A RARE moment indeed. Few actors will openly reveal that the contents of the play they are set to appear in are something of a mystery. Former TV detective Blythe Duff grins as she says she has been searching hard for clues to a script narrative.
“I wasn’t sure about the storyline, or how it would play out on stage,” she says of a first reading of Caryl Churchill’s much heralded Escaped Alone. “This is a play that’s so different, so unique. And to be honest, when I was first offered it, I came along to meet the director without thinking I would actually do it.”
She grins. “I guess I showed up because I was pleased to be asked.”
Duff, who appeared in STV whodunnit Taggart for three decades, illustrates that Churchill’s play, written in 2016, certainly isn’t simplistic. Escaped Alone features three women over 70 who are having tea in the garden when along comes Mrs Jarrett, who they ask to join them.
What follows is lots of small talk – and very big declarations. Thanks to a series of monologues, we go inside the heads of the three women and discover the tiny detail of their lives, which is then contrasted when ‘Mrs J’ offers up huge statements on the state of the world.
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Churchill’s character clashes absurdist fantasy with frightening glimpses into the future, with lines such as ‘Famine will break out when 80 per cent of food is diverted to TV programmes. People will just watch breakfast on iPlayer.’
Duff says that the more she talked with director Joanna Bowman, the more she became intrigued by Churchill’s play. “She pulled me in. I became really curious.”
The actor plays the incredibly complex Mrs J. “Her role is someone who listens in on the conversations of a group of women who are chatting in a little garden, and she comments on what is going on. But she doesn’t simply comment. She offers a vision of the world that is often apocalyptic.”
Does the added challenge for an actor however, emerge from the fact there is no standard narrative to the play?” Exactly,” she chips in. “That’s why for the moment I’ve been concentrating on learning the monologues. But it has all been a real challenge for me. It’s not at all what I’m used to.”
It’s also elliptical in style. “The writing is difficult,” she says with some understatement. “With my character there are no exclamations, no commas.” Duff laughs. “In rehearsals we’re praying for a comma. But part of the reason for this is it reflects the way women speak. When men have conversations, they make a point - and then become silent. Women don’t. They talk over each other. As a result, there is a constant flow and Caryl has captured this wonderfully. But it’s difficult to play it out on stage.”
What of ‘Mrs J’. Is she a real person? Is she some sort of spirit guide, back from a previous life? The ghost of Christmas Future? “Ah, well, that is the question,” says the actor, quizzically. “We’re working on that one.”
Reviewers have commented that Churchill’s play reveals an incredible prescience. “It’s true. The women are in a garden, a space which represents freedom, which offers the chance to meet and have a cup of tea. It’s almost as if Caryl anticipated the pandemic. She was so ahead of the game. And interestingly, what we actors have learned (during the pandemic) has come out in rehearsals.”
It took such an interesting challenge for Blythe Duff to consider coming back into the theatre. Lockdown, she says proved to be a relaxing time. Too relaxing, in a way.
“I discovered the Cathkin Braes,” she says, in such positive voice it’s as if she had unlocked the secrets of the universe. And there came a realisation that life didn’t have to be about chasing work. It’s understandable. Duff has had a long-acting career underlined by a recent lengthy stint in the West End with the Harry Potter musical. Was there a feeling that she’d served her time? “I wasn’t desperately seeking work,” she says. “And these days you don’t really do audtiions. You send in a video. It’s not something I enjoy.”
What she does enjoy however is getting into a rehearsal room, developing a play. “I love it, this idea of digging down deep into the story, the characters, trying to work out what they are all about.”
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And working on a piece – just 50 minutes long - by a writer described by critics as ‘Britain’s greatest living playwright’ which is a massive compliment, considering she’s up against the likes of David Hare and David Ireland. “This play is set to make people think. And there’s no doubt it will have that effect.”
What’s also proved to be a massive attraction is that the play features four women, and a female director. “I think it’s fantastic to have this sort of representation,” she says, smiling, then adds. “Now, I just have to work on my monologues, and work out what it’s all about.”
Escaped Alone, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 22 February-9 March, also features Anne Kidd, Irene Macdougall and Joanna Tope.
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