Back on the beat

Citizens Theatre's production of Filth was one of the theatre highlights of last year. Now it's breaking free of its small stage for another blast of police corruption, reports Neil Cooper ONE of the more pleasant - if that's the word - surprises of last year's frankly average Scottish theatre scene was the Citizens Theatre's latest adaptation of Irvine Welsh novel's Filth. More surprising still, perhaps, was that it was the Citizens, or rather, adaptor/ director Harry Gibson, that started the ball rolling for the Welsh- made-flesh phenomena via the first and best stage production of Trainspotting back in 1994.

A disappointing version of Marabou Stork Nightmares followed, and both shows were then picked up for commercial tours by the now defunct G&J Productions.

With original Welsh stage work just as disappointing, you could only fear for this solo adaptation of the Edinburgh author's most recent novel, which on paper looked like an unstageable piece of opportunism gone mad.

However, thanks to a superlative performance from Tam Dean Burn as the corrupt copper rotting away inwardly and outwardly, Filth was one of the most powerful shows of the year, and one which married onstage commitment with the genuine dramatic tension of a script that at last did more than just tear selected chunks from its original source material.

Burn plays Bruce Robertson, a hard-nut, plain-clothes copper on Edinburgh's city centre beat who is investigating the murder of a young black man. Racist, misogynistic and homophobic, his cliche- ridden machismo stems from sexual insecurities verging on the pathological and a closet-load of familial skeletons.

Bruce's wife has left him, his genitals are caked in eczema and his guts are rotting with both bad food and the bad seed of a tape worm that's devouring him from within. In short, Robertson is a corrupt, woman-hating bundle of rage barely keeping it together and who is literally being eaten alive by his own pain.

The original production of Filth, back in September, took place in the claustrophobic confines of the Citizens' tiny Stalls Studio, which, while lending itself perfectly to the material, only allowed a handful of its potential audience to see it up close and personal. Which makes it all the more interesting to see how this deserved revival, scaled up for the Citizens main stage prior to a commercial tour, care of David Johnson, formerly of G&J, fares when it opens at the end of February.

That Burn is back playing Robertson certainly bodes well for there are precious few actors who could hold such a space without recourse to some kind of safety net. Burn is renowned as one of the bravest performers in Britain, and while he isn't afraid of pushing both himself and his material as far as he can, one only hopes that, in an attempt to fill up the potentially lonely space of the big stage, he isn't allowed to overplay things.

While Robertson's brutality was fully exposed last time, rather than Burn relying on easy histrionics, what really stood out was the corrupt copper's vulnerability. Burn's willingness to go down this road rather than take sides should be required viewing for younger performers to watch an actor going beyond where others fear to tread.

Filth is at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, February 29-March 4 prior to a full Scottish tour

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