LIZZY WATTS

Lizzy Watts is working hard to make her mark and talks about the challenges of taking on her demanding but exciting role in Hedda Gabler, which is in Aberdeen this week

If Lizzy Watts, who has succeeded Ruth Wilson in the title role of Hedda Gabler, is feeling the pressure, this engaging performer seems to be thriving on it.

Where most actors would take giant steps to avoid seeing what their predecessor had done with the role, Lizzy witnessed Ruth Wilson’s Hedda not once but twice.

However, Lizzy is now working hard to put her own stamp on a character which is often described as the female Hamlet in recognition of the particular challenge it sets an actor.

Before the call came from the National, Lizzy had been catching the eye on both stage and screen, with theatre work at Shakespeare’s Globe and at Chichester and a featured role in the popular television drama The Durrells.

HOW DID YOU BECOME

CAST IN THE PART?

I think that Sam, from the NT’s casting department, had seen me in Strife at Chichester. Coincidentally I had just changed agents and I said to them that I was interested in being seen for characters of my own age rather than the younger roles I was being offered. I was cast as Hedda back in February and I took the call when I was in a clothes shop, trying on a new dress. As a result, went ahead and bought it.

IHOW WAS IT BEEN WORKING WITH DIRECTOR IVO VAN HOVE AND HIS ASSOCIATES?

One of Ivo’s notes advised me against trying to “explain” Hedda, as she seems to change going from one moment to the next. She can be sharp but there is also a vulnerability to her, a vulnerability that has been caused by the sheltering she’s received in her upbringing.

HEDDA CAN SEEM REMOTE, A CONTRADICTORY FIGURE WHOSE MOODS CAN TURN ON A SIXPENCE. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THIS ELUSIVE PERSONALITY TO THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER SEEN THE PLAY? Hedda is a young woman who has decided against following her inner drive and so she has chosen to settle down, to conform, to accept the security that marriage will bring her. doing so, however, she is living a life In she does not want to lead. She’s terrified by the outside world but she also wants to be free in the way that only a man is free in this society.

DO YOU SEE DISTINCT PARALLELS BETWEEN THE CHOICES WHICH HEDDA MAKES AND WHAT IS AVAILABLE TO HEDDA’S MODERNDAY COUNTERPARTS?

I was talking about it with a group of my female friends and we discussed the pressure we feel to think about having children while pursuing a career and what that entails. We felt that as women, we hadn’t ticked all the boxes.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM AND KEY ELEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION?

The design is very beautiful and aesthetically pleasing and they have created a space that seems very free. Patrick’s version is quite sexy. They have been very willing to allow me to explore Hedda in my own way. It has been a very enjoyable process.

DO YOU HOPE THE AUDIENCE WILL BE WILLING TO WORK JUST AS HARD AS THE ACTORS, ESPECIALLY IN THE PIVOTAL THIRD ACT?

I want it to look as if we all, actors and audience alike, are going through one of those mornings after the night before occasions. We should look as if we have gone through a massive event. Nobody has slept properly and everybody seems to be suffering from a hangover.

I’d like people to be pleasantly surprised by this family drama that does not seem to be a million miles away from their own lives. I feel that one of the joys of the theatre is when you sense that you know the people up on the stage, that you recognise them from real life. YOU CONSCIENTIOUSLY FILLED THE HEFTY GAP BETWEEN BEING CAST AS HEDDA AND THE START OF REHEARSALS BY IMMERSING YOURSELF IN A SUBSTANTIAL HELPING OF IBSEN’S PLAYS. HOW DID YOU FARE?

I read A Doll’s House, Ghosts, Pillars the Community and they all tend to feature a woman who is fighting against social conformity. Take Ibsen’s Enemy of the People. That play could have been written now and you wouldn’t have to change a word. He is a writer both for today and for all time. of

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THE INEVITABLE PERIODS OF UNEMPLOYMENT WHICH ARE PART OF AN ACTOR’S LIFE, DESPITE GRADUATING DRAMA SCHOOL IN 2006? Whenever I am out of work, I look to find something that has nothing to do with acting, simply to stop myself going mad. I couldn’t work in a box office or at a stage door. It would be too close to where I want to be. Acting was originally a hobby for me which I decided to take up professionally, despite my parents being less than delighted with my decision. It was seeing Michael Gambon in Pinter’s The Caretaker that made up my mind. I was sitting up in the gods but I felt that I could smell him even at such a distance.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE PROSPECT OF LIVING OUT OF A SUITCASE FOR SEVERAL MONTHS? When I was touring with Shakespeare’s Globe, we played dates including China and Russia and I learned how to pack for venues where the temperature ranged from 30 degrees to minus 30.

● Hedda Gabler is at HMT in Aberdeen with the last show on Saturday, November 25. See http:// www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/ events/hedda-gabler

Lizzy Watts and Richard Pyros in Hedda Gabler