WHAT WOULD BOTTOM DO?
LUISA OMIELAN TELLS HUGH MONTGOMERY WHY SHE LOVES GETTING INTO CHARACTER AS SHAKESPEARE’S BUFFOON...
COMEDIANS are used to tough crowds, but it is a particular feat to play to a noiseless one. That’s certainly what Baftawinning stand-up Luisa Omielan discovered when she played a special Valentine’s Day gig to a huge audience – but on Zoom, of course.
‘I had to mute everybody because the audio was too loud. That was so weird, having a thousand people watching – and yet I was by myself, playing to silence for an hour and 15 minutes,’ she explains.
For her latest lockdown show, it’s something of a relief to have some fellow performers to interact with.
A one-night-only reading of the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, presented by Suffolk’s Shake Festival, it will see her play the buffoonish weaver Bottom as part of a cast including Hollywood stars Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens.
As Luisa explains, the role couldn’t have come her way at a more opportune moment: ‘When [I did performing arts] at uni, I specialised in two things: stand-up comedy and classical acting. I had just been thinking I’d love to do more acting, because lockdown has given us that time to think about what we really want, and then I got this email asking, “Would you consider taking part?” I went, “Yes, absolutely.”’
In preparation for the performance, the cast have been getting together online to run through scenes. But while Luisa has been really enjoying the rehearsals, there are certain anxieties that come from not being able to properly meet your fellow castmates. ‘It is fun to be quite obnoxious and interruptive [as Bottom] but the Luisa part of me is thinking, “I hope this isn’t too obnoxious. I hope they realise this is the character and not me!”’
As for being part of such a prestigious ensemble, it is proving both inspiring and demanding, she says. ‘You hear Dan and Rebecca talk through a scene and you think, “Oh heck, they’re good.” It makes you want to do your best.’
However at the same time, she says, once you’ve experienced the particular excruciation as a comedian of baring your soul on stage, and bombing, then you can take most other performing challenges in your stride. ‘That gives you a bit of resilience to bring with you.’
Not that Luisa can have endured many such occasions. After all, she has had a large and loyal fanbase, ever since her very first, hit show, What Would Beyonce Do?!, which dealt with the trials and tribulations of life as a 30-year-old woman in uproariously honest fashion.
Her following can in part be credited to her unique style as a performer, which is all about firing up and connecting with her audience in a way that has seen her gigs described as ‘part rave and part rally’. In recent years, she has moved away from the more feel-good tone of her earlier work and acquired a harder edge: her 2018 stand-up set Politics For Bitches, which was also turned into a BBC series, was a brilliant, righteously angry broadside against the country’s mismanagement provoked by her mother’s death from cancer after a late diagnosis. Meanwhile, her new live show, God Is A Woman, will take on a similarly weighty subject matter, exploring why women have been undermined or marginalised in most of the major faiths. ‘But with some d*ck jokes, because obviously I have got a certain appeal,’ Luisa adds, laughing.
When audiences will next get to see her live on stage is, of course, a moot point: her God Is A Woman tour has already been postponed because of Covid, but is now scheduled to go ahead from October.
As for her lockdown year, she says she’s felt very lucky with how it has panned out for her. She reveals: ‘Bernie, my Bernese mountain dog, had puppies and I met somebody and fell in love. I’ve had a mini lockdown romance.’
More generally, though, she is angry about the way the comedy industry has been treated during the crisis, with venues facing permanent closure and many performers slipping through the cracks of government support schemes.
However the powers-that-be had better watch out, Luisa warns, as she and her peers will have their comedic revenge in due course.
‘When we come back, we’re going to come back angry and loud. And we will hold you bang to rights for everything you said and did.
‘And people will listen because it will be hilarious the way we do it.’
■ A Rehearsed Reading Of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is streamed March 31 at 7.30pm, ticketsource.co.uk