James McAvoy's Cyrano de Bergerac co-stars 'racially abused' in Glasgow

  • Published
James McAvoy in Cyrano de BergeracImage source, Marc Brenner
Image caption,
McAvoy took the lead role in Cyrano de Bergerac in London, Glasgow and Brooklyn, New York

James McAvoy's co-stars in Cyrano de Bergerac were racially abused on a "daily basis" while the play was on tour in Glasgow, the actor has claimed.

The star, who was born in the city's Drumchapel area, said the harassment experienced by female cast members left him "delighted to leave" his home town.

He told GQ magazine, the experience was "horrible" and he regretted taking the production to Scotland.

The two-week run at Glasgow's Theatre Royal in March was a sell-out.

McAvoy said that instead of a "homecoming", the performances were marred by the "sexually explicit and violent" abuse his colleagues experienced beyond the theatre.

"The cast were amazing, it was brilliant," he said. "But I was really saddened, to be honest with you, because most of the women of colour in the cast got racially abused pretty much on a daily basis when we were there."

He added: "I was just really saddened. I was absolutely shocked and dismayed and to use a Scottish word, scunnered.

"We were delighted to get to Brooklyn, and leave Glasgow. It was horrible."

Image source, Marc Brenner
Image caption,
Jamie Lloyd's adaptation saw a diverse cast conversing in the style of a poetry slam

The adaptation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac had an award-winning run in London before travelling to Glasgow and then on to New York.

In Jamie Lloyd's production an ethnically diverse cast conversed in the style of a poetry slam or rap battle with a live beatbox soundtrack.

Regarding the staging in Glasgow, McAvoy said: "I was going on stage every night going, I don't want us to be here. I brought this cast here and I don't want to be here."

A spokeswoman for the Theatre Royal said they were "extremely upset" by the incidents which happened elsewhere in Glasgow city centre.

She added: "Diversity and inclusion remain a priority for us and we offered appropriate support to the company at the time."

It felt like a live gig rather than a piece of classic theatre.

James McAvoy - back on stage in Glasgow for the first time in 20 years - has to pause to allow the whooping and cheering to subside before delivering his first line at the Theatre Royal.

The Cyrano de Bergerac production by the Jamie Lloyd company is a stripped back version of a 19th Century play reinvented many times - perhaps most memorably by Steve Martin in the film Roxanne. No props, no period costumes, no false nose (Cyrano's gift being his poetry, not his looks).

The star is McAvoy but the 18-strong ensemble give the show a power and energy - taking the mic, and their moment in the spotlight to deliver lines like a slam poetry event.

"I love words, that's all" - says Cyrano, and by the end of the show James McAvoy convinces the audience that words are everything.

It's sad then to contrast that ecstatic welcome, with the verbal abuse cast members experienced in the city outside.

According to the actor, female performers faced racism "on a daily basis" during their time in Glasgow.

For callers to BBC Radio Scotland's Mornings show, there was sadness but acceptance that it happens.

"I'm absolutely not surprised at all," said Afua. "We have this perception that Scotland is exempt from racism somehow, but it's not."

Most talked of a lifetime of everyday racism in a city which likes to bill itself as friendly and welcoming.

Most of us are. But incidents like this are a reminder that we can't be complacent.

James McAvoy is right to be ashamed, and right to call it out.

Related Topics