An East Kilbride actor and playwright has put pen to paper once again to write about the Arches Theatre in Glasgow.
Raymond Burke was one of the original team who started the legendary Arches during the 1990s and he has now lifted the lid on his, and the other actors’ experiences in, The Arches Theatre - The Unauthorised Autobiography.
The Arches Theatre was first created as part of the Glasgow's Glasgow exhibition in 1990.
After the exhibition closed, the building was stripped and a group of actors, led by Andy Arnold and Raymond, decided that it should be rebuilt.
Raymond told Lanarkshire Live: "Another book entitled Brickwork was released last year.
"It is quite an interesting read but focuses mainly on the club that grew around the theatre a few years later.
"However, the stories of the actors, and their struggle to establish what was to become an internationally renowned venue, were ignored.
"Therefore, my book began life as a simple article entitled, Re-pointing the Brickwork.
"As I researched the article, more and more of the original actors had great stories which had to be included and I also unearthed some fantastic images of the venue and shows from the archives of photographers, Melanie Sims and Alan Wylie.
"Consequently, the whole thing became a book.”
He added: "When we re-opened the Arches in 1991, we basically had to begin from scratch; we had nothing.
"So we had to beg and borrow lighting and sound equipment, build our own box office and bar, clean and decorate the entire building, and when all that was done, rehearse and perform our shows in the theatre space.
"We had to do everything ourselves. But our punk rock attitude of "just-do-it", drove us forward.
"Permission or health and safety concerns were rarely top of the agenda; we’d never get away with is nowadays.”
“We had some amazing experiences and adventures in those years.
"There were tales of ghostly sightings under the arches, we were taken to the Soviet Union to perform, some of us had to work a space trooper in the Alien War exhibition and I was even arrested outside under suspicion of robbing a bank.”
Raymond's latest book comes on the back of The Metaphoric Manual, released last year.
He used lockdown to research and read about 50 classic novels.
And as if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, he also took note of every figure of speech that occurred in each of the novels, compiling them into an academic work for students and teachers of English.
Raymond has lived in East Kilbride throughout his life and has had more than 50 plays produced for both adults and children.
He also helped established the Christmas shows in East Kilbride Arts Centre.
He was educated at East Milton Primary and Duncanrig, and in his 30 years as an actor and writer he has performed and taught all over Europe.
The Arches Theatre - The Unauthorised Autobiography is published by Drouth Books and will be available in all good bookshops and online from this month.
Raymond will be appearing in Stephen Davismoon’s production of John Le Carré’s, A Most Wanted Man, in St Luke’s, Liverpool next month.
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