6 minute read
BETRAYAL Stars Nancy Carroll and Joseph Millson stop by to chat about Pinter
by MediaClash
Joseph Millson
Nancy Carroll
CURTAIN CALL Live theatre returns to Bath this month with Betrayal, the fi rst of three plays in the Theatre Royal’s autumn season. We sat down with stars Nancy Carroll and Joseph Millson to learn more By Lydia Tewkesbury
What have you missed most about live performance? Nancy: I’ve really relished coming back the words, ideas and things that, in the mundanity of lockdown – although we were doing what everybody needed to do in order to get on top of the pandemic – felt lost. As creative people when you don’t use that creative energy it doesn’t go anywhere, it sort of turns in on itself. It’s great having a vent for it again.
Joseph: I found myself doing quite dangerous sport activities in the whole of lockdown – only after a while did my wife point out it was all so I was still doing something scary, because I didn’t have theatre.
For a lot of people in this multi-faith world we’re in, theatre is a kind of all-purpose church. There’s communion and a sense of togetherness that you can’t get anywhere else.
Were you ever scared theatre was gone for good? Nancy: No, never. Theatre has survived wars, other pandemics, plagues and revolutions. People need stories. It’s why everyone went
nuts for Netfl ix and Amazon Prime during lockdown – they needed some sense of human contact, human story.
Joseph: Theatre’s been happening for thousands of years – it’ll survive this handsomely. Danny Moar has said he’s not going to make any money out of this season at all, but that doesn’t matter because it is an exercise in making sure people remember what the experience is like, making sure that they don’t lose the habit.
Have you ever performed at Theatre Royal before? Nancy: Not for years! I did a Peter Hall season, I think in about 2005. Other than that, though, I was last in Bath last year, fi lming Agatha Raisin nearby.
Joseph: I’ve done one Peter Hall season at the Theatre Royal in 2003, and I’ve toured to Bath in The Rivals, The Dramatist, Loot, Salad Days – I’ve visited a lot. I fi lmed a whole TV series for Channel 4, Campus, at University of Bath too.
What should we know about Betrayal? Nancy: Harold Pinter famously had an aff air with the broadcaster and writer Joan Bakewell. She was married to Michael Bakewell from 1955-72, but from 1962-69 she was involved with Pinter. He was with Vivian Merchant at that time. He basically wrote this play about those relationships. I think, reading between
the lines, the betrayal really refers to the relationship between the two men, but not necessarily the cuckolding that the physical aff air created. It was to do with the fact that for four years Michael Bakewell knew that the aff air had carried on, without his best friend Pinter knowing that he knew.
The story is told in reverse, and by putting the getting together at the end of the play you actually fi nish at a point of hope, potential and love, not with the despair and diffi culty that you start the play with.
Joseph: It’s bittersweet and weirdly funny. Pinter is all about characters casually saying things like, ‘Oh I was going to stab you in your sleep last night but you woke up.’ It feels very realistic. We don’t all actually go in for Greek melodrama, sometimes we’ll keep stirring the coff ee as we end our marriage.
Nancy: Because of Covid guidelines, Danny has put together a season of two- and three-hander plays which invariably entirely concentrate on intimate relationships. They are ultimately about the human condition and that’s what people want at the moment. Although Betrayal is very specifi cally about Pinter’s aff air with Bakewell, it’s also just about marriage and love and the diffi culties of friendship.
Betrayal runs from 14-31 October at Theatre Royal; www.theatreroyal.org.uk
Young changemakers
Pupils at KING EDWARD'S show us that children are never too young to make a difference, explains Stuart Boydell, year 1 teacher
As Greta Thunberg demonstrates, events, the children are at the centre of all key the younger generation are developments and initiatives within the Pre-Prep. never too young to make an One of the remarkable aspects of the children impact on the world and society. in the Pre-Prep is their desire to help other At King Edward’s Pre-Prep and children, animals and the environment. This year, Nursery, children are actively following the heart-rending images of the terrible encouraged to help shape their learning and make Australian bush fires in January a number of a difference to the world. children in Year 2 encouraged the whole of Pre-
The School embraces and nurtures the unique Prep to help the plight of the millions of animals qualities of each child in its care. One way it affected by the terrible conditions. Through their achieves this, whether the child is just starting leadership and the generosity of their parents, in Nursery or coming to the end of Year 2, is to the school was able to raise over £400 for the continuously encourage and nurture each child’s WWF. Prior to that, a Year 1 child who had been personal passions and interests. This sense of so engaged in his learning about penguins during empowerment gives the children important the Year 1 topic based on the Oliver Jeffers story opportunities to shape their learning and steer Lost & Found that he donated part of his birthday the curriculum in some of the most important money to sponsor a penguin in Bristol Zoo. directions. Encouraged by their own successes and sense
Whether it is gathering children’s designs of purpose in helping to improve the world for the school gardens; contributing ideas to around them, the children were also instrumental help inform teachers’ planning or rallying the in setting the topic for the school’s Book Week whole school with fantastic ideas for charitable & Arts’ Week, which was dedicated to learning
Pupils seen here with James Dennis from Longleat Safari Park, who visited the school after his trip to Australia to care for injured animals.
about the importance of trees to the environment.
The children are very much at the heart of everything that the Pre-Prep strives to achieve. Each child has become a wonderful ambassador for their futures and their knowledge and passions never cease to amaze the staff. No one in King Edward’s Pre-Prep is too young to make a difference. ■
King Edward’s Pre-Prep & Nursery Weston Lane, Bath BA1 4AQ 01225 421681; pre-prep@kesbath.com; Our next Open Event is on 17 October. For details, visit www.kesbath.com
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