Posted on 18 September 2008.
For three decades Donald McBride has been a stalwart of Newcastle’s Live Theatre, meeting many famous faces along the way. Here he talks to GRAHAM ROBSON
IT was apt that actor Donald McBride won a part in the award-winning film Billy Elliot, based as it was on a story about a miner’s son beating the odds, and emerging a star in the world of arts.
Just like Billy, Donald is the son of a miner, and instead of following his dad down the pit, forged for a career in acting.
But as Donald points out: “Some of the best jobs are the one’s you don’t do but you still get paid.”
Donald had been due to play Billy’s friend’s father.
But due to lack of filming time, his part was reduced to his voice being heard on screen.
“But I was paid, as I signed a contract,” he explains.
This month, the 54-year-old from Fencehouses, County Durham, is celebrating 30 years of treading the boards.
Along the way, Donald has acted with such luminaries as Sean Bean, Pete Postlethwaite, Michael Kitchen, Jimmy Nail, Robson Green and Tim Healy.
He’s appeared on our screens in Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Our Friends In The North and Spender. He’s done an 18-month stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but mostly he’s been a stalwart of the Live Theatre.
He first discovered a love of acting when he was at school with friend and fellow actor David Whitaker.
“In my village, people viewed acting as little more than a pastime. Being an actor just wasn’t something you aspired to be. Of course, David and I had a great interest in acting, but we never said while at school, ‘we want to be actors’. It just happened,” recalls Donald. And while his mother Eva and dad Bob were not thespians, they did inspire him.
“My mother used to attend the Bankhead Methodist Chapel and do readings. I’d watch her and study the way she told those religious stories.
“Dad used to sing me those beautiful, old nursery rhymes, which had such gorgeous imagery. Some actors say, ‘oh, so and so is my biggest inspiration’, but for me it has to be religion and a stable family life.”
His father, who was a coal miner for 37 years and “quite stuck in his ways”, believed that acting would be a precarious profession and unsuitable for bringing up a family.
“That was absolutely fine,” says Donald, who never married.
“When I’m at work, the company and the show come first. Sometimes I wake up and wish I’d had children, a wife and the white picket fence, but then I look at what I’ve achieved in the theatre. Could I have done that with three children and a wife to satisfy? I don’t think so.”
While at school, Donald remembers his English teacher, Miss Anderson, directing him.
He fondly recalls how the cast had to bring props from home.
“My poor mother must have thought I was a kleptomaniac” he jokes. “Oh, but it was great fun, we dived right in. Nowadays the innocence of theatre is lost. The blockbuster and bigger budgets have killed it.”
After school, Donald enrolled at the University of Hull to study English and Drama. He’d considered moving to London to study, but his heart was in the North and he couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Which might explain why he still lives in the house in which he was brought up.
After university it was time to register his name with Equity.
“They said I’d need to choose another name because Donald Reed (his real name) was already taken.”
Inspired by a song, Donald opted for McBride.
But then he later learned that the actor who had supposedly taken his name had actually opted for the name Dom Reid.
So there had been no need to change his name after all. But back to the career. Thanks to a recommendation from pal David Whitaker, he auditioned for the Live Theatre and landed his first job.
Over the decades, Donald has had parts in Shakespeare plays, comedies, drama and panto.
“Pantomime was hilarious. To perform for children was just amazing. And they didn’t care if I died on stage.” he laughs.
At Hexham one year he had to step into the shoes of actress Val McLane and had a weekend to learn the lines of the Oscar Wilde character, Mrs Bracknell.
He recalls with joy a play staged at the Live Theatre called Kiddar’s Luck in which he played a variety of characters alongside Denise Welch and Robson Green.
“We all played mothers, fathers and children. I gave a memorable performance as Mrs Buchan, who made her entrance with a jug of beer under her pinny.
“There’s nothing like hearing an audience laugh. That’s a feeling you can’t buy and hearing them clap and knowing you’ve done a good job.”
Donald’s next job is in October when he takes to the stage in Swan Song, part of the Live Theatre’s Bite Size season at Apartment in Newcastle. “It’s an excellent play and I urge people to come and see it.” he says. In the play, he takes the role of a drag queen, who does a fair imitation of Ethel Merman. So will this mark his personal swan song?
“Retirement? I hope not. I still hope to be performing in 20 years time.” he says.”
Swan Song opens at Apartment, Newcastle, at 1.30pm on October 30, and runs until November 2. It is repeated on the November 2 at 7.30pm at Queen’s Hall, Hexham. Tickets are £10, £8 concession and include a meal at Apartment performances. Telephone (0191) 232 1232 for the Apartment box office or 01434 652 477 for Queen’s Hall.
Grant Leadbitter
