INTERVIEW: Huge level of commitment by Gerard inmusical part

Gerard Carey has spent the past 12 months on his knees for the part which is currently getting huge laughs in Southampton at the Mayflower Theatre.

Yet despite having to undergo physio therapy several times a week to cope with this physically arduous role, he has signed up for another year with the tour.

It’s a role he feels highly attached to and extremely honoured to play.

Farquaad is the ruthless ruler of Duloc who attempts to rid his Kingdom of Fairy Tale creatures. He is cursed by the fact he’s not real royalty and has to marry a Princess (Fiona) – and the fact he’s short.

Pompous, delusional and in denial about his height and lineage, he gets all the big laughs in a show that is riotous fun.

I met up with the Cardiff-born actor backstage in his dressing room where he seemed to take the level of commitment and dedication needed in his stride.

“No one gets it easy. Everyone works incredibly hard and then there’s the added demands of just being on the road.”

Surrounded by photographs of his partner and baby daughter he tells me he was in rehearsals for the show when she was born and has missed out on “wholly family time” since being with the show.

But he isn’t complaining.

And, surprisingly, it is the different audiences across the country that keep him on his toes.

“Being on my knees is the main challenge of my role, but the other is that when you go round all these places no audience is ever the same.

"It’s amazing how the show is received and how people react in different ways.

"Northerners are a lot looser and express themselves with laughter.

"Up north to go to a theatre is a real event and people make a night of it with a meal and a drink – and they are a little bit looser because of it! You are constantly kept on your toes.

"This is an enormous, vast theatre and the sound quality changes in every theatre too: you don’t have to project so much in larger theatres because the sound quality is so fantastic.

“People say to me all the time ‘How are your knees?’ but this role is all core skills – it’s about having a strong core so you won’t get injured. It’s a lot of buttockclenching.

"It’s all in the thighs, bum and core.”

Gerard holds up the comical little legs of Lord Farquaad which are strapped around his waist and shows me the pads he walks on.

“Because it’s strapped on to me it doesn’t feel like a weight and more than anything the costume’s really heavy and there’s the huge cape. I’ve never weighed it all but I’d say that is my biggest challenge.

“I go to the gym a lot – three or four times a week – and I do warm ups here. I have a physio on tap who sees me routinely three or four times a week . It’s maintenance and you have to work it into your daily routine.

I’ve got housemaid’s knee at the moment on my right one. I can still do the show – it’s just one of those things: it’s what carpet fitters get but I’m not in pain. I was so lucky Nigel Harman, who directs the show, did this role before me. I was so blessed to be guided to make sure I don’t get any injuries. He made sure I was in training three or four months before rehearsals.”

So how does he relax?

“On my day off I look after my little daughter – it’s family time.

"She was born when I was in rehearsals and we’ve just celebrated her first birthday. We do a day trip in a town or city we are in.

"It’s precious time. My wife is a paediatric palliative researcher so this is all a great release to her. It’s a terrific business when it’s good but there are too many of us and not enough jobs.

“Most of us feel blessed we are working – that’s why I took the second leg of the tour, but I’ve not been wholly with my family for 12 months.

“Actors get very close to their parts and the companies and the shows and it’s difficult to say goodbye to certain characters sometimes, especially if you love them.”

Shrek The Musical is at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, until Sunday July 26.

Box office: 023 8071 1811.