Theatre and Dance

Actor Adrian Scarborough has a busy schedule this summer, what with appearing at the National Theatre in J.B. Priestley’s Time and the Conways and at the same time filming the third series of the BBC TV hit comedy Gavin and Stacey.

But one of his favourite ways of relaxing when he does have the time is on his allotment in Berkhamsted’s Sunnyside.

As a father of two he’s discovering that “as the children grow bigger they take up more space in the house” so he finds his own space on that allotment round the corner.

“I have to go up there to get my bit of peace and quiet,” he confided. He confesses to being ‘shed man’ up there too.

“I’ve erected a shed and I cannot begin to tell you the joy the shed has given me” he continued.

“It has a little deck chair in it and a little gas stove where I can boil up my kettle and make my tea. It’s like having a little space of my own. It’s perfect. And looking down the valley seeing the seasons change is just the most wonderful thing”.

Country life

He’s not the only actor to revel in the pleasures of the country life in Berkhamsted. Fellow National Theatre actor Joseph Millson, who stars in Tom Stoppard’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, returning to the National later this year, is a neighbour and has become a firm friend.

“We came on one anther on the station platform. Both of us going ‘What are you doing here? I live here! Do you? Well I live here too!’” he said.

“It’s rather lovely to have a fellow actor just up the road. We go drinking together on our nights out of the theatre and we discuss each other’s performances and parts and flatter one another terribly!”

In Gavin and Stacey, Adrian plays Pete, husband and sparring partner of Dawn, played by Julia Davis. The couple are friends and neighbours of Gavin’s mum and dad, and often turn up on their doorstep complete with their marital tensions! Adrian loves being in the show ‘I have to be the luckiest man alive’, he enthused.

Visionary

Like An Inspector Calls, which visited Milton Keynes Theatre recently in the National Theatre touring production, Time and the Conways is one of visionary playwright J.B. Priestley so-called ‘time’ plays.  We first meet the Conways, a large middle class family, in 1919 as they celebrate a birthday – and the end of the First World War. One of the less welcome guests is the lower class aspiring entrepreneur Ernest, played by Scarborough.

“He comes from a working class background” said Adrian.

“And he’s trying to make a better life for himself. In the process of his growing up, he becomes a not terribly pleasant person. I think Priestley went out of his way to illustrate that capitalists all go to hell! He (Ernest) starts a paper mill and runs that purely for profit and he certainly doesn’t give of his money very generously or freely. He’s not a very generous person in spirit and ultimately he has a very unhappy marriage”.

We find out more about this in Act 2, which takes place in 1938. We’re back in1919 for Act 3, so Adrian has to do a fair bit of time travelling himself in the course of one evening. When I first meet him between a matinee and an evening performance, he’s all ready to party in 1919, resplendent in evening attire and sporting a fetching wig of dark hair, artfully oiled to give that post World War One look.

You can see how Adrian looks in costume – and what happens when he travels through time with the Conways – at the National Theatre’s production of Time and the Conways, which runs in repertory there until 16 August.