Eighteen years ago, it was trying to do a Scottish accent for his 18-role performance in the play Billy Bishop Goes to War that nearly did James Gaddas in.
Thirty years later, the 53-year-old actor will again play the flamboyant Canadian fighter pilot from the First World War – this time for an audience at Dubai’s The Fridge. His biggest concern? Sounding like a Scotsman.
Scottish is the word
“I can do the accent for about two lines and then it vanishes,” admits Gaddas, who first starred in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Billy Bishop in 1983. “I will probably be doing a Geordie instead. That is easier for me.”
But his struggle with the Scottish accent notwithstanding, Gaddas has had a pretty impressive career, appearing in several British television shows, from Coronation Street (1999-2000) to the prison drama Bad Girls (2002-2006). He has played more than 150 characters on stage, with roles in plays from Billy Elliot – The Musical to Monty Python's Spamalot. He is currently playing Bill Austin in the musical Mamma Mia! at London's West End, which closes on June 7.
Billy Bishop redux
Gaddas says it was a good opportunity to reprise the role of Bishop this year, commemorating the centenary of the First World War.
The first version, with a young Bishop narrating his war tales, was written in 1978 by John MacLachlan Gray in collaboration with the actor Eric Peterson. They revised it in 1998 and set the story in the future, with an older Bishop appointed as the first Canadian air vice-marshal in the Second World War and reminiscing about his First World War adventures.
Charting new ground
The musical is Gaddas's calling card to acquaint drama buffs with the type of theatre he plans to bring to Dubai. After West End's Mamma Mia! ends, the actor will be moving to Dubai permanently. He is working with his Dubai-based brother and businessman Chris Gaddas to set up Raw Theatre Productions in the Emirates. The seeds of their makeshift theatre concept were sowed in 2011, but establishing a base in Dubai proved to be a rocky road. This year, the Gaddas brothers are certain they will get their project off the ground.
“What I haven’t found in the UAE and want to tap into is a resident professional company,” says Gaddas. “In the long term we would like to start with a set of British actors and also have a couple of Dubai-based actors working with the company.”
He says the emirate has the ambience and great locations to host event theatre. “For example, we were thinking about doing a play at Ski Dubai. Every time we drive around we see a place that would be perfect to stage something.”
He says the idea of collaborating with local talent in the UAE excites him. “We have had meetings with Ductac for a base,” he says. “We are up further ahead than we have been. The plan is to kick off with a full season later this year.”
Eighteen roles too many?
Gaddas finds the challenge of swapping between 18 characters “a lot of fun”.
“It is hard to remember who you are sometimes,” he says. “With Bishop, it is all about tones and vocalisation. You don’t change costumes.
“It is about drifting in and out of voices. You have to do it with broad strokes. It is mainly Bishop describing his experience and singing. So the characters he highlights have to be big and in-your-face,” says Gaddas.
“Bishop was aggressive, a lover of life who took to the skies with aplomb,” he continues. “He wasn’t a natural solider, but once he was put in a plane he was a bit of a maverick. He was able to develop his reputation as a lone wolf – I think this perspective of looking at it from his recruitment position in the Second World War was like he is this caged animal. He thinks: ‘Here I am making speeches, recruiting soldiers. You know what, forget it; let’s think about what war was like for me.’ ”
• Billy Bishop Goes to War will be staged at The Fridge, Al Quoz, at 7.30pm on April 24. Tickets are priced at Dh100 and can be purchased at the doors. For more information, visit raw-theatre.com
aahmed@thenational.ae
