‘Playing smaller venues gives a certain freedom’

Elaine says one of the lovely aspects

of taking on smaller theatrical

productions is the absence of a “weight of expectation”. “It’s great I can go to the Festival Theatre in

Edinburgh and 1,400 people have booked tickets to see me,” she said.

“But there’s also a weight of

expectation that comes with it because the

audience want you to be a certain thing, and you want to give people a good night out because they are coming to see you. “In something

like Annie, where Ip layed Miss Hannigan

in the Scottish dates, I’m very aware I was

a marketing ploy to sell tickets. You go

along with that and it’s great.

“But there’s a lovely thing about not having that expectation on you. “When you’re in a play like Red Dust Road, it’s not all your responsibility. It’s the Lyceum’s, and the director’s, and the rest of the cast’s – and, of course, I’m part of that and want to make it work.

“It’s the same with Two Doors Down – it’s very much an ensemble. The fact you’re in it is a nice thing and people like the character, but it’s about the team.

“If people don’t like it, I’m not taking the hit personally, and for a long time I was. Even in panto, when you’re headlining, there’s an expectation on you when it’s your face on the poster.

“When there’s 2,000 people a show for six weeks, you don’t want to hear, ‘Ach, it wisnae as good as last year’.

“So it’s important for me to get that right mix – and I also want to do less. I know it doesn’t sound like it at the moment, but that’s the plan, to choose more of what I really want to do.”