Overview
Gerrard has been lucky that his work in theatre includes two long associations: first with the Glasgow Citizens, where he was Strindberg’s The Father, and took the lead in plays by Pinter, Gertrude Stein, Heiner Muller and Botho Strauss, for a group of international opera designers from the powerhouse years of ENO, who were invited up to the Citz by Phillip Prowse for what was often their first ever design & direction of plays; it was an incredibly bold and brilliant adventure. The second association has been as an actor, and then also as director, for The Wrestling School, (TWS), the company dedicated to producing the work of one living author, Howard Barker. His TWS direction includes Barker’s The Dying of Today at the Arcola; and Hurts Given and Received at Riverside Studios (best director nomination 2010 Off West End Awards); last year he co-directed with Howard Barker a french-language production of Barker's 'Innocence', in Lyons. Other direction includes: Heiner Muller’s Quartet at the Queen’s, Adelaide; and, with Stewart Laing, directing Leigh Bowery in The Difficulty of Sexpressing Oneself, at Glasgow Tramway. As a TWS actor he played the protagonist Priest in Barker’s 8-hour epic The Ecstatic Bible at Adelaide International Festival & Vanya in (Uncle) Vanya at Goebbel's favourite (Art Deco) theatre, the Hebbel Theatre, Berlin; He has vivid memories at the same theatre the next year of playing Prospero in The Tempest for Romanian director Silviu Purcurete there, taking it on to the Tokyo Globe, and further north in Japan, to Sapporo, which was melting; & likewise great experiences playing The Hanging Man for Improbable at Sydney Opera House; and with incredible pleasure, Coward's Present Laughter, with the late, great, Rik Mayall. Gerrard has appeared in various TV and Radio, and has also loved narrating many documentaries on the History and Discovery Channels. Films include The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, John Maybury's Big Love, and Derek Jarman's The Last of England