Excitement brews for former tea girl Celia
ONCE upon a time, Celia Imrie was a teagirl for Glenda Jackson. And now, 40 years later, she will take on the role of the Oscar-winning star’s daughter. Imrie will play Goneril to Jackson’s King Lear at the Old Vic this autumn. Jane Horrocks, as I revealed earlier, has been cast by director Deborah Warner to play Regan, Lear’s middle daughter.
Lear divides his kingdom between the pair because the two-faced siblings trick him into believing they truly love him.
Imrie, taking Laurence Olivier’s stance that ‘ you must love the person you’re playing’, believes eldest daughter Goneril has been much maligned. ‘Calm down! Why do they say she’s so awful?!’
Meanwhile, Lear’s youngest daughter Cordelia — the one child who truly does love her father — is banished. She will be played by the fast-rising actress Morfydd Clark (near right), who plays Kate Beckinsale’s daughter in the film gem Love & Friendship, which opens today.
Imrie was an assistant stage manager on a Royal Shakespeare Company world tour of Hedda Gabler when Jackson played the title role. (Patrick Stewart was Lovborg, Timothy West also starred and Trevor Nunn directed.)
‘I was her tea girl on the world tour in 1975,’ Imrie recalled. ‘I was the rather reluctant ASM only because I wanted to act all the time, and I understudied Pam St. Clement.’
Imrie never got to appear with Jackson on stage during the tour, but poured countless cuppas.
‘ There were three junior members and Glenda looked after us. She would secretly pay the bill for us at posh restaurants. And she gave me flowers and champagne when we got back to England on my birthday,’ she said fondly.
The tour company kept in touch over the years and there’s been the odd card and telephone call with Jackson and others. Indeed, when I bumped into Imrie in LA, she was with her old friend, Stewart.
Imrie was in LA filming for a Netflix comedy called Better Things when my exclusive about Jackson playing King Lear appeared. Soon she was auditioning with Warner via Skype. Like me, she found the combination of Jackson and King Lear irresistible. ‘I said yes instantly!’ Imrie told me. She and Horrocks also know each other from Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie. Imrie plays Claudia Bing, a rival celebrity PR. Imrie said the Old Vic company will be huge, but the sisters will get on just fine (off stage, at least) — because they’ll be sharing a dressing room. ‘I’m sure we’ll be very familiar, which is always good, because that sort of unspoken familiarity is obviously there with sisters who have lived all their lives together.’ Imrie had just returned to London from the U.S. on the Queen Mary 2. For health reasons she opts, whenever possible, not to fly. When she takes the boat she might introduce a screening of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, or do a Q&A. ‘I’m very polite to all the passengers and spend the rest of the time saying: “Hello, sailor!” It’s lovely,’ she said. The King Lear ensemble also includes Rhys Ifans as the Fool, Simon Manyonda as Edmund, Harry Melling as Edgar and William Chubb as Albany. The first preview will be at the Old Vic on October 25. Tickets go on general sale on Tuesday, May 31.