumptious Bob Buzzard in Andrew Davies’s surreal 1980s campus comedy drama A Very Peculiar Practice (“a bit of tool trouble” was Buzzard’s reaction to an STD outbreak among the students), but says his small-screen career stalled after that.
“The problem with me and TV now is that the character actor has gone. My father [Doctor Who star Patrick Troughton] made a living out of it, but now you can’t put on a wig and funny shoes and play a part. You have to play yourself more and more, it seems to me.” In fact, he sees Doctor Who as a case in point. “Doctor Who used to be for old actors. Now all you get is celebrities being cast. My father had a real hang up about being typecast, which is why he only did the show for three years.
“Now, if you do that one role, the world opens up before you. The more you’re known for one thing, the more you will work. Producers think that’s what the public wants. It’s gone back to the old Hollywood system. You know, oh Spencer Tracy is good. Let’s get him in something else.”
Patrick Troughton was a complex, very private figure who, unknown to the show’s many fans and indeed his own mother, led a double life with two families for years, leaving his first wife and three children (including David) to secretly cohabit with his girlfriend. His son believes that “having two families was at the root of his anxiety” in terms of the attention that Doctor Who brought him, but that he also suffered nerves linked to his perfectionism.”
“He used to be sick before performances because he took it so seriously. And he would never do theatre. Although he was offered Captain Hook many times, he would complain that there were too many costume changes. There was always some glib excuse. In fact, he would never come to see me on stage because he said it made him feel too nervous.”
The role of the Doctor is currently vacant, and David Troughton has an idea of who should take the role. “I think they will go female and Phoebe Waller-bridge [creator and star of BBC Three’s Fleabag] would be perfect. She played my daughter [in the Sky 1 comedy-drama The Café] and has that eccentricity, that sense of the bizarre.”
Would he not be tempted if he were offered it? “No,” he says, pointing to the media circus that surrounded Peter Capaldi when he was unveiled as the new Time Lord on a live BBC show in 2013.
“It’s despicable what they have to do now. Look at the way Peter Capaldi was introduced. Through smoke and… f--- off. Whoever plays the role has to take all that on board. Also,” he continues, “I wouldn’t like to play him after what my father did with it.”
However, Troughton did record several audio books of his father’s stories. And as he tells me this, his curled-down mouth unfurls temporarily. “I have to say I made rather a good Patrick Troughton.”
Titus Andronicus is at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-uponavon, from Friday to Sept 2 and then at the Barbican, London, to Jan 19. Tickets: 01789 403493;