Interview: Li-Leng Au of GREAT EXPECTATIONS at San Jose Stage Company Has Been Dying to Get Back Onstage

San Jose Stage Company continues its 39th season with a fancifully theatrical reimagining of Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations. Desire becomes destiny in playwright Neil Bartlett's powerful adaptation of Dickens' tale. A young orphan named Pip takes audiences on a journey through the windswept marshes of England, to the cobweb-strewn lair of mad Miss Havisham, and into the ruthless streets of London. "Great Expectations explores social injustice as well as universal human emotions and experiences, all equally relatable in the 1860's as in today's world," says San Jose Stage Company Artistic Director Randall King. "This story challenges us to open our hearts and minds to become kinder, more compassionate, and better at discerning true moral values." Great Expectations runs through December 12th, with live performances at San Jose Stage Company at 490 South 1st Street in San Jose, California. For more information, visit www.thestage.org.

The cast features Bay Area theater mainstay Keith Pinto in the central role of Pip, alongside five other actors who take on a multiplicity of characters. Li-Leng Au plays the dual roles of Miss Havisham and Mrs. Joe. The British-born Au may be a new face to most Bay Area theater audiences, but she is actually quite a seasoned actor with impressive stage and film credits on both sides of the Atlantic (and Pacific, for that matter). She only recently returned to acting after taking several years off to concentrate her efforts on raising her kids. I caught up with Au by phone a few days ago, just prior to performances commencing. She is instantly relatable, and fairly brims over with that kind of innate charm that seems uniquely British. We talked about her return to the stage, her unlikely last-minute casting in this play, and her unusual propensity for being hired to play roles that require her to die onstage - in many different ways. The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Is this the first show you've done at San Jose Stage?

It is! I'm delighted to be part of this production. The Stage has been enormously welcoming and the cast is massively talented.

How did you come to the attention of San Jose Stage?

It's a bit of a funny story, really. I applied for their general audition, and then I didn't hear anything for a while and thought "Fine, they're probably still casting." Then the Saturday before rehearsals started, I was emailed by Cathleen [King, Executive Director] at The Stage saying "Can you self-tape these couple of scenes on video and send it in?" She said that due to COVID protocols they were changing things up a little bit because [the originally scheduled play] Meet John Doe had a very large cast, and they wanted to be a bit more safe and reduce the size of the cast, so they just decided to completely change the show.

So I heard about the audition on a Saturday, and I knew they were starting rehearsal on Tuesday. On Sunday I didn't hear anything. Then on Monday at 6 pm, I checked my email and they said "We'd like to offer you the roles of Miss Havisham and Mrs. Joe." And I'm like "What?!" So, yeah, I heard on the Monday night and Tuesday I was in rehearsal. It was a bit of a fast process.

Great Expectations is quite an epic story to put onstage, especially with a cast of only six. How has the playwright Neil Bartlett approached adapting it for the stage?

It's very much an ensemble piece. Keith Pinto, who's brilliant as the main character Pip, I don't think he ever leaves the stage. However, the rest of us have a lot of quick changes and play multiple characters, so we'll all be running on and off, and there's a lot of stage magic happening. It's a huge piece. I mean, the story takes place over almost 30 years. Pip ages from 7 to about 35 or 36 by the end of the show, and we follow his life and all of the characters as they transition through that period of time, what their hopes and dreams are, and whether they meet their expectations or have their expectations dashed.

We travel around a lot, so at one point we're in the Gargery household where Pip grows up, then we're in Miss Havisham's house, and then we're also in the marshes, and then we're on the sea. I guess what we're doing effectively is that we're asking the audience to really engage with us and be complicit in this creation of the environment that Pip finds himself in.

You play the dual roles of Mrs. Joe and Miss Havisham, which sounds like quite a fun acting challenge.

It is. It's super fun and I'm really relishing every moment of it. Miss Havisham is such an iconic character and a funny thing - one of my good friends in London, her grandma actually played Mrs. Joe in the David Lean film. So I've got this personal connection to Mrs. Joe.

But both are really interesting, complex characters. I think the challenge for me is finding the humanity within them and bringing that forward for the audience so that they can understand that these people lived really hard lives. In terms of Mrs. Joe, she buried both her parents and all of her siblings, and then she basically raises her own child without knowledge of how to parent, so she's doing the best that she can. In terms of Miss Havisham, she suffers massive heartbreak and has a mental breakdown. I guess if this were modern day, she'd probably be on Prozac and having therapy but... [laughs]

How familiar were you with Great Expectations before doing the play?

I had seen the David Lean film version, and we had to study the book when I was at high school, but it's been a while. I remember just being in awe of these characters. I think my perception of Miss Havisham has changed over time, given life experience. I remember reading it as a teenager and thinking "What is this person? Why would they do this?!" [laughs]

You have quite an unusual career history, including extensive acting credits in both the UK and Australia.

Yeah, I was an Equity actor in the UK and then in Australia. Then I came over here about 7 years ago, and initially I was like "Well, I'll wait for my kids to be a bit older and then I can come back to the theater." And I was really lucky that first year [when I started acting again]. I did three productions. I'm still at that funny point where I'm considering whether it's worthwhile in the Bay Area to be an Equity actor. I really believe in Equity and the union and what they stand for. However, when I auditioned for one of the big houses they said, "Look, you're a complete unknown at this stage. Maybe it would be a good opportunity for you to just work with as many people as you can and get to know people before you sign up with Equity." And so that's what I've been doing.

Were you born in the UK?

Yes, I was born in the UK, went to drama school and physical theatre school there, and then moved to Australia for love and settled there for about 7 years, and now I've been in the Bay Area for about 7-8 years as well. It's been a really interesting transition, working in the UK and doing film, radio, TV, theater and tours there. And then establishing myself again in Australia and doing it there. I think right now I'm in a very interesting life stage. I'm ready to re-embrace the acting world and start going to auditions, and at the same time we've got COVID, so I need to be careful about the choices I make.

I'm very excited because my girls will have been vaccinated by the beginning of December, and they'll be coming to see the show. Although - I think I've died in the last three shows I've been in. [laughs] I was Marie Antoinette in The Revolutionists so they got to see me being beheaded. And then I was Milady in The Three Musketeers and I got throttled, bludgeoned and stabbed. So this will be a new and interesting way of them seeing me out! Not to give anything away of the story, but.... [laughs]

That's pretty funny. Whenever your daughters see you in a play now, they probably go in wondering "How does Mommy die in this one?"

Exactly! I think I've died in shows about 7 or 8 times now. I guess I just get to play really interesting characters who are either a little bit dastardly or who people want to see perish in interesting ways. [laughs]

To post a comment, you must register and login.