Singin I'm No A Billy, He's a Tim

Ah Celtic and Rangers matches. You can be almost sure of shenanigans. You can be almost sure of over-elaborate celebrations when one team scores, jeering when they don't. The Old Firm games are like battle days with each team trying to outdo the other, trying to outshine the other. But as Scott Kyle highlights to me when I spoke to him a few weeks ago, it's not all about football and there's the slow process working through the play Singin I'm No A Billy He's A Tim that shows that you're no different to anyone else, despite your colours.

Scott Kyle plays Billy, the Rangers fan in the one night only production. He spoke to me a few weeks ago, in run up to the play.

Tell us a bit about the show and the character you play.

The story essentially is about a Celtic fan and a Rangers fan. The show starts with a Celtic fan who's been arrested on the day of the football. He gets marched down to a police cell, gets his shoes taken off him and gets left in the cell. So he asks the warden to turn the lights off and let him get some sleep. Ten minutes later, you get a Rangers fan coming down who's been arrested as well. The madness begins then when these two guys discover that they're in the same cell. It's a really funny story about these two guys who are essentially on a journey together from the moment they meet.

I imagine it's a very visually comedic moment when the lights come on and you see the Rangers fan thrown in with the Celtic fan.

Yeah, it's hilarious when the lights come on and these two guys see each other. And the audience reaction is great too. The show is so successful because we have such wonderful comedy in it. We were the biggest show in Edinburgh. We had comedians lining up to see it and I won a Best Actor award as well for playing the Rangers fan.

Moving away from the show for a moment, what's your own background in theatre? Is it something you've pursued from a young age or a new endeavor for you?

Well, what happened is, I left high school and worked in a supermarket for a few years. I went to college. And I suppose I found acting and acting found me. I loved it, put my heart and soul into it and I left college with my own business. I sold the business and then produced this play which has been a massive success. We went to Edinburgh and I won that massive award. Statistically it's harder to win your first stage award than it is an Oscar. So they say anyway! But to be an award winning actor at 27 is fantastic and I'm hoping it will open doors for me.

In the last few years there has been an explosion of sports based plays, what is the attraction to sports plays and drama? Myself, I'm a huge sports fan so I can't imagine why there aren't more sports plays.

Yeah, I'm the same myself. They say arts and sports are supposed to reflect your culture and society so you would imagine there would be a lot more of it. It's a massive thing over here, soccer, so I don't know why there isn't more. But it is a great thing because it does reflect society. Our story is about the fans, these two guys from opposite sides and you don't often get that dramatic tension. The actors don't hold back either. We were on stage in Edinburgh one night and the actor who plays the Celtic fan burst his nose live on stage during the fight scene. It's very hard to coordinate a fight scene without it looking staged. So basically, it's a bit of a free for all until the warden comes in and breaks it up. But because we'd been moved to a bigger theatre, it took the warden longer to get on stage and by that time my knee had caught the other actor's nose. So he's got blood pouring out of his nose the first few minutes on stage! But it worked in a sense because we're trying to make the show as realistic as possible.

It's a very topical story going through it of course, the story of the Celtic and Rangers fans. Everyone has their preconceptions about that issue but what kind of message is the play putting across about it?

The great thing about the show is that it is universal. We went to the Edinburgh festival and had people from all over the world. They all said the same thing coming out, that it was a great story. It's not just a football play - it's a play with universal themes. It could just as easily be a Palestinian and an Israeli or a Montague and a Capulet. It could be two arch enemies from any tribe in the world. You put them together in a prison cell and there's going to be a lot of humour, emotion and tension. The great thing about the show is that it's there for pure entertainment - we want to make it as real and raw and funny as is possible. We're trying to get the message across subtly.

After one show, an audience member came over to me, wearing his Rangers jersey. He'd sat next to a guy in a Celtic shirt and thought ‘right I'll show him'. He said, by the end of it, they both looked at each other and said "We're a couple off wallys, aren't we?" That's what the show is about essentially - you're no different to anyone else.

Singin I'm No A Billy He's A Tim runs for one night only in the Olympia Theatre on 1st October.

Words: Anna Hayes

Website: www.mcd.ie