Open-air Shakespeare actor Gordon Duffy-McGhie explains what it’s like to belong to the Castle Players, one of the region’s most acclaimed amateur theatre groups.

WHEN I left school, I trained as an actor at Mountview Theatre School in London, then went to Paris to study mime for a further two years. When I eventually returned to London most of my classmates were either working actors or waiting tables.

Unfortunately, for a year or so, I joined the latter cohort. I did eventually “get a break” and began working for small-scale theatre companies and in 1987 came up to Darlington to work for Durham Theatre Company. It was during a performance that I met my wife, Janice, fell madly in love and never left. I commuted back and forth to London for a while and appeared in a number of TV programmes, stage tours etc, but finally settled into a career in education. Much more stability and more time to enjoy playing with The Castle Players.

Have you ever acted with children or animals?

Both. I’ve been in All Creatures Great and Small (and got very friendly with a cow in calf), and I remember my sheep-throwing skills were put severely to the test in a particular episode of Heartbeat. I also appeared with a speaking dog in the ITV children’s series Woof. It was like working with Lassie – the dog had the best hotel room and its own location trailer. As for acting with children, one of the very best rewards of performing with The Castle Players is the chance to act with your own children, which I have done several times. And we’re still speaking… Can anyone join in an amateur group like the Players? Does it change people?

Anyone can join and I challenge anyone to say that they have not changed for the better as a result. It is the most complete communityspirited adventure you could ever wish to experience. Great fun and lots of laughter.

What is your favourite Shakespeare play?

I would have to say Hamlet, particularly as I’m now too old to ever play it. It has everything you could wish for in a stage play - action and adventure, high comedy, sword fights and some of the most remarkable poetry in the English language.

What has been your favourite part to play?

Although I’m not a great fan of the play, I would have to say that playing Prospero in last year’s production of The Tempest gave me the chance to speak some of the most magical lines I’ve ever come across.

Has Shakespeare anything to teach us?

All of Shakespeare’s play are in some way an examination of the human condition – our best and worst qualities. It’s why they continue to be performed hundreds of years after his death: we all thrill in seeing ourselves “exposed” on the stage.

The Players tend to stick to the Comedies? Is there a reason for this?

You need, I think, a totally different approach to playing in the open air.

Simon Pell, the Castle Players’ founder and most prolific director, is the greatest exponent of that. The strength of any Castle Players’ production lies in the whole experience of the evening. You can never ever quite forget the impact of the weather or the midgies. By performing the comedies, we can take the audience’s mind off some of the obvious distractions more easily.

Why are the Players so successful?

Although our audiences see only four performances, more than ten months’ preparation has gone before. It is a huge undertaking, that drains everyone involved, but equally one that brings everyone back year after year.

Any staging disasters over the years?

It has to be when one of the players, Trudi Dixon, was about to be carried off-stage in a sedan chair. The two servants manfully lifted the chair, but poor Trudi stayed where she was - the bottom had fallen out. Given the weather in the North-East, is outdoor theatre a good idea? I think it’s part of the challenge – for both the audience and the actors!

My favourite memory was during Twelfth Night – we came to the end of the play and sang the final song; when we came to the line “And the rain, it raineth every day”, the skies opened and it poured down. It got the best laugh of the evening.

■ The Castle Players will perform William Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well in the grounds of the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, from Wednesday, July 7, to Saturday, July 10.

Tickets are on sale now.

Freephone: 0800-074-7080 or buy direct from The Bowes Museum or Darlington Building Society, Market Place, Barnard Castle. Seats from £12, £5 ground tickets (1p on Wednesday).

castleplayers.co.uk