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Interviews
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Charlotte Emmerson Philip Fisher interviews Charlotte Emmerson about her role as Masha in Peter Stein's production of The Seagull and about her time at the National Theatre Charlotte Emmerson is a delightful lady who realises how lucky she is to be regarded as one of the best young stage actresses in Britain. Her path to a stage career has been most unconventional but could well inspire youngsters who dream of following in her footsteps. Miss Emmerson left school at 16 and has had no formal stage training or education. She came relatively late to theatre but has achieved her goals as a result of "luck, timing and hard work". She kept plugging away doing unpaid work and writing numerous letters. Her first break was the consequence of a nightmare experience on a student film. While making it was horrible, the film attracted a leading agency, which agreed to take her on on the strength of it. From there, she played a number of roles until Lucy Bailey offered her the lead opposite Jonathan Cake in a three week run of Baby Doll at Birmingham Rep. At this time, the National Theatre desperately needed to fill a gap in its scheduling at short notice and scoured the country for something suitable. Baby Doll transferred and proved a great success. It also introduced Miss Emmerson to the National Theatre, which became her professional home for the next three years. She absolutely loves it there and had a great time working under Trevor Nunn. In fact, she describes the Lyttelton stage as "my most favourite theatre in the world" and loves the egalitarian feel of the place. "One day, I sat in the canteen with Glenn Close chatting about Top Shop". When Trevor Nunn asked her to appear in Sir Tom Stoppard's Coast of Utopia Trilogy along with Eve Best, Anna Maxwell-Martin and Lucy Whybrow (now playing together in Katie Mitchell's Three Sisters) she became one of a distinguished foursome much loved by the press. Appearing in the trilogy was a wonderful experience for her and she really enjoyed seeing the polite power-struggles between the two theatrical giants. Her admiration for both men is great and Sir Tom's intellect clearly impressed her. "His mind is extraordinary, so wide. He has to set himself challenges and so he picks the hardest subjects possible". It also taught her some lessons about stage stamina. However tiring playing The Seagull twice a day in a hot theatre may be, it cannot challenge those trilogy days at the National that lasted ten hours. Miss Emmerson had had a taste of Chekhov while on the South Bank, playing alongside Corin and Vanessa Redgrave in The Cherry Orchard directed by Nunn. When asked to compare Nunn with Stein as directors of the Russian, she became uncharacteristically silent. Her diplomacy leads her to explain that while Nunn is renowned as a director of Shakespeare and has many wonderful qualities, Stein is probably the definitive Chekhov man and comparisons are impossible. The offer to appear in The Seagull was too good to turn down. The cast had an eight-week rehearsal period including a trip to Chekhov's estate in Russia and a four week stint at Stein's "almost castle" in Tuscany before coming to Edinburgh. Astonishingly, the ten major cast members all have birthdays during the two-week run of the play. They got along like a house on fire and apparently always had something to chat about. One of the attractions for all of them was that this is a kind of dream cast and creative team that even the National could never get. Of playing with Fiona Shaw, she says, "Fiona is very playful on stage and that relaxes you, she is also very inventive and imaginative". Miss Shaw had also got some plus points in her fellow star's eyes by entertaining Meryl Streep in her dressing room after the performance the previous night. Clearly, Miss Emmerson has thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working with a director that she describes as "like Peter Brook - very human, though people are scared of him. His way of working is interesting in that he doesn't like talking about the relationships between the characters. He does have a unique way of drawing performances out of his actors. He enables them to be free and very responsive. I'm a huge fan of the man". She goes on to say that "His whole thing with Chekhov is that he knows it all about the man and his plays." Even though Nina is seen as the pivotal part for a young actress, Miss Emmerson doesn't envy Jodhi May at all. Masha may be a slightly depressing part but can be compared with Mary Warren in The Crucible. "She has a very interesting journey. It is a more mature and easier part than Nina, who is that much younger." Her favourite play over the last year was Bryony Lavery's Frozen starring Tom Georgeson, who is also in The Seagull, and Anita Dobson - "acting at its very finest". Charlotte Emmerson has been fortunate in being able to follow the career that she loves. Very few people can say of their jobs, "I love theatre and that's where I'm known. It makes me profoundly happy and content". Long may that last!
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