Looking round Mark Inscoe’s home, you are struck by a large glass cabinet containing carefully laid out rocks – not the stripy seaside kind, but the fossilised variety. There’s a very good reason for the impressive display. “When I was 12 at a Jesuit school I got interested in geology and went on to read the subject at Exeter University.”
But it wasn’t to be his career choice, as the theatre seriously took over the young undergraduate’s life.
“There was no O-Level in music at school but at 15 I was cast as a non-singing, non-speaking guard in the Mikado.”
His teenage acting rise was meteoric, the following year he played the lead of Frederick in the Pirates of Penzance. Once at Exeter University, musical theatre became a passion and his friends included Anthony Stiles and George Drewe, destined to be the musical sensation we know today. Mark helped set up a musical theatre society at uni and stayed on after graduation for eight months to work on Stiles & Drewe’s musical Tutankhamun, in which he played Howard Carter.
While appearing in Stiles & Drewe’s Just So, he was spotted by Cameron Macintosh. Mark found himself in 1987 in the second cast of Les Mis. A wonderful start to a career spanning more than 30 years, but Mark describes it differently. “I didn’t push myself forward into the limelight, largely because I had no formal theatre training so my career has been a gradual progression. Even now I think I don’t get some of the more acting kind of roles because of that gap in my CV.”
With no major period out of work, and wide experience in voice-overs, cabaret, corporate entertaining and even computer game narration, he can pick and choose what he wants to take on. “Although there are fewer middle-aged roles, there’s less competition. I don’t tap dance so I’ve done what I call the more dramatic musical performances.“
The list is very impressive: from Higgins in My Fair Lady to Emile in South Pacific, Captain Von Trapp in the Sound of Music to the lecherous Judge Turpin in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. And of course, Bernadette in Priscilla, made famous in the original film by Terence Stamp. Mark will reprise the role in the first major revival of the stage show at Hornchurch.
How does it feel to do the part again? “It’ll be a totally new approach with new director, new cast, and smaller scale than in the West End.”
He thought having played it before would be a handicap but it hasn’t proved so. “It’ll be a more modest and honest version, more like the film.”
Preparation includes make-up, wigs, costumes and, of course, heels, which he plans to wear all through rehearsals.
Did you do research to get inside the head of a transgender woman? “I used to know some transgender people back in the heyday of Madame Jo Jo’s club in Soho, when the world was negative they felt safe and comfortable in the club.“
And no, it hasn’t made him want to do drag except he’d like to do a show about April Ashley, the legendary transgender model and hostess.
What other roles beckon? He’d like to have a crack at Sweeney. He feels he is too old for the role, which he certainly isn’t.
Back to Priscilla.
Did you realise at the time how ground-breaking the film was? “I loved it. It was rebellious, it was brash. I didn’t think Stamp was feminine enough and then discovered he wasn’t really interested in the role.”
Do you have a favourite show you’ve done? “Grand Hotel and Priscilla.”
In the wake of the Kevin Spacey allegations, have you experienced bullying in the theatre?
He says no, though he was bullied at school because even though he wasn’t ‘out’ he was just presumed to be gay. He led a double life and thinks it might be one reason he became an actor.
“My experience in the theatre is that people accept you for what you are, though I accept terrible things have happened to women in branches of entertainment.”
Are there more Stiles & Drewe around? “Yes, there’s some wonderful writing out there, but producers don’t want to take risks on new works, audiences like what they know and know what they like, that’s why so-called ‘jukebox musicals’ are so successful.”
He still has an ambition to repeat Tutankhamun – “it’s an amazing piece”. In the meantime he is busy. Having narrated a BBC TV series, Secrets of the Human Body, and played the Sorcerer King in the computer game Divinity – Original Sin.
Priscilla info:
Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, directed by Douglas Rintoul,
Queen’s Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch RM11 1QT,
April 27-May 26; previews: Fri 27, Sat 28 & Mon 30 April.
Tickets: £12.50–£30/under 26s: £8 (Tue–Thur & previews).
Box Office: 01708 443333
or online: www.queens-theatre.co.uk