David Tennant's Royal Debut in 'The Ghost of Benjy O'Neil'
One of the earliest David Tennant stage plays that most of his fans are aware of is 1989’s The Ghost Of Benjy O’Neil.
There are very few references to it online.
The play is listed as the first entry in the Stage section of the List Of David Tennant Performances on his Wikipedia entry. It also gets a mention in the Glasgow Herald in an article entitled, “Maryhill Community Central Halls: The Ghost Of Benjy O’Neil”, which is a review of the play published on 4 December 1989. Even the theatre section of the venerable unofficial David Tennant website, David Tennant, and the David Tennant Asylum at VK (photos & info) have precious little information about it.
Most of the fandom’s knowledge about this play originates from photographs. There are the prerequisite Pinterest photos, of course…most of which can be traced directly back to a now-defunct (but fabulous!) website created by Diane Medas called The Play's The Thing: A Dedicated David Tennant Theatre Site. Her entry about the play was phenomenal on its face (though incorrect in some places), and was instrumental as a springboard for my own research. I won’t ever stop singing her praises for putting in the work she did.
But…if you want to know more, you’ve come to the right place - because you’re about to learn more about it than any of these other sites have ever revealed.
I’ll preface this by saying that while the information I’ll be sharing with you today is unknown to the fandom, it’s only the tiniest tip of the Titanic-sized iceberg of information I have about this production. When I finally get my podcast off the ground - *deep sigh* - this play will feature as its very first full-length episode. In that episode I’ll do an in-depth exploration about how and why the play was conceived and written, how David was chosen as Benjy, and where and when the play was performed. What I reveal will be the culmination of my own research as well as in-depth interviews with David’s fellow cast mates, one of the writers of the play (who over the years of my research became a friend, and has since passed away), and one of the men behind the scenes who helped steer its ship and launch it into the well-received play it became. I cannot wait to tell its tale!
But for now, let’s take a little peek behind the curtain of The Ghost Of Benjy O’Neil.
The origins of the play began in late 1988, when it was announced Glasgow would become 1990’s European City of Culture. The city immediately began to scramble to build new infrastructure (concert halls, museums and galleries, etc.) and asked all of its city departments to begin brainstorming ideas for anything and everything artsy and creative.
For the Strathclyde Social Work Department, that exploration of ideas culminated in The Ghost of Benjy O’Neil.
It would be remiss of me to assume all of David’s fans know what the play was about. Put very simply, The Ghost of Benjy O’Neil was a musical about the social work system - particularly the charters involving child care - in the west of Scotland. It’s most succinctly described by Keith Bruce, the reviewer from the aforementioned Glasgow Herald article:
The Ghost Of Benjy O’Neil compares the work being done today with the situation of 100 years ago, by the simple device of placing a benign ghost (David Tennant) from Glasgow's Barnhill Poorhouse in the assessment centres and children's panels of today. Part history and part pantomime, the cast was drawn from the local area and youngsters from children's homes and assessment centers….both the script and the songs were not afraid to tread on a few political toes, and the transition from the 1870s was best captured in the comparison between the parochial board and the children's panel. The amateur actors reappeared as their modern counterparts.
If you read that carefully, you’ll have immediately spotted two things: one, it’s a musical (!!) and two, many of the actors weren’t actors at all, but actually children in care of the Local Authority, the social work system. Other cast members were pulled from local youth theatre groups and volunteers, but only one was in training to be an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (the RSAMD, now the Royal Conservatoire): David Tennant.
The story of the play’s birth is nothing short of remarkable, but much too long to feature here. That’s for another time. So, what you need to know is this: two friends and fellow writers who’d both worked in social care - Tommy Crocket and Gordon Wilson - were commissioned to write and score The Ghost of Benjy O’Neil. Crocket handled most of the writing duties, and Wilson (along with his partner) most of its musical score. Most of the cast was chosen from volunteers from local theatre groups and the children in care. While initially adult volunteers also agreed to work behind the scenes of the play and do acting duty in the adult roles, Phantom Productions was eventually formed to facilitate the play’s production and to keep its finances flowing. And the production secured directors Mercedes McGurn and Eleanor Goodman, recent graduates of the RSAMD.
All they needed was their Benjy.
Enter David!
David was a first-year student at the RSAMD and had worked with both McGurn and Goodman at the Academy. McGurn recommended him, and after he met with the play’s organizers, he was enthusiastically given the lead role. At the time, he hadn’t yet turned eighteen.
Fast forward about ten months, to December 1989. David had turned eighteen and had become a second year drama student. Rehearsals had gone well, though David had become quite ill during the last few weeks and it was touch and go about whether he’d be able to take the stage as Benjy. In the end, he did.
By now you’re probably wondering who Benjy is, and why the play was named after him. Benjy O’Neil, the play’s central character, first appears in the Assessment Centres of Glasgow in 1989, watching over the children in care. No one can see him. Slowly, Benjy reveals he is a ghost and tells us the story of how he and his family arrived at Barnhill Poorhouse in 1870. He explains how they were separated, forced to work, and were ill-treated by staff members. He also reveals he had tuberculosis, but his illness was ignored and he eventually died. But as he observes the children of today in Assessment Centres, Children's Panels and Day Centres, he sees how childcare provision has improved over the years and makes his presence known as a friendly ghost who cares what happens to the children who live there. He helps them cope with their situations.
A lot of David’s fans have wondered over the years whether he actually properly sang in a musical. Well, wonder no more - the answer is yes. The Ghost Of Benjy O’Neil was a musical - and had quite a few moments of comedy as well! David sings a solo to a tune called, “Love Is Strong.” There are also a number of songs sung by the entire cast, including David.
And now for something really exciting - some (sadly) blurry but nevertheless never-before-seen photos of David from The Ghost Of Benjy O’Neil!
The play opened to the public on Saturday, 2 December 1989, with a matinee at 2:30 pm and an evening performance at 7:30 pm. They did another evening performance at 7:30 pm on Sunday, 3 December 1989, and closed after their 7:30 pm show on Monday, 4 December 1989 - for a total of four performances.
And oh, the production also sold T-shirts and posters in the foyer of the Maryhill Community Central Hall!
If you look closely at the picture on the left, you can see that David’s wearing his own Benjy O’Neil T-shirt in the rehearsal room (you can’t read it in this photo, but the slogan on the front of the T-shirt says, "Watch out For The Ghost Of Benjy O'Neil").
Sometimes I wonder if David has kept it all these years. You know, that would make a fantastic question for someone to ask him at a convention panel, wouldn’t it?
Needless to say, the production went over very well. It was a resounding success. So much so, in fact, that by the time Ken Bruce reviewed the show in the Glasgow Herald, there were already rumblings for a further series of shows.
But that was only one of the good things to come.
In early 1990, Phantom Productions got word that The Ghost Of Benjy O’Neil had been selected to appear at a gala performance scheduled for 2 March 1990. If you recall, the city had been chosen as the European City of Culture for 1990. It was a great honor for the UK, and Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, were to be in attendance!
It was immediately apparent the cast and professional support staff of The Ghost of Benjy O’Neil had to be regrouped, and new rehearsals undertaken. David was still in drama school, and he’d moved on from his role as Benjy and was working on a few other plays at the RSAMD. But as luck would have it, his roles in those other productions were light enough for him to return to his lead role as the helpful ghost.
Two live rehearsal performances were quickly arranged so the newly-reformed cast would have a couple of live performances under their belt to calm their nerves before performing in front of the Queen. One of these performances was held in late February at the Paisley Arts Centre in Paisley. I’ve been told the other performance was likely held in Bellshill (though so far, I haven’t been able to verify this information).
Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, arrived at the King's Theater around 11 am on 2 March 1990 to inaugurate Glasgow’s reign as the City of Culture - a duty which also demanded the presence of Jacques Chirac, at the time the mayor of Paris. Chirac handed over the City of Culture mantle from Paris to Glasgow's Lord Provost, Susan Baird. Afterwards, the royal couple officially opened the newly refurbished McClellan Art Galleries in Sauchiehall Street before lunching at the Glasgow City chambers.
Then, at 2:30 pm, the Queen and Duke headed for the refurbished Citizen’s Theatre to watch the performances - including The Ghost of Benjy O’Neil.
David and the other cast members of The Ghost of Benjy O’Neil arrived at the theatre around 1 pm in a minibus from Doncaster Street, where the show had rehearsed since its very beginnings, and went backstage. The numbers of cast members on stage had been restricted to below normal performance levels due to the high level of security at the show, and only one non-cast person for each group was allowed backstage. For The Ghost Of Benjy O’Neil, that person was director Mercedes McGurn.
All the performers for the evening were allocated ten-minute performance slots, and McGurn had decided to splice together two scenes from the play; one of Benjy and his family as they arrived at Barnhill Poorhouse, and another of the children in 1989 when Benjy revealed himself to them as a ghost, and they sang a song called “Secrets.”
The show contained a total of about eleven different acts - the details of which for brevity’s sake are probably best left out. The show concluded about an hour or so after it began, and the Queen and Duke began to meet some of the performers from the afternoon’s entertainment.
Many photos were taken of the royal couple during their brief trip to Glasgow that March, but it is this one - published in the Daily Record on 3 March 1990 - that I find most intriguing:
In the forefront of this picture with the Queen are the Jigsaw Dancers, a group of developmentally challenged dancers from East Kilbride. Behind the Queen, the Duke is greeting a pair of girls, one in a long dress, and the other in a short haircut.
But it’s the tall young man standing behind the girls, and slightly behind and to the right of the smiling young man with a painted face in the very center of the photo, who interests me the most. We only see his left ear, but we can see his jawline and the way his hair curls around the nape of his neck.
Is that possibly…..David?
In the following photos (one taken just a few years earlier and the other a few years later) we can compare the shape of David’s ear, and how the hair on the back of his neck also curls:
So…is it possible it’s David in the photo with the Queen and the Duke? Sure it is! But David was one of dozens of people at that gala performance, and it is equally possible that isn’t him.
I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on the matter!
The Ghost Of Benjy O’Neil was to go on to do many other performances. It had been such a success, the Strathclyde Regional Council agreed to finance a summer tour. But that, my friends, is a story for another day.
But now you know….
David has performed in front of the Queen!
So well written that I felt I was present in that iconic Glasgow theatre and I can confirm that the ear was indeed Davids!
Thoroughly enjoyed Patti.☘️
OMG!!!! I was in the show with David. We toured, met the Queen and Prince Phillip at the Citizens Theatre, even took the show to Ireland. Wow, such memories. Thank you