David Hayman: Six and a Tanner review and interview

• Review: Six and a Tanner

Date Reviewed: 15 August 2012

WOS Rating: 4 stars

The Assembly Rooms

1-26 August

After a successful run at A Play, a Pie and a Pint at Glasgow's Oran Mor and an extensive tour of Scotland, David Hayman brings Rony Bridges' autobiographical Six and a Tanner to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Standing over the coffin of his abusive father, a Springburn man recounts the heartaches of his childhood, laying his father's imposing leather belt before him and telling the story of the man who both made and wronged him. 

What opens as a personal exorcism of childhood demons develops into a funny and captivating seance of the loves and loathes of the character's life, offering a nostalgic yet bitter look at old Glasgow, its people and its romanticised decay.

David Hayman proves himself to be one of Scotland's finest actors. His voice, gruff and full of the private memories of a neglectful childhood, fills the Assembly Room's ballroom like the most potent incense, dramatic in its effect and at times breathtaking. His emotional intensity is rapturous and his handling of the gallows humour both poignant and affecting.

Sylvia Plath gave to the arts poetic patricide; Rony Bridges has achieved something similar in Six and a Tanner. Emotionally powerful and outstandingly acted, this a truly unmissable performance.

- by Scott Purvis

Source: What's On Stage

• Front Row

Mark Lawson reports from Edinburgh's Festival and Fringe, in a programme recorded in front of an audience, with guests including David Hayman, Tom Thum and Virginia Ironside.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has just reached the half-way mark, and this evening Front Row comes from the world's largest arts festival. Recorded in front of a live audience in the big blue tent, Mark Lawson will be providing at taste of this year's Fringe.

Guests include the Scottish actor David Hayman, whose show Six and a Tanner is a solo performance of one man railing against his dead father; Australian beatboxer Tom Thum demonstrates his extraordinary vocal talents; the writer of a new play based on the story of Anders Breivik who killed 77 people in Norway last summer discusses the background to his play The Economist.

Read more (includes iPlayer recording) at BBC

 

Please note that the interview may only be available for a limited period, and may only be accessible by UK residents.

David Hayman: Edinburgh profile

Fresh from a hugely acclaimed run as King Lear at Glasgow Citizen's Theatre this spring, David Hayman takes centre stage in the Assembly Rooms Fringe single-hander Six And A Tanner.

Set in a Glasgow funeral parlour, Hayman plays a middle-aged man reliving the joys and tragedies of his 1950s childhood as he rages at the coffin of his dead father.

Hayman's remarkable career began in the Citizen's and he rose to international fame when he played hard man and convicted murderer Jimmy Boyle in the film A Sense Of Freedom in 1979.

He has appeared in and directed many film and television productions, from Hollywood to arthouse to documentaries. He is well known for his role as DCS Mike Walker in the long-running TV crime thriller series Trial And Retribution which ran on ITV until 2009.

An outspoken, radical but non-party-aligned public personality, Hayman has been a prominent supporter of Scottish independence.

Proceeds from the Assembly Rooms show will go to the charity Spirit Aid which Hayman established in 2001.

It aims to provide support for "children and young people whose lives have been devastated by war, poverty, genocide, ethnic cleansing and all forms of abuse." The charity has run projects in places such as Kosovo, Guinea Bissau, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa as well as in Scotland.

A former steelyard apprentice, Hayman was awarded an honorary doctorate earlier this month from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - as the Royal Scottish Academy of Dramatic Art where he trained is now called - for his services to the arts.

David Hayman is appearing in Six And A Tanner at The Assembly Rooms until August 26.

Source: Morning Star