I spoke to TV stars Michael Greco and Tristan Gemmill before they come to Blackpool with the play 12 Angry Men

The riveting play ‘12 Angry Men’ is back in session at Blackpool Grand Theatre from Monday April 29 to Saturday May 4 following rave reviews and it’s packed full of famous names.

Reginald Rose’s famous knife-edge drama will see top TV stars Jason Merrells (Casualty, Emmerdale) leading the jury alongside Tristan Gemmill (Coronation Street, Casualty), Michael Greco (EastEnders, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), Ben Nealon (Soldier Soldier, Doctors), Gary Webster (Minder, Family Affairs) and Gray O’Brien (Coronation Street, Peak Practice), as well as six seasoned stage actors.

With an ensemble cast that good, we were spoilt for choice on who to interview and thankfully Tristan Gemmill and Michael Greco were both available for a chat ahead of their Blackpool appearances so take a look at what they had to say below…

How would you describe the play?

Michael: “12 Angry Men is basically a courtroom drama based on the original playwright’s experiences from when he was asked to do jury service back in the 50s. I'm not sure whether it was the same case, but we are deliberating whether this boy is going to be found guilty or not of murdering his father and basically 11 say yes, and one person puts a spanner in the works and says no. In America, you can’t have a hung jury so it needs to be discussed… It's interesting how 12 completely different minds work and how, by the end of the show, they all work as one.”

Tristan: “It's got a slightly quirky premise in that it's just 12 blokes in a room, and the thought of that makes you think well, how's that going to be interesting for two hours? But in all those courtroom dramas, where you see the trial happen, and you see the the defendant, the witnesses, the families and the people involved, the jury is a faceless group of people almost, and they disappear out of the room, and then everybody paces up and down the corridor, waiting to hear their verdict. This is the opposite of that, in that you never see the outside world, you only see the room where the jurors go to deliberate on the case. 

“During our deliberations, you sort of hear the the evidence and the facts of the case backwards, and at each twist and turn, as more information is dropped, the jurors and the audience go, ‘oh, maybe it's not quite as obvious as I thought it was’ so the justice process starts and some jurors are more empathetic and some jurors aren't.”

How do you feel about coming up to Blackpool?

Michael: “I've never performed in Blackpool and I know it's such a great place for theatre… and I’ve heard the Grand Theatre is a fantastic venue so I'm looking forward to performing there.

“Last time I was in Blackpool, I was a professional poker player and I played at the casino and had a few eventful evenings out with the boys. But now I'm in my mid 50s, I’ve slowed down a lot and obviously settled down with kids so I won't be sampling the late night bars and clubs! I'll be doing my play, I'll probably play a bit of golf -hopefully at Royal Lytham St Annes just up the road- and hopefully it will be nice weather and I can take a few walks along the beach, just see what Blackboard has to offer.”

Tristan: “I went for a couple of day trips when I was working on Coronation Street but I've never spent any chunk of time in Blackpool so I'm really looking forward to it, I'm very excited.

“We went up as a family, and we just walked along the beach with our small kids, did all the classics but we didn’t go on a roller coaster - my youngest was too small… but maybe I will next week! I wouldn't do it on my own, I'll see if anyone else is up for it and maybe we'll get a little group of several Angry Men together.”

What are your characters like?

Tristan: “I play one of the less empathetic jurors, one of the angriest of the Angry Men…  I’m juror number three and he is absolutely stone cold convinced that this kid is guilty, and there's absolutely no point in even talking about it. But if we are going to talk about it, I'm gonna have a go and say ‘what are you wasting everybody's time for?’ But as the play goes on, you find out he's got a son, who he's estranged from, who is around the age of the defendant so then the question comes up of, does he have an emotional investment in the case? Does his vehemence come from a place of emotional vulnerability and regret about how he brought up his own son?”

Michael: “My character, juror seven, is a brilliant character to play because he's kind of a comic relief. To put it in modern terms, I'm a big football fan, I support Chelsea, so if Chelsea were playing Barcelona in the final of the Champions League, and I've got tickets in four hours time, I would be thinking ‘well we're gonna go back and say guilty, guilty, guilty, then I can go to the game’ and then all of a sudden, someone puts a spanner in the works, and I'm frustrated because I need to get to my game. So my character needs to get to his baseball game, the New York Yankees are playing a big game, and of course, this guy turns up and says, ‘I don't think he's guilty’ so it just takes so many twists and turns, and my character is getting forever frustrated and it's very funny to watch.”

What’s it been like working with the rest of the cast?

Michael: “It's been great, because I didn't know anybody before I started. There was trepidation when I was offered the role, because I questioned if I could go on tour with another 11 men - 12 because of the understudy. I've never done anything like that, I've always been in shows where there's been a mixture of women and men. But the play is so well written and the characters are so fantastic that I couldn't turn it down and we're going to some amazing places as well so I am glad I did.”

Tristan: “Fantastic, we're all people who've been around the block a couple of times so there's a lot of stuff, you don't have to say. Most of us have done TV and a decent amount of theatre so we're all pretty equal. It's one of those groups, where you just strike lucky, it's a lovely bunch. We're all on stage for the whole play, there's no exits and entrances so you've really got to trust each other because you pass the ball to the next person and the next person and the next person and then the ball comes back to you so you don't want to be the one that drops the ball. You've got to keep your focus and it's a really great group to do that with, we just sort of zing off each other every night.”

Have you ever been on jury duty?

Michael: “I was asked when I was in EastEnders to go on a murder trial, and I managed to get out of it because I think it wasn't a good fit for my safety. I was very famous from the TV, and there’d be preconceived ideas of me and then the attention might be drawn towards me. My character Beppe had been on Eastenders for a year and was popular with the public so people knew who I was. I didn't want my celebrity status to sway anything and also I was fearing for my safety because if I was responsible for someone going down for murder, then you just don't know the repercussions.”

Tristan: “No I haven’t but I would be curious. Knowing my luck, it would be like, unpaid parking tickets, but I'd be curious to be on a serious case. From our little glimpse of it in our play, it's quite a roller coaster, and it can be drawn out over weeks, and you just have to put your whole life on hold. So yeah, curious, but happy not to.”

You’re both best known for your TV work, how does acting on stage differ?

Michael: “Most actors will tell you the live aspect of theatre is far more enjoyable and it also pushes your boundaries as an actor, you know, to be believable and to create a great character that people love to watch.  A lot of big screen actors, especially in America, aren't trained so if they had the opportunity to do a play in the West End, I think a lot of them would turn it down…. If you look at the Oscars or the BAFTA ceremony, if you have someone like Ian McKellen or Ben Kingsley come on stage, they have such stage presence but when you see an American actor who's just on TV and screen, they are like a rabbit in the headlights.”

Tristan: “It's a different set of muscles but it's essentially the same thing. You're still trying to communicate a story to an audience... but there's no second takes on stage so you have to develop a different kind of focus. But because you repeat it every night, you get those muscles really working well. Vocally, it's also a challenge, because there's a lot of arguing in our play, a lot of raised voices so that's a challenge to do night after night. But I always say it's about the part you're playing, if you're playing a great part, it doesn't matter whether you're on television or film or on a stage. And this is a great part in a great play so I'm really, enjoying doing it.”

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Why should the people of Lancashire get tickets?

Michael: “Not only is this play brilliantly written, it’s stood the test of time with what we're going through today with prejudices and racism and everything that we see and it's a very telling story. Everyone loves a courtroom drama, everyone loves a who's done it. And it's just brilliantly acted, it's got some great people in it, who people will recognise from the TV, and it will keep you on the edge of your seats and I'm in it for a start!

“If they’re used to seeing musicals and cabaret acts and big stars performing in their theatres, then come and see a different form of entertainment, come and sit down and be entertained in a way that will make your mind think, but also, visually, it looks fantastic as well. A lot of people have said they really do feel like they're in a 195o’s courtroom drama, because it's so well set and written and the accents are obviously all from New York so people can just have two hours of escapism.”

Tristan: “If you don't know much about it, it's a brilliant two hours. At the moment murder mysteries and real murder podcasts… are really in and it is sort of like a whodunit. You go one way, and then you go the other and then you go back the other way. Alll I can say is that we're really proud of it. It's a great play and we've had brilliant reactions all around the country and Ireland.

“It's a really good play that still holds up several decades after it was written and there's something for everybody in that it's a widely diverse group of people on the stage and the story is riveting and exciting and contains more than one twist so there's a lot going for it.”