Playing Lady M is a dream come true
Niamh Cusack talks to MARION McMULLEN about superstition, Shakespeare and cinema
I hankered to play Lady M, but I thought the time had gone... Niamh Cusack was surprised and delighted when director Polly Findlay offered her a role in Macbeth
There are lots of stories about the curse of Macbeth. Are you superstitious?
I’M a little bit superstitious, but I am trying to ignore it and Greg Doran (the Royal Shakespeare Company’s artistic director) said Macbeth about five times when he came to welcome us all to the company.
He said he didn’t believe in the old superstitions.
We’ve had a couple of things go wrong – someone fell off the stage in a fight scene during one preview. It’s quite dark on stage so it hasn’t been without incident, but (laughs) all of us are still alive.
Is Lady Macbeth a part you have wanted to play?
I SAW my sister Sinéad doing Lady M in Stratford-upon-Avon with Jonathan Pryce as Macbeth and Adrian Noble directing when I was here doing Romeo And Juliet.
The whole thing came alive for me and I hankered to play Lady M, but I thought the time had gone. Then I was up in Manchester with director Polly Findlay and she asked if there was any role I had wanted to play and I said Lady M.
About four months later she called and said: ‘How do fancy playing Lady M opposite Christopher Eccleston next year? I just said yes right away. I didn’t even need to take time to think about it. There was none of that.
It’s something that I feel privileged to have the opportunity to do. Christopher is a magnificent Macbeth and Polly is one of the top directors in the country.
What is it like working again with the Royal Shakespeare Company?
IT’S lovely. I love Stratford-uponAvon. I did three seasons here and my husband Finbar did six seasons.
My son Calam was born in Warwick Hospital as well so Warwickshire feels like another home. I love the countryside and I love walking, but most of all I love Shakespeare and the opportunity to be here and to play Lady M is a dream come true.
You come from an acting family. What is your first memory of the theatre?
I SAW my father (Cyril Cusack) in The Tempest at the Old Vic probably in the early 70s.
John Gielgud played Prospero and my father played his brother. I have a vague memory of that. I don’t really think I picked up on the language but The Tempest has a magic to it and it seemed magical to me.
The production that stands out in my mind though is Much Ado About Nothing with my sister Sinéad and Derek Jacobi and Terry Hands directing. I just loved it. I loved the relationship between the two lead characters.
It was gorgeous, an absolutely beautiful production, the music and everything.
A digital clock counts down the action on stage in Macbeth. Does the production have a modern feel?
THERE are no mobile phones or laptops, but there is a contemporary feel. It’s a world were people can identify with the characters, but it’s definitely a world were men have the power. Lady M is not in a position to promote herself, but she can promote her husband and, through that, have power.
How do you prepare to play someone like Lady Macbeth?
IT all begins with the language Shakespeare gives you pretty much actually. You are right in the language so quickly and that propels you and propels the audience through the story.
Polly, Christopher and I agreed this couple are not completely bad people. They are damaged. They have lost a child and she’s grieving for the child.
They were supposed to be a couple with children and they find themselves a childless couple. It really motivates her. She feels she hasn’t given her husband kids but she can give him power.
Macbeth is going to be broadcast worldwide in cinemas. Are you looking forward to reaching such a wide audience?
VERY often we see kids, the school trips and groups, coming and see the play and I always tell myself many will have not seen the play before.
It’s a responsibility, but very exciting if just one person in that group has the play illuminated for them and then goes on to write plays themselves, become actors or fall in love with the theatre. I’m passionate about the theatre and I hope that is the effect we have.
I met someone in the street the other day and she said her daughter had seen me in Romeo And Juliet when she was about nine and she was now in her early 40s and still loved going to the theatre.
You’ve appeared on TV and film in dramas Heartbeat, Lewis, The Hollow Crown and Testament Of Youth, but is there any Shakespeare role you’ll still like to play?
(LAUGHS) There are so many, but maybe Much Ado About Nothing. I think if I’m playing Lady M maybe I’m not too old to play Beatrice after all.
Volumnia in Coriolanus is a great part as well and I would not mind having a go at a part normally played by a man.