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Interviews
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Lesley Joseph - The Pussycat of Islington Philip Fisher meets Lesley Joseph, more a pussycat than a man-eating tiger! It is rare that a person's public reputation can be encapsulated in a single word. In the case of Lesley Joseph, though, this is the case and the word, for better or worse, is "man-eater". That is a legacy of the nine years that she spent as Dorien, one of the stars of the BBC sitcom, Birds of a Feather. It therefore comes as a great surprise to find that Miss Joseph is a tiny lady for whom a more appropriate epithet would be "sweet", much more of a pussycat than a ravening tiger. Therefore interviewing her at the King's Head Theatre prior to a performance of her first ever one-woman show, Singular Women, turns into a real pleasure. She makes life for interviewers very easy as she talks rapidly and answers many of those questions that one dare not ask. Doing a one-woman show for the first time has had its ups and downs. "It can be quite lonely but at least you have control. You really do get to flex your theatrical muscles. It is quite brave because it's you and the audience. At the King's Head, you get to see the whites of people's eyes and that is scary. When it works, you share something special with them: when it doesn't you want to commit suicide". Singular Women is a new venture for Miss Joseph in more ways than one, as, for the first time in her life, she is acting as producer as well as actress. That means that she has she got together funding for the show, booked dates and charmed all and sundry, including a handpicked creative team all of whom she rates very highly. This includes Lawrence Till, the artistic director of the Palace Theatre Watford and designer Tim Shortall. She has also got involved in rather more mundane elements of the business such as designing the show's programme and poster. The whole experience has left her invigorated. "I've done it all myself, I'm proud of it. It's been nerve-racking in every way, I've put my money where my mouth is and I've enjoyed it but I don't think I'd ever do it again". Having said that, if the possibility of a West End transfer came up that would be another matter entirely. The play has had a long gestation period. "There were four monologues and I first read the character of the Jewish chocolate shop lady twelve years ago. I said that I'd like to do them all and tested two out at the Theatre Museum. We then tried it at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh in 1991 followed by a small tour. Since then it's always been there on the back-burner in my head". She loves the off-Broadway style of the "four plays about loneliness". She bought the rights and then approached the King's Head with a view to producing Singular Women there. She is a fan and believes that you can still discover things at the King's Head that could not be found anywhere else in London. It also has the advantage of attracting the kind of slightly older Jewish audience that will fall for Stewart Permutt's four contrasting ladies. Her life has been hectic recently, as she has been producing this play at the same time as she was acting in Alan Bennett's Office Suite on tour. This has brought advantages, in particular "I had to learn to e-mail which has been very exciting". Miss Joseph had wanted to work in the theatre since she was four. At seven, she appeared on stage at the New Theatre in Northampton in Hansel and Gretel and thereafter joined Masque Theatre, an amateur company. She also proudly announces that as a child, she won a verse-speaking competition for her rendition of a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem. After training at LAMDA, she spent three or four years at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter playing a wide assortment of parts including her only Shakespeare, Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and parts in The Boyfriend and Godspell. Subsequently, she has performed on stage in shows such as Annie (for two-and-half years) and Piaf, in which she played the title role. Her taste in theatre has always been catholic. It is hard to think of anyone else who when asked to name her favourites type of work would say "I love pantomime and Chekhov". Pantomime is a real passion and she will be appearing in Snow White at Richmond this Christmas. While some people turn their noses up at it, Miss Joseph says "Panto done properly is great - a magical experience - an eclectic group of people producing a real family show. You have to be a mix of serious actor and stand-up. It's important to work with and guide your audience, which is not easy". As she explains, this is the successor to the Victorian music hall and these days no one really has the training for it. While the stage work has clearly been very enjoyable and successful, to the man in the street the name "Lesley Joseph" conjures up just one thing, Dorien the man-eater from Chigwell through over 100 episodes of Birds of a Feather. She sounds slightly aggrieved as she says, "It was one of the great sitcoms, though it didn't ever win any awards". She doesn't think that it will happen, but she would love to see the show brought back for another series to bring up the characters up to date. Her pride at playing Dorien shines through "I'm not Julie Walters or Brenda Blethyn. I've never achieved greatness in any one sphere but I've done bloody well in lots and Dorien was a success". On reflection she comes to the same conclusion as the millions of fans to whom she gave so much pleasure. This is that playing Dorien is about as close to greatness as anyone can expect to get. She followed this up with a period on GMTV as their "Glamour Correspondent" and has travelled around the world for Wish You Were Here. Surprisingly though, for someone who is so familiar on screen, she has only ever appeared in a single film, mind you that was Franco Zeffirelli's Life of Christ starring Robert Powell. In more reflective mood, Lesley Joseph fears for the future of theatre and in particular rep. "Rep is collapsing for TV. People now just want fame, not to act. I was lucky coming in when I did in the innocent days when things weren't so commercial". A good recipe for those seeking a reminder of those innocent days and what acting can still offer on stage, might be to make a trip to see Lesley Joseph's performances in Singular Women and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This interview originally appeared on Theatreworld
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