Your free guide to the best in independent London theatre FIRST www.firstactmagazine.com Issue 015 March A 2008 CT Noel And Marlene In Hampstead The House Of Agnes At The House Of Oval Baby Blues In Islington Ireland Rediscovered In Kennington 2 incredibly complex lyrics is quite a feat, and speaking as one who has done a number of Coward plays, I think it takes a particular kind of discipline to perform them. Unlocking “A lot of the scenes are made up of one-liners which go bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and you’ve got to be so on the ball to play them, with one ear on whether the audience are laughing in the The Mystery right places and one ear on the other actors. There’s a particular type of discipline required to do that. “Marlene, being German, had her own particular type of discipline too, and strength of character, That Is because she had to put up with a hell of a lot of ghastliness when she was touring during the war with the American forces.” Among the lesser-known facts about Kate O’Mara is that she once had a number one hit. In Finland. It’s not a fact she seems particularly keen to dwell on, but how has she coped with the musical element of the role? “I consider myself an requiredactress who can sing when requires – when – rather than a singing actress,” she says, “and like a lot of actresses who can sing, I’ve got a soprano and a basso profundo and not much in between. Marlene “But singing is so traumatic, it really is. Which is fine in this case because Marlene wasn’t really a singer, but she could put a song across. The singing in some of her early movies is quite dubious, to be honest, but she could always deliver the song to the Kate O’Mara and audience.” “This is not the first time O’Mara has worked with her Frank Barrie are co-star Frank Barrie, and the relationship is one she obviously cherishes. taking on the roles “We’ve been together twice before’” she says, “once in, I think it was 1982, when we played Mirabell and of two of the most Millament in The Way Of The World at the Nottingham Playhouse and we got on like a house on recognisable figures fire. I think Frank is just bliss, quite frankly. We were also together in The Crucible Of Blood at the of the 20th Century, Haymarket where I don’t remember doing much really, just watching him from the wings and thinking how and two of the most brilliant he was. So we’re great chums, which makes distinctive voices of things very much easier. “He was always the person I thought would be ideal for all time, writes this part, so when I was first sent the script he was right at the top of the list, but of course he wasn’t available. Richard Hodkinson So I thought, you know, ‘oh bugger’, but then suddenly his dates changed, so it was meant to be, you see.” The premise behind the play is a tempting one, especially for those nostalgic for the golden age of theatre and cinema, so although the New End Theatre is ideal for cabaret type performances, the cast of Lunch With Marlene must have one eye on an eventual transfer to a larger venue or a tour. “Well, yes,” says O’Mara, “but I hope if we do take the show somewhere else it will still be somewhere that has such an intimate atmosphere. I did Sheridan Morley’s Noël and Gertie when we had to play some big venues and it’s quite difficult because, for one thing, you have to be miked which works against the intimacy of the piece. And this is a very intimate piece. Very touching and very intimate.” Lunch With Marlene opens at the New End Theatre on 26 March and runs until 27 April. See listings for details. ate O’Mara has had no shortage of complex characters peak, as it were. “So you see an older, disillusioned Marlene in to get to grips with over the course of a colourful and the first half and a vibrant Marlene in the second, which is a varied career, but her current role would appear to be very interesting contrast between the artist and the private K more challenging than most. person.” She plays Marlene Dietrich, a woman who could be In addition to the obvious challenges faced by any actor playing justifiably described as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a psychologically challenging role, playing Coward and an enigma, and that phrase with its wartime associations Marlene must be doubly demanding given that the audience would be particularly relevant to O’Mara’s reading of the comes to the show with such a clear idea of how the characters character. In wrestling to get to grips with a complex should look, sound and move. character, actors often focus their attention on the damascene “It is a huge challenge, there’s no doubt about it,” says O’Mara, moment or epiphinal experience that moulded that “and I’ve got videos and DVDs of her work here to study. And character’s personality, and Marlene’s character-moulding fortunately I did actually see her on stage, at one of her concerts. experiences came during the Second World War. I think it was in 1974. I went up to Birmingham to see her and “She has a reputation for being, well, a martinet really, but was promised a meeting with her afterwards. But, quite she’d been through a lot in her life,” explains O’Mara. “One honestly, there were so many people in the dressing room I think of the things that interested me most aboutchose playing her was I just managed to shout ‘I think you’re wonderful’ and that was that during the war, being a German, she to fight on the about it. But she got a standing ovation of course, which I think opposite side. That, to me, poses a huge moral dilemma, and I started. it’s something that’s developed in the first half of the play. “But looking at her videos is quite frightening because, my God, “She knew Hitler and Hitler knew her – he was very keen on she was absolutely wonderful. Riveting, charismatic and with her in fact – so she was considered a huge traitor in Germany. such command – she had the audience in the palm of her hand. When Berlin was being bombed she famously said ‘Berlin And, of course, half of the new show is essentially her in deserves everything it gets’. This is her hometown. I think it cabaret, so one has to try to reproduce that extraordinary must have taken tremendous strength of character to do that, charisma. Very challenging, but I’m determined to rise to that but I think the trauma of the experience affected her deeply challenge. for the rest of her life, which is evident in this show.” The relationship between these two towering figures of stage Chris Burgess’s Lunch With Marlene is a two-hander of two and screen is not one that is universally known. Just how well halves, as Marlene is joined in her reminiscences by Noël did they know each other really? Coward, played by Frank Barrie. “Oh, it was a tremendously strong friendship,” she says. “He “The play section of the show is a duologue between Noel was her confidante and she adored him. From what I understand and Marlene when they’re both getting on a bit,” purrs she approached him to congratulate him on a performance and O’Mara, whose seductive feline qualities must have made the friendship started there. I think the friendship was based on her a shoe-in for the part. “They’re past their best and the fact that they both clearly respected the other’s genius. wondering what the hell life is all about. The second half is “In a way, they’re sort of similar because they were both very like a dream cabaret by the two of them, performing their strict disciplinarians, strict with themselves I mean – they would own famous numbers from when they were at their creative have to be. To do a Noel Coward number, to manage those 3 One young theatre company is The prospecting for gold in the bogs of Ireland. In a half-century- Company old play from J B Keane, they might have unearthed a With The real gem Pluck Of The Irish Tricycle for six weeks and got a very positive response – but I really don’t know the answer to that question. “I just wish producers would come and see what he can do, because the writing is brilliant and very, very funny. There have been any number of Irish playwrights produced in the West End, but not John Keane, and I don’t really understand why that should be.” Sive, a story of a young woman promised in marriage to an older man set in the wilds of rural Kerry, was written in late 1950s. Is it of its time? “It’s really interesting in that the play deals with that period of transition between the old Ireland and the new,” says Begley. “The old Ireland is very evident – they had matchmakers back then – and it’s amazing how in the country areas of Ireland some of these traditions almost made it into the 21st Century.