Many moons ago, whilst on a small-scale theatre tour of the north I found myself with a free evening in Manchester and so got myself a ticket to see Port by Simon Stephens at the Royal Exchange Theatre directed by Marianne Elliott. This was my introduction to Simon Stephens’ work. It was so real and hard hitting. I was absolutely blown away by it. I thought then this is the type of writing I would relish tackling and the type of theatre I dream to be a part of.
Simon Stephens is a remarkable and prolific playwright, he writes emotionally, intelligently, and with huge passion. As an actor and writer I find his work dangerous, exciting and very inspiring. He often tackles the darkness of the human soul and forces us to think about what it is to be human. I find Stephens’ writing the stuff that shakes you at your core, he gets right in there, and chews you up and spits you out, and it’s always a rollercoaster of an experience for an audience. I have seen twelve of his plays, a couple multiple times, and read more.
The first time I read Bluebird I cried. It is a deeply beautiful heart felt wonderful play for actors, full of characters that we recognise, people we’ve met, know, have observed or heard about who dealing with struggling, coping with real, devastating and traumatic incidents and events. Each character reveals something deeply personal through talking with the mini cab driver Jimmy, played by Jonathan Keane, and he to them, the beauty is that they are complete strangers to each other.
It’s great to be working at Space theatre on Bluebird directed by Adam Hemming in a role I have always wanted to play. Janine Williams is quite possibly one of the hardest roles I’ve worked on and I love her. She is a complex character, she is described as “smartly dressed, manic depressive former teacher”. There’s also two further pieces of guidance in the stage directions “she has started crying”, and “almost angry”, pitching those right in the playing of her has been a positive challenge and I still feel, one week in as though I am grappling with it. There is something brutal about her, there is something exciting and dangerous about her, something very sad, mixed with her despair and anguish.
The role requires employing craft, and not just relying on feeling emotions, especially as she is so changeable. She is gripped by an erratic stream of consciousness in the moment. Some of her sentences are as short as one word and her questions and active reflection on her current situation and what she thinks about people and their conduct towards each other is deep. Janine is so rich, she requires a certain energy. I have to hit the ground running.
When I know I’ve done it right and worked well with Jonathan I come off stage and for a moment feel so sad – Janine is a character that as an actress it is best as much as possible to leave her at the theatre, I think that applies to every character in Bluebird.
We are blessed with a great company, and all enjoy working together. We only have a handful of shows left and we would love it for you come and share in this experience.