Grant O'Rourke's absurd new Tron Theatre world

The Galashiels-born actor starred as the darts legend in theatres across the country last year. And O’Rourke’s performance, critics agreed, was resounding, his Fife accent sublime, his mannerisms acute and his delivery precise.

The actor, who features in BBC’s Outlander as Rupert MacKenzie , even managed to hold the Jocky’s jutting jawline position for the entire length of the play.

But one little old lady from Jocky’s home town found a fault-line.

“She said to me she enjoyed my performance but pointed out Jocky would take out his false teeth before stepping up to the oche,” says the actor, says, grinning.

“And she wondered why I didn’t do the same.”

It seems a little unfair to suggest O’Rourke should have his perfect teeth front teeth extracted in order to convey verisimilitude?

“There is only so far you can go,” he says, grinning.

The absurd note on his performance however symbolises his career to date. Grant O’Rourke is clearly one of the most talented actors Scotland has produced. He gives his characters his all. Yet, the recognition received doesn’t quite match up to the effort.

Sure, he has enjoyed Outlander success and Rupert and Angus (Stephen Walters) are a great double act. But where are the lead roles?

After being named best actor at a theatre awards ceremony for his performance on the Scottish stage in 2015, bizarrely, the offers didn’t flood in. For two years.

However, the actor is sanguine about how the business rewards, or fails to reward, the talent.

“Awards, good reviews, compliments, they're all in the same category,” he says. “They're like chocolates. It's always nice to receive them but you can't live on them.

“The frustrating thing about being an actor is when you have people try to define your success by their perception of the industry."

He adds; "I remember someone suggesting to me once that I ‘should just go up to the Highlands and ask for a job on Harry Potter’.

“And the amount of times me and other actors that I know get asked ‘Why can't you just get a job on River City?’”

So how does he define success? “Success in this business for me is the same for most actors – earning a living. And from a creative point of view, I want to be trying new things, I want to be constantly learning and hopefully improving.”

He adds; “It's not an easy business in which to have a happy, settled life. I'm away from home a lot and my son's seven now so I'm having to spend a lot more time trying to manage my time with my wife Kiera and the wee man.

“But if in 20 years time I'm still working, and I have a happy wife and son, I'll consider that a big success.”

Meantime, what O’Rourke wants is to be able to surprise audiences and to work with people who can help him do that.

Right now the actor is enjoying that opportunity. He’s working hard in rehearsals for Ballyturk, Enda Walsh’s absurdist play, running at the Tron Theatre and directed by Andy Arnold.

It tells of two men, simply identified as One and Two, who pass the time in speeded-up, silent-comedy rituals and speculating about daily life in an imagined Irish town called Ballyturk.

But when the character Three turns up, the partnership is broken. And one of the duo is invited into the outer world.

“It's an interesting challenge,” says the actor of Walsh’s play. “Because Ballyturk isn't driven by character or plot in the traditional sense, to tell its story you have much more freedom as an actor to explore the ideas it might be presenting.

“It's like a mix of Waiting for Godot, Under Milk Wood with a bit of Morecambe & Wise thrown in. But at the same time, it's firmly based in the reality of our existence. Absurdist theatre asks a lot of the big questions in life - without trying to answer them for the audience.

“Because the audience will leave with their own conclusions, and there's no right or wrong answers in that regard, the play has the potential to be a very different show every night in terms of the characters' story ¬- and that's really exciting for actors.”

Grant O’Rourke clearly loves his profession however he wasn’t the stereotypical showbiz, all-singing, all-dancing child.

He worked in a range of jobs before choosing acting. “I once worked as a projectionist at the Pavilion Cinema in the Borders and this was fantastic. I got to watch great films every single week. And thanks to that I went on to study film, thinking that’s where my direction lay.

“Before I went to the RSAMD [now RCS] I was offered a job at a tv production company down south. It would've been a first step into media and who knows where it could've gone?

"But I knew I wanted to try acting so I never took it any further.”

He smiles; “It's like falling in love, settling down, having kids. It's not like you're suddenly struck by a realisation so much as you just know something is for you because you keep identifying all the other things that aren't.”

O’Rourke is happy with his career progression, although he does admit he’d love a panto stint playing one of the Broker’s Men.

“My son is at that age nowhere I would quite like to do something that he could watch that's aimed at him. But for one reason or another, I've never done a full-blown panto. In theatre I do a lot of comedy so panto feels like it would be a good fit for me.”

He adds, smiling; “I’ve never fancied myself as a Dame, so to speak. I think I feel more comfortable being part of a double act.”

Grant O’Rourke would love to do a variety of challenging work, but he's comfortable with the profile the work to date has given him.

“ I don't know how comfortable I would be with the level of exposure that means you can't walk down the street without people stopping you.

“I think I'd rather be the guy that people look at and go ‘I'm sure I know him from somewhere.’”

But he grins as he admits he's been delighted with the spotlight shone on him by a Still Game appearance.

“One of the greatest things that happened to me in my career was getting an episode of Still Game ( the Dial-a-bus episode with Robbie Coltrane). I played the barman who took over at the Clansman for a day while Boaby went out cycling].

That's not such a huge role?

“Yes, but everyone in my family started to realise I was serious after I got that."

He laughs; "It's also gives me an easy answer for taxi drivers asking if I've been in anything they might have seen.”

Ballyturk also stars Simon Donaldson and Wendy Seager, The Tron Theatre, Glasgow, October 4 -20.