A Minute with Forbes Masson

M: What is your favourite performing arts venue?
FM: The Tron Theatre Glasgow. It’s in quite a poor section of the East End and is a converted church, but has an extraordinarily exciting atmosphere and has been the hotbed of Scottish talent for many years. I started my career there in the 1980s after drama school in Glasgow, when the late Michael Boyd was Artistic Director. Michael became my close friend and artistic mentor. I became part of his Tron acting ensemble and worked there on and off for about 10 years, where I learned so much. I toured the world with many Tron productions. Michael also encouraged me to write and direct. It was at the Tron where Victor and Barry (the double act I did with Alan Cumming) made their first professional theatrical debut in The Gong Show and Sleeping Beauty, the pantomime written by Peter Capaldi and Craig Ferguson. I carried on the tradition of the Tron pantomime, writing scripts songs and directing.

M: Best advice you have received from someone within the industry?
FM: I went to see a play at The Byre Theatre in St Andrews with some pals about a month before I started drama school in Glasgow in 1982. There was a Q&A after the show and a friend of mine asked an elderly actor in the production if he had any advice for a budding professional actor in the audience (me). The elderly actor didn’t hold back. “Don’t do it! It’s a terrible life!” he replied. Needless to say I didn’t heed his bitter words and carried on with my dream, and all I can say is that he was wrong. I have had a brilliant life. Very lucky.

M: Post-show drink and/or dinner spot?
FM: When I was younger and before I had kids, I used to go out post-show quite a lot, but now I am generally straight home after shows. I used to love Blacks on Dean Street in Soho, especially in the winter, sitting by the fire in their little gothic cushioned rooms. I once nearly fainted when I realised I was standing at the bar next to Tim Curry! Blacks used to do a great cheap lunch too, but sadly I think the club is now closed. It’s great when you work in the West End as a performer because most post-show clubs give free temporary membership. If I have pals in to see a show, we will usually end up in Groucho’s, Quo Vadis or Century followed by a late night drink at Gerry’s but you need to take out a small mortgage for a round of drinks in most of these places. When I was a younger actor there was a brilliant post-show place called the Green Room off the Strand which was a gentleman’s club by day but a cheap actors’ club by night. Spent many a fun night there. I really think the West End is in a dire state with regards to economical actor-friendly clubs. I am old enough to also remember the Stockpot on Old Compton Street, which was a cheap and cheerful cafe that was great for between show food. There is a lack of independent cafes in the West End, it’s all very corporate and “chainy” and expensive.

M: Most memorable rehearsal room?
FM: My favourite rehearsal rooms in London are the Jerwood Space. I first rehearsed there in 2008 when I rehearsed Rupert Goold’s King Lear. I remember going for Guinness with Pete Postlethwaite in the pub opposite. I played the fool to Pete’s Lear and it’s a show that will stay in my heart forever. The Jerwood Space has recently been renovated and it looks great. I have rehearsed so many times there. I love the fact that there is so much natural light in the rooms and it’s in such a vibrant part of London. I love Southwark (though I really miss the mural of Jack Wild and Ron Moody as the Artful Dodger and Fagin that used to be on a wall just down the road from the Jerwood Space.)

M: Favourite artistic collaborator?
FM: I have been lucky to work with a great many extraordinary theatre artists over my career. My favourite artist to collaborate with is my old pal Alan Cumming. We met at drama school where we discovered we shared a love of Stanley Baxter, had a sort of comic/musical telepathy and we just clicked. We spent our formative acting years performing in plays together, writing scripts and songs and creating the double act of the two Glasgow amdram legends Victor and Barry – the boys from Kelvinside (You can read all about them in the book Victor and Barry’s Kelvinside Compendium.) We also wrote and starred in the 90s cult BBC airline sitcom The High Life (currently on BBC iPlayer). Alan and I have a deep love for each other. We had a break from working together for a wee while to pursue our individual careers but it’s great to be back working with him again on The High Life the Musical which we are performing next year in Scotland. We are writing the script with Scottish comedy legend Johnny McKnight and I am writing all the songs. It’s very exciting. Alan has just become Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, and I am thrilled he has asked me to create work there with him. I will be playing Gloucester there in King Lear in the summer. I have been also very lucky to get to work with some extraordinary theatre directors. The late Michael Boyd was a genius and I owe him everything. I have also been involved with a great many shows with the living genius that is Jamie Lloyd. I love him so much, and being a part of his sensational productions is a phenomenal thrill! My other favourite director/collaborator is Michael Fentiman. He has directed me in many shows including the one-man Jekyll and Hyde I performed in 2024. Rebecca Frecknall is another director who was really fantastic to work with. Summer and Smoke at the Almeida was a truly fabulous experience. As you can see I have been very spoiled to get to work with these wonderful people and loads more and now I am working with someone new. I am really enjoying working with Al Miller on Orphans. He is a brilliant director and one to watch.

M: Required reading for all?
FM: I just performed in my first ever Chekhov play earlier this year in James Brining’s production of The Seagull at the Lyceum in Edinburgh. I adored it. Such a beautiful play. So my play of choice is The Seagull. But obvs you need a nice Shakey complete works (First Folio version so that you get the best actor friendly punctuation)! Oh and anything by the wondrous and sorely missed Tom Stoppard!

M: Was there an actor who inspired you early in your career?
FM: When I was a wee boy, about 5 or 6, I saw Alastair Sim play Captain Hook in a big, old, now-demolished theatre in Glasgow. When I was a teenager and starting to imagine a life as an actor, I was a big fan of Peter Sellers. I wrote an essay about his film Being There for entry to my drama school.

M: Line from a play you always come back to?
FM: The line from a play that keeps coming back…well, actually it’s a song, “When that I was..” from Twelfth Night. I played Feste in Michael Boyd’s production at the RSC in 2005. I remember standing, singing that song (music written by John Woolfe and Sian Williams) at the end of a dress rehearsal. John Barton was giving the RSC ensemble sonnet training at the time and he came up to me after the performance with tears in his eyes congratulating me and saying he felt I had found a Feste who was a comic but painful centre to the play, rather than an outsider. He felt that Michael had unlocked something in the play. It was an extraordinary moment to get such praise from this great man. “A great while ago, the world begun, with a hey ho, the wind and the rain, but that’s all one, our play is done and we’ll strive to please you every day.” I sang it for Michael at his funeral and it never ceases to move me.

M: Your most euphoric experience at the theatre?
FM: As you can probably tell, I have had a great many euphoric experiences in theatre, ranging from my double act Victor and Barry’s first “big” show at the Glasgow King’s in 1988 when I thought the audience’s cheers were going to knock me off my feet – to performing a sensational Russian play, Cinzano, at the Tron in Glasgow in 1989. It was directed by Moscow Arts Theatre director Roman Kozak. I played opposite Peter Mullan, and we both cite working with Roman a crucial redefining moment in our acting experience. He redefined acting for me. When I performed a death aria in Summer and Smoke, at the Almeida, I felt we truly managed to change the molecules in the room. Playing Jaques for the RSC in New York and getting a sort of crazy Glasgow audience reaction to the power of 100. The most recent euphoria I felt was the end of Jamie Lloyd’s Much Ado About Nothing at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. You could actively feel the love flowing from the audience to us onstage and vice versa. Such a hope-filled experience in this time of misery and darkness in the real world. As an audience member, one of the most exciting things I ever saw was Gododdin at Tramway Glasgow, and the work of Giles Havergal at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. Most recently I had never experienced a mid-show standing ovation like the one in Jamie Lloyd’s Evita. Fabian Aloise’s choreography was mind-blowing! I found watching the press night of Jamie’s Evita one of the most thrilling things I had seen in years. Real theatrical chutzpah, especially Rachel and her meta balcony moment. Goosepimply coup de theatre!

M: What drew you into the role of Harold in Orphans?
FM: I was drawn to Harold because it’s not the sort of character I would normally play. I love Jermyn Street. It’s my third play there and I love the intimacy but it can also be surprisingly epic in there too. The whole team are amazing and it feels like a family. It’s great being in such a dynamic wee theatre just next to Piccadilly Circus. Lyle’s play is such a wonderful piece of writing. A true magical realist classic. It’s very visceral, spins on a sixpence and is funny and moving in equal measures. Working onstage with Chris and Fred is utterly electric and Al Miller is unlocking the play’s true genius. I am thoroughly enjoying putting myself into the character. This is one of those roles which reinvigorates me and fires up my passion for acting and theatre that I am glad that old bitter actor at the Q&A in the 1980s didn’t extinguish.

M: Do you have a beloved Scottish playwright?
FM: Gary McNair wrote the adaptation of the one-man Jekyll and Hyde I performed in 2024 (available on Digital Theatre). He is young and very prolific. Johnny McKnight is a ridiculously funny Scottish writer who I am loving collaborating with on The High Life the Musical.