Happy memories for Joanna on CFT return
Joanna Mccallum is thrilled to be returning to Chichester Festival Theatre in its big 60th anniversary year.
She is playing Princess Dragomiroff opposite Henry Goodman’s Poirot in Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig (May 13-June 4).
It will be her fifth time in Chichester – and first for a while – following
The Merchant of Venice, Cavalcade, The Scarlet Pimpernel (also West End) and A Month In The Country.
It’s also a venue very closely associated with her parents Googie Withers and John Mccallum who both appeared there many times.
“My first time there was way back in 1984 with The Merchant Of Venice with
Alec Guinness and he was marvellous. It was very exciting to be working with him and then The Scarlet Pimpernel and also Cavalcade before that. With Cavalcade there were a lot of people from Chichester involved on the stage, brass bands and all sorts. It was very exciting. It was a very happy season there.
“And in The Scarlet Pimpernel I was working with Donald Sinden. I was playing his wife which was a bit unusual because I was the same age as his son and Donald had known me since I was born. But he was such great fun to work with. But obviously I’d been to Chichester before that because my parents worked there a lot.”
Googie Withers and
John Mccallum appeared together in The Circle – 1976; The Chalk Garden – 1986;
Hay Fever – 1988; and Lady Windermere’s Fan – 1997.
“My husband and I, if they were coming to Chichester, would go and find them somewhere to live and one year we found them a lovely house in Bosham. I’m looking at the photograph now so there are so many happy memories that I have of Chichester over many years
“And now I’m so looking forward to being back in Chichester and to be playing a princess! She is Russian so I had better be a little bit careful with that. She is a little bit formidable and totally aware of her position but I must say that Ken Ludwig has adapted the piece from Agatha Christie’s novel so beautifully because he has given all the characters enormous strength and different personalities and the fact is that we work as an ensemble. He has done some slightly different new things to keep you really enjoying it. It is not a linear story at all. There are little things that will suddenly take people by surprise and the effects are going to be extraordinary and the costumes are just fabulous. They are very very glamorous and I’ve got wonderfully colourful costumes to wear.
“I did look at the Albert Finney film before doing this. I didn’t look at the most recent film and of course I read the book but this is a very original adaptation. It has got huge originality to it even though it very closely adheres to Agatha Christie’s plot but I do think it will offer a few surprises!”
The casts includes: Marc Antolin (as Michel the Conductor), Philip Cairns (Colonel Arbuthnot),
Samuel Collings (Hector Macqueen), Taz Munyaneza (Mary Debenham), Patrick Robinson (Monsieur Bouc), Laura Rogers (Countess Andrenyi), Sara Stewart (Helen Hubbard), Joanna van Kampen (Greta Ohlsson) and Timothy Watson (Samuel Ratchett), plus Matt Addis, Kelvin Ade, Joelle Dyson and Jacqueline Tate.