Singing I’m no a Billy, he’s a Tim: Scott Kyle interview

With the acclaimed play Singing I’m no a Billy, he’s a Tim being performed at the Olympia Theatre tonight, JOE met up with Scott Kyle, who plays Billy.

With Conor Hogan

Scott Kyle was looking for a play to perform in 2005, when he came across Singing I’m no a Billy, he’s a Tim in a local library. It was written by Des Dillon – whose previous works included the novels Me and My Gal and Six Black Candles. Kyle was bowled over by the play; and the library put him into contact with Dillon.

“It was a cracking play,” Kyle told JOE in his recent interview with us, “and it was absolutely incredible that it wasn’t being performed throughout Scotland. In a way, I could see why though, because although it is an anti-sectarian play – the characters in it have sectarian views, and sing sectarian songs.”

Those characters are Billy; your stereotypical Rangers fan, and Tim; your stereotypical Celtic fan – and in a high concept plot, the two are both arrested on the day of an old firm derby for non-payment of fines and are forced to share a prison cell.

“The basis of any story is to create dramatic tension through characters. Two households alike in dignity in Glasgow. The theme of the play is absolutely universal. It could be re-position anywhere in the world and it would work. You could set it in Verona and have the characters be a Montague and a Capulet. The characters could be a Palestinian and an Israeli. It could be set in Los Angeles, and they could be a blood and a crip.”

After graduating from the Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, Scott Kyle formed the NLP (no limit people) Theatre in 2005. “I was a student studying acting,” he says, “and my peers were leaving and not getting any work. I decided I would be different.

“I would open up my own theatre company so I could offer work, as opposed to being just some unemployed actor.”

Humble beginnings

The theatre’s beginnings were humble to say the least. They had to, at first, borrow a van from one of his friends to tour the play; and only performed it in front of a handful of people in tiny houses. Gradually, however, word of mouth spread and the audiences grew bigger and bigger. After a while it was pulling in crowds of 3,000 in Glasgow and all over Scotland.

“We’ve been returning to venues five times over in the space of three years, which doesn’t usually happen. We are generating such a new audience. Workers off the street have come to see it, not just the theatre going audience. When we went to Inverness and Aberdeen, 68% of the people who went to see it weren’t on the mailing list.”

“The guys are not theatre goers, not interested in being preached to. Des just wants to entertain people, no political messages. The secret to it is that we are putting on a play that is really entertaining. I’ve been in theatres bored out of my head. My girlfriend; she’d rather sit in and watch the soaps.”

Kyle believes the best reaction NLP have ever gotten performing I’m no a Billy was in Ireland; and they will be returning to the Olympia tomorrow night.

“We performed in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day; and the audience was full of Celtic fans. I play Billy, the Rangers supporter, and I was actually booed on stage. It was a hilarious experience. It is one thing to be booed off the stage if you are rotten; but I doubt too many people have been booed on. And then Tim walked on in his Celtic jersey and was cheered.”

Edinburgh

After garnering commercial success, I’m no a Billy was finally honoured by the Scottish Arts Industry this year, when it was given a standing ovation at the this year’s Edinburgh Arts Festival, and Kyle was given the award of Best Actor.

“It was the toast of the festival,” Kyle told us, “and we were unfortunate as up until that point, we hadn’t received any recognition from  the arts industry in Scotland. It was a really nice award for everybody involved in the project.”

Singing I’m no a Billy, he’s a Tim will be performed at the Olympia Theatre tonight at 8.30pm. For tickets click here. Click here to visit NLP Theatre’s website.

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