Theatre of the absurd - Gerry Mulgrew interview

Prolific actor and director Gerry Mulgrew has staged a revival or two in his time, and Ionesco's The Lesson is just the latest of his many class acts, writes Mark Fisher

GREAT news for Gerry Mulgrew. On Thursday, he and Keith Fleming were jointly nominated as best actor in the UK-wide TMA Theatre Awards for their performances in Peer Gynt at Dundee Rep (the title role is so big they shared it between them). It's a reminder of the time when Mulgrew could do no wrong. As artistic director of Communicado theatre company, he was the most exciting creative force in the Scottish theatre of the late Eighties and early Nineties. The House With The Green Shutters, Jock Tamson's Bairns, Cyrano de Bergerac and Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off were just some of his great triumphs. Then, 10 years ago, it all went wrong.

As a result of personal clashes within the company, pressure from the Scottish Arts Council and who knows what else, Communicado imploded and Mulgrew resigned. There followed an unfortunate episode in which director Helena Kaut-Howson took over the company, renamed it Theatre Archipelago and, six months later, shut it down after failing to fulfil the SAC's touring quotas. Mulgrew, meanwhile, had managed to reclaim the Communicado name, but was in a weak position to reclaim the old Communicado magic. Not only had the momentum been lost, but also the money.

Compared with the 30 shows the company turned out prior to 1997, the output of Communicado Mark II has been piecemeal, although Brave, Zlata's Diary and The Memorandum had their admirers and Mulgrew's adaptation of Fergus Lamont led to a best actor gong for Sandy Grierson in the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (Cats). At a time when the Scottish Arts Council has presided over an alarming decline in touring theatre, it is odd that the funding body has not supported Communicado more vigorously. But in spite of this, Mulgrew has been enjoying a renaissance of his own – as the TMA nomination attests.

He pinpoints the date when things started to change to 2005 when he was cast in Dundee Rep's production of The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. In the early days of Communicado, he'd regularly taken to the stage, but in later years, he'd cut back on the acting to give his directorial eye full reign. Thanks to an excellently hang-dog performance as a man surrounded by greed and corruption, Mulgrew used The Visit to remind us how good a performer he could be. "I came to do The Visit by luck and if you're up there visible, doing things, then people remember you're around," he says. "In this business you go on holiday for two weeks and people forget you. So the idea is to be ubiquitously present and to be everywhere."

Since The Visit, it has sometimes seemed he hasn't been off the stage. He returned to Dundee Rep to play the foul-mouthed lead in Ubu The King in a production directed by Dominic Hill that transferred to London. It was Hill who brought him back for Peer Gynt, a role for which he and Fleming have already won the Cats best actor award. That National Theatre of Scotland co-production is returning in 2009 for a Scottish tour and a run in London. Add to this lead roles in Waiting For Godot and John Byrne's Nova Scotia and it's clear Mulgrew's star is in the ascendant.

Right now, however, he's back in the director's chair, having just staged Mother Courage And Her Children at Dundee Rep and gone straight into rehearsals for Ionesco's The Lesson for Edinburgh's Benchtours. Ironically, this is another touring company with an uncertain future, thanks to SAC cuts. "There are hardly any touring companies left," he says. "What kind of a policy is that? It's very strange."

His challenge in directing The Lesson, one of the early pace-setters in the absurdist theatre movement of the mid-20th century, is to establish the logic of a story that swings from the surreal comedy of a befuddling linguistics class to something altogether more sinister. "I hope they find it funny – and I hope they find it shocking," he says. "You're laughing and it's ridiculous, then it suddenly becomes very dark."

• The Lesson is at Dundee Rep on Wednesday (01382 223530); Woodend Barn, Banchory, on Thursday, (01330 825431), and Strathpeffer Pavillion, Friday, (01997 420124) then touring until November 1

• www.benchtours.com