Despite an illustrious theatre career spanning more than 30 years, and a string of TV and film roles in the likes of Doctor Who, Bridgerton and The Crown, actor John Mackay has never appeared on stage in his “home city” of Glasgow.
“I wanted to – it just didn’t happen,” he says, with a smile. “I dreamt of working at the Citizens Theatre, in particular, and I did work with great Glasgow director Michael Boyd for many years at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
“I haven’t really done any Scottish theatre at all in fact – one job at the Traverse in Edinburgh, when I appeared in David Harrower’s Dark Earth in 2003, and a reading on Zoom with Perth Rep.”
He laughs. “So it is really lovely, finally, to be here.”
John is making his city stage debut in spooky thriller The Woman in Black, which is at the Theatre Royal all this week.
The Strathclyde University biochemistry graduate, who grew up in Bishopbriggs, was happily teaching English at an American university in Japan when he made a decision that would change his life.
“A friend who had seen me teach told me she thought I should really be an actor,” he says, with a laugh.
“It piqued my curiosity, so I decided to pursue it. We set up Hysterick Theatre Company in Tokyo and it was a proving ground for me. I was definitely in at the deep end.”
After three years, John decided to apply for training courses in the UK.
“Even as I was coming to the decision to do it, I was terrified,” he says. “I come from a family of very practical, useful people – managers, nurses, engineers.
“So I was thinking – this is nuts. But I did it, and got in to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School where I trained for the next two years.”
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John’s stage and screen career has spanned an impressive mix of theatre roles, including more than seven years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and appearances in Judy, alongside Renee Zellweger, and movie-of-the-moment Hamnet.
“The variety is the joy of the job,” he agrees. “It’s also what you learn as a result. I’ve had to learn trapeze, for the RSC, for example, and how to speak a bit of Russian.
"Doctor Who was a lot of fun – I get people sending me photos to sign and I feel like a bit of an impostor doing that, but you realise with that show, you are part of something huge.”
In The Woman in Black, John plays lawyer Arthur Kipps, who is haunted by traumatic events in his life, and convinced a curse has been placed on his family. He employs an actor (Daniel Burke) to help him tell his story in a bid to exorcise the ghosts of his past.
As well as playing Kipps, John plays a host of other characters to bring the story to life.
“It’s the fun of the role,” he explains, “being able to jump around being so many different people, but always coming back to Kipps. He is a broken man when we meet him, and it is an emotional role. But it is a lot of fun.”
It is also, as anyone who has seen it can testify, spine-chillingly creepy. Originally supposed to be a one-off production in a pub, the show has now been running for 30 years, making it the second longest in London’s West End, after The Mousetrap.
“What is it about humans that we like to scare ourselves?” says John, smiling. “We seem to delight in putting ourselves on the edge of terror, while nestling comfortably in theatre seats or on the couch at home. Maybe it makes us more alive to feel scared? I don’t know.
“I think the play remains popular because we have a morbid curiosity for evil, and what lies behind it. Usually, a terrible tragedy or maltreatment is the seed of evil, and this story is no different. We are clawing our way towards a heartbreaking, very human tale.”
He adds: “Also, it’s the age-old question about death - is that it? Is there an afterlife?” He grins. “Is anybody there? Ghost stories feed into that deeper question.”
The Woman in Black is at the Theatre Royal until Saturday, January 24.
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