Leading the 100-strong community cast of York Theatre Royal’s outdoor production of Sovereign this summer is the ideal role for Irish actor and stage combat fighter Fergus Rattigan.
York Theatre Royal and the University of York are working together to bring Mike Kenny’s adaptation of C. J. Sansom’s acclaimed Tudor-set novel Sovereign to an outdoor stage at the university’s King’s Manor – one of the key locations in the book.
Fergus will play disabled lawyer Matthew Shardlake who, with his assistant Jack Barak, is in York awaiting the arrival of Henry VIII, only to find himself plunged into a mystery that could threaten the future of the crown.
Fergus says: “The role is ideal for me – not only do I love and study the Tudor period but Shardlake very much has my mindset. He’s a bit of an outsider which is something I can relate to both as a disabled person in a world not designed for disabled people but as a foreigner from another country. I’m very used to that outsider nature.
“I see myself very much reflected in him. When he’s in front of the King there’s a moment of embarrassment. I’ve felt that. I’ve been in public where everyone is staring at me for just being myself. A a short man I’ve had people laugh at me for no reason, things like that. Or have judged me when I turned up for a job and I’m half the size they thought I was going to be.
“His situation is surprisingly relatable. He keeps a lot of it to himself, which is quite true to life with a lot of disabilities. The amount people are going through internally is always worse than what’s happening externally.”
Shardlake is described in the book as a ‘hedgehog’ and called a ‘brothel spider ‘, the latter an insult aimed at Richard III in Shakespeare’s play. Much of Fergus’s acting work has been in Shakespeare at festivals and more recently online. His Shakespearean roles include Puck, Malvolio, most of the Mechanicals in A Midsummer Night Dream and Claudius in Hamlet. Iago (in Othello) and disabled Richard III, he says, are still on his roles-to-do list.
He feels empowered by being cast as Shardlake. “I love the shows I do but never get to play a role this juicy. Perhaps it could have a knock-on effect for disabled actors and different body types. Kids can see that it’s an option for the future.”
Speech therapy as a youngster to ease his disability helped point him in the direction of performing. “Part of my dwarfism came with some mobility and verbal issues in that I couldn’t use my hands properly as the muscles weren’t fully developed and I had issues with my jaw. Because of that I couldn’t speak properly, couldn’t handle pens properly,” he explains.
“So I went to a speech therapist and physiotherapist. When I’d completed as much as I could with them my mother looked around for somewhere to continue this. She found a speech and drama teacher who offered those skills. So I started, especially with the speech, going all the time to this teacher.
“Because I was a smaller child I didn’t enjoy football or rugby or anything like that as I’d just get knocked over. I fell in with the drama kids. As I got into my teens I realised I had already learned a lot so started writing and directing my own plays when I was 16 and it built from there.
“When it came to university my parents would have liked me to do a more normal career. Psychology was on the table at one point and pharmacy before that but at the last minute I felt I’d be happier doing drama. I ended up getting a BA in Theatre and Drama, and a Masters in Shakespeare.”
He was aware how difficult it might be to get work as an actor. “I remember one of my drama teachers asking us ‘who do you think in this room will be the most employed after university?’ – and everyone pointed at me,” he recalls.
“Because of things like panto you can always play dwarves or one of the fairy tale characters. So there’s always employment out there for me although maybe not always the most diverse. But Sovereign is an ideal play. I know that world, I know that character, I know all the historical characters and what was happening.”
He’s a member of the Stage Combat team at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, giving fight demonstrations for tourists visiting the theatre.
“We do four fights in a 30 to 60 minute demonstration – different weapon styles from different Shakespeare plays such as rapier and dagger from Romeo and Juliet, sword and shield from Macbeth, broadswords from any of the history plays,” he explains. “They are not blunt weapons but real steel so they sound right, are the right weight and have the right handling characteristics. We explain the historical and theatrical context.”
He began stage fighting on a placement course at the Globe. “It took me a long time to get as good as my peers and be able to match their skills but then I realised there is no one else my size doing it and thought, ‘I’ve carved out a niche for myself here’. Now I’m an honours level fighter which is as high as you can go without becoming a teacher.”
The prospect of acting outdoors doesn’t faze Fergus as he’s done plenty of performing in wide open spaces since starting to work in theatre and television in 2009. Most of that outdoor acting has been in Shakespeare including festivals of the Bard’s work in Dublin (where he attended Trinity College), Devon and Cambridge. “It’s interesting because you have to adjust to the acoustics everywhere you go, working in everything from stone buildings to open parks,” he says.
If performing outside doesn’t worry him, how does he view the prospect of leading a community cast of 120? “Excited and slightly terrified,” he says.
Sovereign is being staged from 15-30 July outdoors at King’s Manor in Exhibition Square in York.
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