Hitchcock comes to Venue Cymru
HUSBAND and wife duo Juliet Mills and Maxwell Caufield are looking forward to bringing a comedy thriller to North Wales. The new adaptation of the Hitchcockian drama The Lady Vanishes is touring Britain and playing to packed houses.
For Juliet it is a sentimental journey as she visits many theatres in which her late father John played.
But it will be the first time she will have visited Llandudno.
“I’ve been to Cardiff and Mold and never to Llandudno. I’m told the theatre is new so my father would not have performed but it’s in a wonderful spot and I’m looking forward to strolling down the promenade before and after the play to take in the beautiful views,” she said.
She spoke from her Californian home where she and Maxwell, who starred in Dynasty and the Colbys, were enjoying a well-earned break.
“We’ve done 16 weeks straight and we were due a break but I’m loving every minute of this production.
“I can’t say too much about a thriller without giving the game away of course but it’s set on a train and a station in 1938, just before Germany invade Austria.
“A group of people meet on this train and one of them disappears.
“A young couple make it their mission to find this missing person, but there seems to be a conspiracy amongst the passengers to hide what’s happened.
“It’s a real comedy thriller, which is actually my very favourite genre in the theatre.
“I think people love to be scared in the theatre and they love to laugh because they’re so scared. It’s very funny and I’m very proud of it,” she said.
Juliet plays Miss Froy, an English governess who’s been working with a family in Austria for six years.
“She’s part of the puzzle. I can’t say much more than that,” added Juliet.
She said she was eager to be part of this production and having her husband in the same production “was a very big plus right away”.
“We’ve been married 38 years now and in the theatre we’ve worked together half a dozen times.
“We love working together, especially touring together, because it’s a great adventure going to different cities every week; packing everything up, getting into the car and off we go.
“But having said that we don’t have any scenes in the play together.
“We’re on stage together a few times but we don’t say anything to each other,” she commented.
Juliet began her career as a child actress and was nominated for a Tony Award for her stage performance in Five Finger Exercise in 1960. She progressed to film work and then to television, playing the lead role on the sitcom
Nanny and the Professor in the early 1970s.
She received Golden Globe Award nominations for her work in this series and for her role in the film Avanti! in 1972.
She won an Emmy Award for her performance in the television mini-series QB VII.
In 1983 Juliet joined The Mirror Theater Ltd’s Mirror Repertory Company, performing in repertory productions such as Rain, Paradise Lost, Inheritors and The Hasty Heart throughout their seasons.
From 1999 until 2008, she had a role on the daytime drama series Passions, for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award.
The Lady Vanishes is at Venue Cymru from June 10-15.
Tickets and more information online at venuecymru.co.uk or the Box Office.