20 | August 7, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
Theatre
Alison Steadman: “I like being in disguise”
I
’D been warned that Alison Steadman is absolutely nothing like Gavin & Stacey’s “Pamelaaa”. That in fact, she can be quite a prickly interviewee (most of the features desk blanched when told I’d snagged her for a chat), is actually “really posh” and utterly devoid of the brashly good natured “mumsiness” many of her onscreen characters peddle (blame her portrayal of Mrs Bennett in the wet shirted version of Pride and Prejudice). It’s all true. She’s not like the bubbly, screechy, emotional Pamela, and she is a bit gruff, refusing (quite rightly, if unhelpfully) to surrender every titbit of information, and she does have a clip to her voice rather than an Essex patter. And who wants to be labelled mumsy anyway? Sure, there’s no frivolous chat (jokily asking whether she’d be putting on a French accent for her role in Thérèse Raquin, earned a stern: “No, no, no, that would just be silly,”), but she takes her craft seriously. That’s hard to sneer at. Born in Liverpool in 1946, the actress made her name as Candice Marie in Nuts in May and as the iconic, busty Beverly in Abigail’s Party while married to director Mike Leigh. Going on to win an Olivier for best actress as the desperate, restless Mari in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, she also garnered Bafta nominations for The Singing Detective and as Betty in the brilliant Fat Friends alongside fellow future Gavin & Stacey stars Ruth Jones, James Corden and Sheridan Smith. The woman’s a living legend, a British institution, a national treasure! All terms bandied around by viewers and critics alike, that sit rather strangely with her. “Well, it’s lovely to be recognised as someone who people like to see on television or on stage who has got a reputation over the years for doing entertaining stuff,” she says.
As the ‘national treasure’ takes to the stage at Cambridge Arts Theatre in Thérèse Raquin, ELLA WALKER asks: will there ever be more Gavin & Stacey? ᔡ Thérèse Raquin, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Monday, August 25, to Saturday, August 30, at 7.45pm. Tickets £15-£30 from (01223) 503333 or cambridgeartstheatre.purchase-tickets-online.co.uk
“But the term ‘national treasure’, I don’t know, it feels a bit odd. But I wouldn’t down it, it’s lovely for people to appreciate your work.” Currently in the midst of quite gruelling rehearsals (“There’s a scene where someone has to drown, so it’s got to be really worked out,”), Steadman has previously worked with the Royal Theatre Bath on Alan Bennett’s Enjoy and Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, but Thérèse Raquin – based on the novel by Emilé Zola – was the first offer from the theatre she’d been tempted by after several years where “nothing really clicked”. “It’s a different kind of thing for me,” she muses. “It’s a period piece and it’s just nice to get the long frocks on again, get the wig on. I like being in disguise.” Set in the late 1860s in an isolated village on the outskirts of Paris, Thérèse Raquin excavates the darker sides of human temperament as young Thérèse, unhappily married to her first cousin Camille, embarks upon a deliciously forbidden liaison with her husband’s friend Laurant. Steadman plays Thérèse’s matchmaking aunt Madame
Writer: Ella Walker Email: ella.walker@cambridge-news.co.uk
Raquin, and is fiercely protective of her character, who in print sounds decidedly overbearing. “She is, in a way,” she concedes. “But she is a woman of that period. She is a very kind woman and she loves her son dearly. He’s her only son, who, during childhood was very, very ill and had lots of diseases which happened then and she saved his life twice and has got him
to adulthood. “In that period children used to die all the time of scarlet fever, measles and TB, all these dreadful diseases that we’ve more or less eradicated now, so you’ve got to see it from her point of view. “She wants him to be married and she wants her niece to be married and it just seems like a very good idea.” Mainly it was the play’s setting and history that attracted Steadman to the piece, as well as the relationship dynamics: “Families really stuck together, people didn’t travel, there was no email, no telephones, no television, and they didn’t watch films so their world was so different. It’s fascinating to examine all that.” She’s not the only one drawn to the play though. This year, as well as being staged, it’s also being released as a musical and as a film, In Secret, starring Elizabeth Olsen, Oscaar Isaac and Tom Felton (aka Draco Malfoy). “I honestly don’t know,” replies Steadman when asked about the sudden fascination with the text. “It’s just a great story, and it does become
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like a horror story, but the horror comes from guilt. It’s not horror like monsters coming out of the deep, scaring everyone, it is a moral tale.” When it was first published though, the morality of the play was obscured when it was refused licencing. The sex, the violence and the guilt were deemed too risqué for audiences; it was too shocking, too salacious. “Obviously it won’t have the same shock factor as it did in the 19th century,” Steadman admits, but it should still be gripping. “This is the 21st century and we’re not shocked by a bare leg any more. Haha, so perhaps we can tell the story more truthfully.” Aside from the play, she’ll also be starring in retirement sitcom Boomers this month alongside Russ Abbott and June Whitfield on BBC1. At 67, can she imagine ever retiring? “Um, no. Haha. I’ve got friends at retirement age, people who are teachers that have got to retire at some point; it’s quite a challenge for them. They don’t quite feel ready, but there are a lot of things you can do with your life once you’ve retired. You haven’t got to sit knitting jumpers; you can get out there and do things.” Even if the acting did peter out (which does not look likely), the back-up plan is going into nature
documentaries full time after a stint watching puffins in the Shetlands. “That was great,” says the RSPB patron, becoming truly animated. “I was so thrilled. It was freezing cold though, plenty of whisky to keep you warm. I would [like to do more] because I really enjoy it. There’s no lines to learn!” Of course, what we’re really hoping for, instead of further missives on sea birds, is more (lots more) Gavin & Stacey – preferably in film form, in spite of Ruth Jones’s protestations
that it will never happen. “I think it would be great, it could really work, but listen,” Steadman says, pausing dramatically. “I’m not the writer. The main thing is that we had a great time doing it, the story was told. “I mean yeah, you could of course carry on. But I think no one wants to do another series and people to say ‘Oh it wasn’t as good’. “If you end on a high note it’s a good place to leave it. But a film might be different . . .”