Interview: Rula Lenska Talks THE CASE OF THE FRIGHTENED LADY

Actress Rula Lenska is on the road with The Case of the Frightened Lady. After a brutal murder at Mark's Priory, home to the great Lebanon family, Inspector Tanner finds out that nothing is what it seems inside the house...

What made you decide to become an actress?

It's all I ever wanted to be. I was a show-off as a child, always ready to do a party piece, to sing, to dance. I used to learn song lyrics phonetically in all different sorts of languages.

When I announced to my parents that I wanted to go to drama school they said OK, but I had to do my A-levels first, and then work for a year so that I'd always have a second string to my bow. Then I was allowed to go to drama school, and I've been lucky enough to be working steadily ever since.

Did you go to the theatre a lot as a kid?

No, not very much. My parents were Polish refugees, so theatre wasn't really in our blood. We used to go to the ballet and the circus as special treats, but I never went to the panto or things like that. I didn't start to go to theatre until I was in my late teens or early twenties.

Where did you train?

I went to the Webber Douglas Academy, which no longer exists, it was amalgamated with the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. It was a three-year diploma course.

Your career spans film, television, and stage. Which one do you prefer?

They're really incomparable. I would say the stage is probably my first love. I love that immediate sensation from a live audience. You can feel when you've got them in your hand, when you're making them cry or laugh, or when you're frightening them.

It's completely different from working with a film or television camera. By nature of the beast, on stage everything needs to be a little larger than life, but still true. Still, in an ideal world it's a bit of film, a bit of telly, a bit of theatre, one after the other, but it rarely happens like that.

You're now touring with The Case of the Frightened Lady - what's the show like?

It's what people call the classical psychological thriller. Edgar Wallace wrote an awful lot of stuff, including King Kong. It's old-fashioned in its genre, it's a bit like Agatha Christie, but it's better written.

What role do you play?

My part, Lady Lebanon, is a very driven and obsessed woman from a slightly-fallen-on-hard-times great family. I can't really tell you much more besides the fact that there are obviously several murder inquiries. And she, like everybody else in the play is a suspect. It's a lovely multi-layered part, because I come from a very high aristocratic background - although my family weren't that obsessed with lineage.

Did you find getting into the mindset of the play challenging?

No, there's nothing that worried me specifically. The only thing is that as one gets older, long tours become more tiring. This is several months on the road and they're never very cleverly geographically organised. I try to commute as much as possible because I like my own comforts.

But ,you know, when you've got a good show and a good cast, which we have, then as long as you get good audiences, it's great! And it's a wonderful chance to see the country.

Why do you think people should see the show?

It's a show that the audience needs to work at. They need to really listen because there are lots of red herrings and lots of clues. It's not sort of play where you just sit there and be entertained - you have to be part of it.

But I think there's the responsibility of listening and making your own mind up as to who you think might be suspicious or not. It's a play that has a very strong storyline, with a lot of characters, and it's quite scary in a couple of moments. I'd say it's a good example of a 1930s thriller.

The Case of the Frightened Lady is touring the UK until October 2018.

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