Louise Humphreys, Future Radio:

Stash Kirkbride: Well I’m delighted to welcome to the platform programme this week Louise Humphrey, who’s been at the Puppet Theatre… to see what, Louise?

Louise Humphrey: I went to see Black Ram’s production of Twelfth Night.

SK: Right, now that’s a local company that we’ve profiled a lot on the programme in the last year. And so what’s their latest offering like then? They’re very busy.

LH: They are very busy. This was supposed to be the last night of their tour, but I’ve just found out that they have added another date which is very exciting for them.

SK: Right.

LH: It was a really fantastic show. It was very obvious from the beginning that they had spent a lot of time studying the text, a lot of time doing a lot of work on character, thinking about what they were saying to each other, and it really showed, it really came through, which was lovely. Very often in Shakespeare you find that there’s a lot of lines being said without a lot of thought about what’s going on behind, but this company have clearly done their research and spent a lot of time working together as a group to make sure they get the meaning across, that what they’re saying is understood, which is lovely.

SK: How superb. Well that sounds very encouraging. A good cast? They cast it well, presumably? Everyone was rightly suited for the parts, and things?

LH: Yes, it was. There was a lovely little twist in this one, that Feste was played by a girl. Which was really nice.

SK: I heard about this, Melisa told me about this. Now, did that work as a concept?

LH: It did work, yes. She was a lovely character, really lovely.

SK: And a nice singer? Did they have some songs in it?

LH: Yes, they did, and the musicians were live on stage as well. Three musicians, and they were fantastic.

SK: Wow.

LH: And they were included and allowed to be part of it, you know, you got the feeling that they’d been told to get involved, not physically, but just aware of what was going on, so they were reacting to what was happening onstage which was lovely because it meant that they were really included.

SK: And local actor [Sam Heydon] playing that wonderful part, the guy in the garters…

LH: Oh, he was fantastic. Yes, he was wonderful.

SK: Lovely actor, and I am glad that he had a chance to play a part like Malvolio. I mean, what an amazing role to have a crack at.

LH: Yes.

SK: At any age but he’s not particularly old to be playing that part.

LH: No, no, and it didn’t notice [sic] at all, you know, the age thing. It wasn’t an issue at all. He was a wonderful character to watch, really great.

SK: Good.

LH: I must just say that the star of the show, I know you shouldn’t really have favourites, but Louisa Theobald, playing Olivia, was just wonderful. Absolutely wonderful, one of those actresses that as soon as they come off stage you waiting for them to come back on again. Because she just lit it up, absolutely wonderful.

SK: And what is it about that? How is that done? Why when somebody leaves… it’s the eternal question isn’t it?

LH: I don’t know. It’s just something in her [delivery], in her comic timing. She has a sparkle about her, which, you can’t learn that, it’s just something that is inherent within somebody.

SK: That’s true, you can go to drama school, you can spend thousands of pounds training, you can have all the experience you want, but it's that little something that…

LH: Yeah.

SK: Well good that’s a nice treat. And the Puppet Theatre, a nice intimate space, probably worked very well.

LH: It’s a lovely space, and you know you forget that it does theatre, because, you know, I hadn’t been there in a long time, I had forgotten what a nice auditorium it is. And even though, it is very tiny, the acting space is very tiny, they did a lot with it. Obviously their set wasn’t massive, They’d thought very carefully about what they were going to have, being a touring production, you can’t have massive amounts of set. They had a backdrop which they lit and had shadows and people coming behind it, and you got lots of nice shadow projections coming through it.

SK: But no puppets…

LH: But no puppets! No, no puppets at all. (laughs) And then four boxes, which were set out with cushions on them for when it was Olivia’s place, and then when it was Orsino’s they were taken off and put on the floor. It was very quick and very simple, but [you] easily understood where you were meant to be.

SK: And the actors took part in the scene changes?

LH: Yep, and it was done effortlessly, and smoothly. Everything the actors needed came out of these boxes, these hinged lid boxes, and put back in again by the actors. You didn’t notice it, it wasn’t one of those things that stuck out like a sore thumb, it was made part of the action.

SK: And what about Aguecheek? That’s a wonderful role, did he have fun with Sir Toby Belch and all those characters?

LH: Absolutely, and Sir Andrew as well, they were just… two clowns. There were some lovely moments between those two. I think if I had any criticism, it would be that possibly some of those moments were eked out for a little too long. There was a lot of farcical chasing around which I think could have been kept to a minimum. But on a whole, I had no complaints about it, it was a really good production.

SK: So let’s finish on the final moment of the play, which is the coming together of the twins, the brother and the sister, Sebastian and [Viola]… did it work?

LH: It did. It did. There were lots of moments where the confusion between the two of them was beginning to build, and very funny moments, nicely timed and very well put together. And [there was] a lovely moment where they come out, and they’re standing face to face, and you look at them, and even though there’s a height difference between the two [actors], they were very well cast. You know, you could have had them as brother and sister. Very well cast.

SK: Excellent, well I’m glad to hear that it’s a success, again, for the local company there, The Black Ram Theatre Company, thanks for going to see it.

LH: That’s okay, it was fantastic.