Interview: Stephen McCole – Medea – EIF2022

Written almost 2500 years ago, Euripides’ Medea finds its newest life through the pen of celebrated Scots’ writer, Liz Lochhead, and a fresh staging by the National Theatre of Scotland at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival 2022. One of the defining Greek tragedies of the Western stage for centuries, The NTS have gathered a stellar cast & crew to play out a peculiarly Scottish Medea, at the Hub, directed by former Artistic Director of the RSC, Michael Boyd, and led by burgeoning star of stage & screen, Adura Onashile in the title role.

Taking the role of King Kreon, amidst this “…tale of horror, of the breaking of the ultimate taboo..” is Stephen McCole, a very well-kent face since his break-out role as Rab, in the well-loved High Times, back in 2004.

Stephen was kind enough to spare some time for a chat with TheQR, talking Medea, Life, and a return to August in Edinburgh for the first time in quite a few years…

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📍The Hub, Edinburgh
📅 Aug 10 – 28
🕖 8.00pm/3.00pm
🕖 Running time (approx.): 1 hour 15 minutes
👥 Director: Michael Boyd Director
👥 Assistant Director: Jaïrus Obayomi 
👥 Set & Costume Designer: Tom Piper 
👥 Lighting Designer: Colin Grenfell 
👥 Movement Director: Janice Parker 
👥 Composer & Musical Director: James Jones 
👥 Voice Director: Jean Sangster 
👥 Sound Designer: Josh Robins 
👥 Casting Director: Laura Donnelly
💰 From £37
🎂 Not stated, but mature content present
🎭 Wheelchair Accessible Venue, Wheelchair Accessible Toilet, Audio Enhancement, Check listings for specific accessible performances.

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So Stephen, can I begin by asking you about your role in Medea, and how you came by it?

Interestingly enough, this was the last thing I auditioned for! Two years of lockdowns ago!

The plan was that Medea was supposed to happen a while back, and obviously everything shut down and I hadn’t heard that I had got the role, so it was awful strange that almost two years later, I get a phone call telling me that that that audition was successful!

I’d forgotten all about it, you know…you move on and do other things, and then the play was happening and they asked me if I would play king Kreon! I was delighted to say yes and get involved with work in Scotland again, and particularly the NTS.

When did you last work with the National Theatre of Scotland?

The last time would have been with Let the Right One In, when it was touring in America which was easily four years ago.

So it’s been a while, and it’s always good to kinda stretch those muscles doing a bit of theatre again, you know. It’s a bit of a daunting thing to step back onto the stage again after so long. But you know, as soon as you get into that rehearsal room and you start, well, it’s just like every other job, and you get on and have fun with it!

And your role as Kreon, what have you made of it?

I would say that theatre is the thing…perhaps out with my comfort zone to a certain degree. It’s something I really want to, and need to work more at. Kreon is such a gift of a character though, just a gift of a character! He’s not a very nice, he’s very powerful. He has very few people to challenge him. He’s a man that’s very much in control, knows what he wants. He hands down the law, and that’s what I do in the play.

I have one very good scene, which is a joy! I can throw all my eggs into that one basket. I can really concentrate all this this period of rehearsing, trying to get that one scene to really work well.

Did you come into Medea with any idea of the play or impressions of it?

Listen, when I grew up, I grew up watching Jason and the Argonauts and stuff like that…Clash of the Titans. My knowledge of Greek tragedies came from watching these films as a kid.

So when I was looking at Jason and Medea…and these characters on stage, well at the back of my mind is the same characters from the films. I was really excited by the prospect of playing King Kreon on stage, and make a contemporary take on things.

It’s a great excuse to grow a beard as well!

Have you enjoyed rehearsals and the development process so far then, beard and all?

There’s loads of people in the room who I know really well, including people behind the scenes at NTS. So it’s been very comfortable for me from day one. It’s an absolute joy to come to work and not only do my thing, but watch these amazing actors do their thing.

And Adura Onashile (Medea), who I hadn’t met previously is an absolute force: she’s brilliant. When you work with someone that good, and you have a kind of two hander scene with them, they really make you raise your game. You can’t kinda phone it in! You really have to have your wits about you.

I love that. I love working with actors who make me a better actor. Medea is certainly having that effect.

And how have you been enjoying the script, does it make a difference to you having Liz Lochhead’s Scots heavy adaptation to work with?

I love what she does when she takes Classics and puts it in my voice, you know? I’m finding a part of myself that that is Kreon, I’m not having a kinda look inside the box and finding an accent to put on. I’m looking at this as if Kreon was the king of Castlemilk…the king of Glasgow! That’s what you’re getting in this play.

I previously did another of Liz’s plays, so I’m familiar with her work, and I’ve seen some of hers before: she’s brilliant in what she does…just amazing. I’m honoured to be in it, and being able to speak her words.

And how does it feel to be part of the International Festival 2022? Does it add something to the experience?

It certainly does. It’s been a long time since I’ve been part of the festival theatrically, back before the split when it used to be the film festival one year, and festival the next. I was there almost every year, either in a film or a stage show, so one way or another I was there.

Maybe for the last 10, 15 years, it’s always been the film festival that I’ve been involved in. The last time I was in a play at the Festival I was 19/20…don’t start me! We won the Fringe First though, so, you know it’s a place that holds some great memories for me! I love being in the mix, and I’m going to get to see shows, and load of comedians, you know? I love being part of the Festival…it’s great going to it, but it’s even better being part of it.

Absolutely, and has anything about the play, or the process so far come as a surprise to you?

Every time you rehearse something…when you’re in a room with a bunch of active minds, well no experience is ever the same. So, you always have to come in with an open mind. You’re always working with a different group of people, different stage management, different everything. You can say that with certain people, you know, they do jobs with similarities, but you know, when you break it down to the human aspect, everybody’s different.

It’s this experience that I love about being an actor. Each and every job is truly unique in its own right. It’s never boring. And well this room is amazing. You know, director Michael Boyd is absolutely brilliant to work with… I’m just having such a great time…and you know it’s as relaxed as I’ve ever been in a rehearsal room.

You experience something like lockdown and Covid, and you realize that there are worse things in the world, than making a mistake, or fluffing a word. So I’m having a ball with this job!

Well with Medea playing the Hub, you’re certainly going to be right at the heart of Festivals action this August!

Yeah.! That’s gonna be good. I mean, I’ve never been in the Hub before, so again, here’s a new experience! It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been an actor, there’s always a new and fresh experience around the corner for you, you know? It’s great!

And do you have plans looking beyond August?

Is it just back into the the normal run of finding parts, and auditioning. That said, I think if you only ever thought about work, and being an actor, it would drive you mad!

I’m going a festival, uh, in September, which is gonna be awesome. I’m gonna go away there and spend a few days with my wife and listen to some bands. I’m also a DJ. We do a wee club night in the south side of Glasgow. La Roche Rumba, it’s called. We ran it as a monthly thing for years and years and years back in the day, but we’d kinda stopped doing it before lockdown. Now we’ve got an outing on the 10th September, so I’m really looking forward to that.

So you need to have things outside the business, you know, you need to have things that, that drive you, that aren’t just the disappointment of not getting a job. I have chosen this life, nobody forced me to this, but now I’m in a very zen-like position with it you, you know? I think it makes you a better actor. You’re not so wound up…I have enough other things in my life to keep my grounded.

With Medea, who are you hoping to see in the room, watching the show?

Well I come from a working class background myself, and I understand that some people from that background can look at the Festival, and a Greek Tragedy like Medea, and think it’s simply not for them. I just hope they give it a shot; it’s the National Theatre of Scotland after all, and the don’t do anything by halves!

I’m sure anyone who comes along is going to enjoy it!

But, you know, I would love for people to come and see the show that have never seen a play like this before. I don’t even think I’ve ever seen a play quite like this before. I mean, this play was written thousands of years ago, well the original idea of it: but it has a real women’s drive, and offers a strong lead female character. I think that will connect people to it.

I just hope that people come to see it, and enjoy it, and that’s all I kinda hope for in everything I do.

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Medea will play The Hub, Edinburgh until August 28th. For tickets, and more information, click here.

For more on the continuing Edinburgh International Festival, click here.