BWW INTERVIEWS: Dominic Tighe of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

So The Importance of Being Earnest opened at the Open Air Theatre at the weekend...

Yes. Our first preview was on Friday, so we've done three shows now. Fortunately the weather was great, so we had plenty of people at all performances, packed, sitting on the banks, and it was good - a good reaction. It's funny, the previews were all about planning what works and what doesn't work so well, what needs changing, and there were certain amounts of technical things to be cut, scene changes. It was running a little bit long, so we've cut it a bit shorter, which is important, but the reaction seems to be good. After four weeks in a rehearsal room, we'd kind of forgotten that it's quite funny on its own. People really like the play. They listen to the words. They laugh at the lines. You kind of forget that. It's a good learning curve to realise you can just trust the text and let the text do the work, you don't have to impose anything funny on it.

You get so used to Wilde's epigrams that you forget they're funny in context.

It's really funny. He's written it so well. You know where to hit the lines and the punchlines to get the laughs. We're working those things out. The reaction has been good. We've got lots of work to do before we open properly on Wednesday.

Have you ever worked in the open air before?

I've done lots of concerts outside but I've never done a play in the open air. So far we've been very lucky - it's been beautiful weather. It's raining today, quite hard. It's obviously, because unlike a theatre where there's a box, you've got something to gauge your sound, your voice, there's nothing for your voice to bounce back off here. Vocally it's much more demanding, you've got to maintain a level throughout, which is more than you'd have to do in a theatre. If it's raining you've got to contend with that.

The Open Air Theatre has lots of contingency plans if it rains.

If it's drizzle, we'll carry on. You don't stop unless it's for safety. Apparently it all becomes very British - umbrellas go up, and it's all "We came to watch a play and we're going to watch it." You get more applause at the end just for soldiering through.

How did you get attached to the project?

I was cast back in April, on my birthday, April 20th. I auditioned - I was put up for it by my agent and then went through the audition process. Then I ended up getting cast, and waiting for it to start, and reading it and reading it, and doing a bit of research into Wilde and the time.

Did you watch any of the films?

I did, actually, I watched the Wilde film [starring Stephen Fry]. It was good. He had a really interesting life, a very tragic life. He died very young. I do wonder, if he carried on writing, he was kind of defining his style, if he'd have shaped the way we speak, like Shakespeare did. He died at 46, and it was all cut short.

What were you doing right before this?

This is my first acting in two years. I took a bit of a diversion. I was doing a play at the Old Vic, and straight after that I ended up forming a group, a male quartet, which became known as Blake, which was like a classical boy band. It was completely unplanned, a big surprise. We ended up signing a record deal with Universal and released two albums, which meant two tours with Katherine Jenkins, releasing albums in Australia and Japan and Denmark, but at the beginning of this year I decided I really didn't want to keep on with it.

Why?

I missed the acting. I trained as an actor. That was where my heart was. When something tells you so strongly that you should be...it was a bit of a risk because I didn't have anything to go on to. I could have waited and got a job and then left. That would have been unfair on the other guys. So I actually gave them three months' notice.

It's a very risky time to do something like that!

Yes. Yes, it was. Fortunately a month after I left it paid off, because I got this and I've got something else lined up afterwards, so it worked out well in the end. It would have been very easy for me to stay with Blake. It would have provided security and lots of regular work. It wasn't really where my heart was. I came into acting to take risks. I've got no responsibilities apart from myself. I'm 26, and if I can't take risks now I might never be able to. I decided to throw The cat among the pigeons and see what happened. It only makes you more hungry and more determined to prove to yourself and to other people that you've done the right thing.

Your biography mentions that The Vicar of Dibley prevented you from going to university. Is that true?

It's absolutely true! I'd just left school, and my A-levels turned out better than anyone expected, and I could always sing, so they said that I should go for a choral scholarship at Oxford or Cambridge. So I did. And I got awarded a scholarship at Trinity College Oxford on the condition that I went back and passed my academic interview. They normally look quite leniently on you if you've got a music scholarship, because you'll contribute to college life. But I did English, Music and History for my A-levels, and I wasn't going to get in on any of those, because they're all popular subject, so someone said, "Try theology, it's easy, you'll get in." So I turned up and I quoted The Vicar of Dibley in the interview. They didn't give me a place and they took my scholarship away!

What on earth did you quote?

They asked me what relevance I thought the Bible had today. I remembered this thing where the vicar talks about the nativity and about it still meaning a lot. I think I would have got away with it had I not said, "In the words of the great Geraldine Grainger"...

What are you up to next?

I have a week off, then in August I'm off to the Watermill for Hot Mikado. I did the Hot Mikado a few years ago, and it's running for three weeks at the Watermill before a tour. I'm really pleased about that.

The Watermill's stuff often transfers to the West End.

It does. I've worked there before with Propeller, the all-male Shakespeare company. I've never worked with Sarah Travis or Craig Revel-Horwood, who's directing it. It's actor-muso, and I play the trombone. It's going to be a real challenge - not only have I got to learn a whole score off by heart, and accompany when I'm not singing and also do some dancing, which will be quite fun. I spoke to Craig the other day and said, "You do realise the extent of my dancing, don't you?" and he said, "It'll be fine."

Actor-musician work must be tough.

It's such a beautiful place. I'll be there rehearsing in August, so if it's nice weather it'll be absolutely beautiful down there. But you're absolutely right. In the actor-muso shows, when you're not doing your bits, you have to be accompanying the others. So they make you work. And it's so small - all the actors playing musical instruments and always being on stage. Once you're on, you're on. It's a brilliant place. I'm quite excited.

If the weather is hot, though, in August, there'll be all sorts of tuning issues.

Yes. It's not so bad with brass, but it will be with woodwind or strings. When I left Blake, in my ideal world I really didn't want to do a music project. It would have been quite easy for me to do that, having come from a quite successful music project. I'm really glad that the play came along first. It re-established me, and reminded me I went to drama school and I can act.

Musical theatre would be the obvious thing for you to do, I guess?

I'm an open book! In America they're more lenient about you being able to do theatre, a TV series and then a film. Here we're a bit more snobby about stuff like that, which is a shame. As an actor I'm quite conscious of that; I don't want to get stuck in a rut. I would love to do musicals - just the right thing. I can afford to take risks and I can afford to be more choosy. The situation may change, and I might end up doing two-and-a-half years in a long-running musical. At the moment for me it's about the venues, the parts, and what the show is. Singing is definitely a string to the bow.

What was the last thing you saw at the theatre?

I've had a bit of a spate because I'm conscious that I won't be able to go and see stuff now when I'm working every night. I saw Hamlet, A Little Night Music, I'm going to go and see The Bridge Project...

Hamlet's a good example of what you were just talking about, with Jude Law going into theatre from film.

He was great! It sounds really patronising, but I was impressed. He was very believable and strong. I thought it was a great production. I saw the Ben Whishaw one at the Old Vic. I think I was still at drama school then, so we were looking up at him in awe. But no, I love to go and see a whole variety of musicals to straight theatre. There's so much good stuff out there, there are so many great roles, classical roles, already-established roles and plays, and also so much emerging stuff.

Critics often moan about the West End being stuffed full of jukebox musicals and revivals, though, so do you think that's fair?

Well, there certainly seems to be a lot of musicals at the moment. They're saying that with the economic downturn, musicals are providing a relief from that. Providing that they're done well...I saw Oliver! Absolutely fantastic. No expense spared. Really classy, a lot of love and attention to detail. Not a cheap job to sell some tickets. So providing they're done well and with integrity, it doesn't matter what they are - and if people enjoy them.

Obviously this ties into reality TV casting.

When I was at drama school, the big thing was Big Brother. What was the point in that? There was nothing. It was just watching people in a box. That was it. The argument was that it was stopping good drama being made and taking up airtime and budgets. I think it will go full circle and it's on its way. Big Brother's still there, on series 10, but half the people watch it. It moved on to Pop Idol, The X-Factor, Britain's Got Talent. But at least they're talent shows. It's about nurturing talent. So it's slowly going, and it will come back to classy dramas.

Did you ever consider doing a reality TV show when you were looking for your break?

No. One step on from Pop Idol is the Lloyd Webber BBC shows, which is all about casting the role in a show, which is one step closer to getting back to making good stories. What's interesting is that the people who win that are trained actors. People think they're not, but they are. They've been to drama school. And why are they winning? Because they're better than people who haven't been to drama school, or people who haven't had any experience, because they can do it, because they've had the experience. The Sound Of Music was the first one. People thought how can you do it? It was a massive success. It was a great show. It was done well. It wasn't tacky. It brings a whole new audience into the West End. But do people want to see the winners in anything else? I suspect not, most of the time. They feel responsible for choosing the person who plays the role. Would they be supportive if they went into something different?

Connie Fisher went into They're Playing Our Song at the Menier...

Yes, with Alistair McGowan. Now she's back doing The Sound Of Music on tour. It'll be interesting to see what happens to Jodie [Jodie Prenger]. Maybe it's better to not win those things, because you might have more options.

Jodie's going to do Loose Women now!

I did hear that! I've done Loose Women three times. My last performance with Blake was on Loose Women.

Was it scary?

They just talk! They just talk over each other! It's a great show. We have lots of lovely supporters who follow us and who came to things like Loose Women, and they're all coming to see this. It's really sweet of them. They're very loyal.

Dominic Tighe is appearing in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Open Air Theatre until 25th July.