Last week we were excited to announce the four women taking on Shakespeare’s ‘new’ play in a month’s time. Now you can find a little bit more about them on this week’s blog…
Come November, four women will perform Margaret of Anjou at the Gallery on the Corner in Battersea (you can buy tickets here, by the way). Shakespeare’s ‘new’ play is pieced together from the Henry VI trilogy and Richard III – so the four have a real challenge up ahead. Three will have to switch from role to role with clarity and precision – sometimes even in the same scene! Those roles are hardly easy, either: they include the King Henry that lends his name to three of the playwright’s original works, the devious and passionate Duke of York (who gives us Margaret’s famous tag – the She-Wolf of France!), and the Duke’s son, the legendary villain Richard III. The fourth actor may not switch roles but has it no easier – she will play Margaret, a role one of the project’s co-creator’s Elizabeth Schafer describes as an ‘Everest’ on a par with King Lear.
But the four are definitely feeling up to the challenge. Two of them – SJ Brady and Siân Mayhall-Purvis – are artistic associates of By Jove, having played a variety of roles in the company’s projects since 2012. The third, Ella Garland, was recently seen in By Jove’s latest outing to Jane Austen territory, playing the dastardly Wickham in Pride & Prejudice: The Panto. Finally, Margaret is being played by Israeli actor Adi Lev, who recently worked with the internationally acclaimed Ariane Mnouchkine.
In a break one rehearsal, we decided to ask the actors a few questions about Shakespeare, violent women, and their work on the project.
What is your experience with Shakespeare like? What is your favourite play or role?
Ella: I’ve been involved with quite a few productions and have always really enjoyed it – I’ve been every female character in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at least once, that’s a claim to fame. I played Helena twice, which is very odd because I’m quite short! My favourite is Othello and I’d love to tackle Iago one day because he’s such a complex, intriguing villain.
Adi: When I was sixteen I was in a production of Romeo and Juliet called Seven Juliets – all women, like this production – and I got to play Juliet, the father, the apothecary, the nurse, and basically everyone. And then when I was at Central, we did massive amounts of Shakespeare. So he’s like my deceased lover – I just love him! My favourite play is Macbeth, and I would love to play Lady Macbeth because I think she is just misunderstood.
SJ: My favourite is Macbeth as well – it was the first show I ever directed. I had an orchestra and made five short films for it. I also directed a female-led Othello [for By Jove in 2014] where I wrote some new text and edited Shakespeare’s. I like Shakespeare because I think I’m drawn to how well he knows humans and their behaviour.
Siân: I’ve studied and performed a lot of Shakespeare. I think one of the first shows I was ever in outside of school was in a youth Shakespeare club – we were called the Shakespeare Sparkle Eight. (SJ: that sounds like a really bad Tarantino film!). We performed The Tempest – I played Prospero. My mum said I was transformed because I was a very shy child! My favourite Shakespeare…that’s a difficult one. I’m going to go super mainstream and say Romeo and Juliet – just because I think a lot of people brush it off but when you read it some of the language is so beautiful. It’s one of the most popular ones for a reason. And Baz Luhrman’s film is brilliant.
SJ: That film changed my life – I snuck into that film with my mum and I cried my eyes out.
Adi: I was completely smitten with Leonardo DiCaprio!
SJ: My ideal Shakespeare role would actually be Romeo – he’s a drip but he’s so much fun to play.
What is your favourite role you’re playing in Margaret of Anjou?
Ella: Oh, Margaret – you answer first, you’ve an easy task!
Adi: Well – I am really grateful I get to play this role, I think it is an amazing, amazing role and I think it is just an incredible project – to have a part, as an actress, that moves from being about fifteen to basically an ageless witch, and to have to find that arc – that’s incredible.
Ella: I’m very lucky in that I’ve got many roles to choose from, but I think the one I’m enjoying exploring the most is York – just because a) I get to perform two of the most beautiful and interesting speeches I’ve ever come across in Shakespeare and b) he’s just so very far removed from myself. I think that’s very interesting to explore – very challenging, very cool.
SJ: I guess Richard – I’ve never played a villain before. Like Ella, he’s far removed from myself and Richard III is one of my favourite plays.
Siân: I’ve only rehearsed Henry VI and the Post so far! So…let’s go with Henry. I’ve got to tackle being male but not a really masculine male – I have to find that reserved man then go mad – but then also be the king. There’s a lot going on there.
Lia Williams as Clytemnestra in the Almeida’s 2015 Oresteia
Finally, By Jove are doing a season of Violent Women – aside from the characters of this play, who is your favourite / most feared (in)famous violent woman from history, myth, or pop culture?
SJ: Actually, the third play in our season is Medea and I think I’m probably most terrified of Medea – one of the reasons we chose to do her is because we wanted to challenge the way people view violent women, especially in the way we think about women and maternity. Murdering children – my brain can’t even comprehend it. So I find her fascinating and terrifying at the same time. She’s a monster, a monster of grief.
Adi: Loads of names pop into my head – I’m thinking about very powerful women and how they’re being judged more harshly because they’re women. But actually if I am thinking about performance, I can’t forget Clytemnestra. I saw the production of Oresteia last year – originally at the Almeida, but it transferred to the West End – and Lia Williams as Clytemnestra was amazing. The reason she was amazing was the way she did that role – a woman that is written to be hated without you feeling bad about it. She cheats on her husband, she’s a murderer, she’s a monster, basically. And her son gets away with killing her because she’s such a monster. But in this version, she started off as a very, very, very loving mother. You could never know that she ends up where she ends up. I think that’s the way I try to look at every villainous or violent woman. She doesn’t start by saying ‘I’m a villain’ – there’s something that leads her there. Williams had this growl – like a wounded animal – it was so amazing.
Ella: Can I go totally contemporary, left-field, and random? My first thought was Annie Wilks from Stephen King’s Misery, played by Kathy Bates in the 1993 film. She scares me. She’s very cuddly, really soft features, really motherly. I remember being about six or seven and being so freaked out that someone who looked so motherly could be so violent. To this day I have to watch through my fingers.
Siân: I want to go with Hitgirl from Kickass, because she’s so fun. She’s different from a lot of the other violent women I can think of in popular culture who have come into violence and have their reasons. But Hitgirl is born into violence and is conditioned by it. Her father’s out for vengeance and he warps her. She’s tiny and crass and badass. Her first fight scene she comes in and says “OK YOU C*NTS!” I thought: who is this girl?! She was so unlike any character I’d seen before that. She’s explosive. And she completely charms you as well – you root for her, even though she’s despicable.
Margaret of Anjou is on at the Gallery on the Corner from the 1st-6th November – you can get tickets here. By Jove’s season of violent women continues in 2017 with Here She Comes in April and Medea in September. Sign up to our mailing list to keep up to date with all the latest.
