Actor Daniel Rigby: ‘What would I change about the arts industry? More juggling’

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Daniel Rigby. Photo: Mark Douet

There are few performers as funny as Daniel Rigby. The 40-year-old actor has starred in several hit comedies in recent years, from One Man, Two Guvnors and Twelfth Night at the National Theatre to A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Sheffield’s Crucible, to Michael Frayn’s furious farce Noises Off at London’s Lyric Hammersmith and in the West End. He is about to appear in another farce: Daniel Raggett’s production of Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist, as adapted by Tom Basden. The show opened in Sheffield last October and now arrives at the Lyric Hammersmith for three weeks.

“I just love comedy,” says Rigby. “It’s what I’m really passionate about. It’s what I’m really nerdy about. I always have been. My dad watched Fawlty Towers and Monty Python when I was young. My biggest influences were stand-ups such as Eddie Izzard and Billy Connolly. I loved sketch shows, too, particularly Chris Morris ones including The Day Today, Brass Eye and that whole stable of comedy.”

Born in Stockport in 1982, Rigby studied performing arts at Stockport College, then trained at RADA, starting his career as a stand-up comedian in the mid-2000s. For a time, that was his sole focus.

“When I thought of myself as a performer, it was always in the context of comedy,” he says. “So stand-up always felt as though it was the logical thing to do. It is funny how things work out – it was only when I left my acting agency to just do stand-up that the acting roles picked up.”

Rigby’s subsequent career has meant juggling solo shows with stage and screen work. It is not always silly, either: in 2011, he won the TV BAFTA for best actor for his role in BBC Two’s Eric and Ernie, and in 2018, he earned acclaim for his portrayal of David Frost in Kate Hewitt’s revival of Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon at the Crucible. Even when a part is supremely silly – the absurd Donald in Will Sharpe’s Channel 4 sitcom Flowers, for example – Rigby excels at mining the pathos behind the punchline.

“It’s weird with farce,” he says. “Because it’s often more tragic than tragedy. You have to be more funny and more sad and more delirious and more hysterical than you ever would be in anything else.”

What production made you fall in love with theatre?

My first experience of theatre was playing Fagin in a seminal production of Oliver Twist at Banks Lane Junior School in Offerton. It was as though a light had switched on for me.

What are you finding inspiring at the moment?

I’m particularly inspired by people that get out there and do their own thing. I’ve seen some great work at Vault Festival recently, for example. Post lockdowns, there is not really a desire to put risky shows on anywhere, so people have to do it themselves. And I find that inspiring.

What do you wish you could change about the performing arts industry?

More juggling.

What is the worst thing that has happened to you in theatre?

Things always go wrong in Noises Off. It opens with this routine of a phone getting pulled off stage by a cable. On press night in the West End, the cable snapped, so I was just left there with a stationary phone instead. I had a bit of an out-of-body experience. I blacked out. Apparently, I improvised something, but I actually don’t know what it was.

What is the best thing that has happened to you in theatre?

One Man, Two Guvnors in New York, probably. There is a great tradition of big stars coming to see shows in New York and saying hello to the lead afterwards in the dressing room. I hung around James Corden’s door and got to meet Gene Wilder. He is the hero of heroes. That is a definite highlight of my life.

What role do you really want to play?

There are lots. I’d like to play some of the big bastards, such as Richard III. I think that would be fun.

What projects are you involved in at the moment?

Accidental Death of an Anarchist opens at London’s Lyric Hammersmith on March 13. It is about a character, known only as The Maniac, who has been arrested for impersonating a psychiatrist, and who causes havoc by disguising himself as a judge investigating the recent death of an anarchist at the police station in which he was imprisoned.

It is based on a real incident that happened in Italy in 1969, so it was very topical when it was originally written. Tom Basden updated it to modern-day Britain, and it is just as pertinent because we’ve had this factory line of scandals come out of the police force recently. Tom has done a brilliant job of updating it, including references to modern cases that audiences will recognise.

I’ve written a sci-fi comedy book, too, called Isaac Steele and the Forever Man. It’s Indiana Jones meets Blade Runner meets Rick and Morty. I actually wrote it for Audible a few years ago and I’m writing the sequel to it now.

Accidental Death of an Anarchist is at the Lyric Hammersmith, London from March 13 to April 8. Visit: lyric.co.uk