EDINBURGH 2022: THE ACTRESS Q&A

BWW catches up with the team behind The Actress to chat about bringing the show to the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about The Actress.
It's set in 1660, theatre has been banned for twenty years and when The King allows licences for two theatres to be reopened, one of the producers invites two very different women into his company planning to make one of them the very first actress of the British Stage.

Why did you want to tell this story?

We loved researching our last play (The Giant Killers) so much and we wanted to find another true story. We all know that women weren't on the stage in Shakespeare's time and so it was such an obvious question to ask - who was the first woman? What happened to them? Why do we not know?

Why do you think it is still relevant today?

I think every young actress has at least one story about being made to feel uncomfortable or exploited. The hopes and dreams these women have and the challenges they face aren't that different from what young actors face today. When we started researching, we realised there was so much that (as struggling actors ourselves) we could relate to.

Who would you like to come and see it?

The lives of these women were difficult, some had come to the theatre via brothels so it's possibly not one to bring the kids to but outside of that if you're interested in history, if you want to take in a play with five incredible actors in, then this is for you.

What would you like audiences to take away from it?

We found their story very moving, these women were not perfect, what they went through was not easy but what they did made such a huge impact not just on theatre but on society, we just want to give them a voice, to have them be remembered and to share their incredible story.

Photo Credit: Venus Raven

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