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Interviews
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Martha Lott - "the best dead body in the show" Rivka Jacobson talks to the Australian actress at the Edinburgh Fringe She is The Mistress and a charming one too. Martha Lott's solo performance in Edinburgh festival in Arnold Wesker's play of that title was engaging. I was therefore delighted to have the opportunity to meet the Australian actress playing the part. "Best dead body"She started her acting career as a dead taxi driver in a cardboard box. The first review hailed her as the 'best dead body in the play'. After such a start one is bound to be hooked! She confesses that coming from a family involved in the theatre, she was always referred to as her father's daughter or her brother's sister. At last the theatre has given her an opportunity to be accepted for her talent, and for what she is. As every actor must know there are bound to be some critical reviews which may not be palatable. Lott has had some excellent and also some bad reviews. The first bad review, she says, was not a pleasant experience, to say the least, but she decided to take it as constructive criticism. This is an approach she has been maintaining throughout the years. At the early stage of her career, she took on board suggestions to work on her voice. She came to London determined to succeed. It was not an easy path. She accepted the first drama school that offered her a place; this was Drama Centre. She has fond memoirs of that place. Back in AustraliaUK Immigration Rules ensured she could not work here but had to go back home to Australia. Unfortunately, getting back to work as an actress proved an uphill struggle despite her move to Sydney. Lott left acting and worked in retail as an agent. Things did not go well for her. She had her fair share of bad luck where a law suit for wrongful dismissal followed by a failed relationship left her broken hearted and dispirited. She decided to move back home, to Adelaide. There she watched the theatre scene for a while and then started her own company. She produced her first show at the Adelaide Fringe in 2002. Holden Street TheatresShe recalls how she and her supportive father were unable to afford theatre hire costs. That triggered the resourcefulness within her. An old shop was turned into a theatre. It proved a great success and opened new opportunities for them both. The money saved encouraged them to look for other venues that could be transformed from abandoned structures to performing theatres. Two church buildings in Hindmarsh, very close to the city, were leased from the government. Designed and refurbished by father and daughter, they were transformed into "what are now award-winning venues that house some of the most respected performances in town," she proudly says. Her tall charming father sits nearby, smiles and nods to confirm, as if confirmation was needed, for her enthusiasm. The sparkle in her eyes said it all:."'Holden Street Theatres is my baby and I love it very much". Adelaide Festival of ArtsMartha enthusiastically tells me about the fabulous second biggest arts festival in the world after Edinburgh, the festival in Adelaide. "Next year's festival is on 29th February to 16th March 2008," she adds. That is something to look forward to. She admits that every year she scouts in Edinburgh for new shows to bring to their three venues at Holden St. and for the other new venues into which they are expanding. PaintingMartha confesses to another passion, which is painting. "I often paint after a production to release the character or when I am trying to get to grips with the character. There is one painting from The Trojan Women that has been very well received. I played Helen of Troy and the chorus of sixty women would try to rip me apart every night. I had large false eye lashes as it was a big stage and we put semi-permanent lashes on so I didn't have to do it each night. I had so many nightmares over this character and sleepless nights as a result of what I went through, being hated by everyone and screamed at, so that I pulled them out in my sleep and my real eyelashes came with them. It was painful and bloody, and make-up had to be very delicate. The picture is fairly harrowing and it was only through the painting that I managed to get Helen of Troy out of my system." At present there is an exhibition in Adelaide at Greenhill Galleries of Martha Lott's paintings. Her motherI wanted to know a little more about Martha herself. Does she have a family of her own? Martha was touchingly frank. "I am not in a relationship at this point. I really would love a family and I am happy to put it all on hold to have children if that is what is needed. My mother died in a car accident when I was 8 years old. My brother and I were both in the car. I had eleven fractures and my brother had three and he wore a caliper for five years. I would like to say that it was so long ago and that it doesn't affect us now but I can't. I have a wonky toe and scars that are daily reminders that I don't have Mum. I am 36 years old and have arthritis in my leg and my hips sometimes click into paralysis, the longest of which has been three days. She is around though, she makes it to each show and stands patiently in the wings for me to come off before she leaves. My mother died when she was just 34 and when I turned 34 it was the 25th anniversary of her death. This hit me very hard as I didn't really think of myself as living past 34 and so when I woke up on the morning of my 35th birthday I was very, very happy. On the night of the anniversary however, I fell into a hole that was the darkest place I have ever been in. I drank myself silly and went into my studio and painted the feeling out. The result was my all-time favourite painting and one I will never sell. It didn't solve it all though but it helped."
She adds that her mother was able to hold a career and have children because they had a nanny. "That is an option. I guess I will cross that bridge when it comes to it." Her Father"After my mum died, dad had to do his best to raise me and my brother. We lived in the Adelaide Hills and dad worked in the city so as soon as he could we were taken out of school and sent to schools in the city. We hated it. We didn't fit in as we didn't come from a "normal" family unit. My brother and I were split for the first time ever and I was out in the world of an all-girls school on my own. It was hell. We didn't have a lot of money and so I never had the right clothes. We would have to go and wait at dad's office after school and he didn't finish until around 10 pm or so and it was an hours' drive home. We would have dinner and go to bed. This was not a lot of fun and not conducive to having friends over." Martha's father was a concert promoter and so the majority of her weekends saw children backstage at huge outdoor concerts or in the corridors of theatres and arenas. There she would be looked after by the security guards, riggers and truckies and any staff member who wasn't rushing around trying to get their work done. "The t-shirt and merchandising people were usually the safest as they stayed in the one place." Martha insists that she felt extremely safe being looked after by these different individuals. "They all respected dad so much that they would never let anything happen to me." The Mistress Naturally I could not conclude the conversation without touching on the play that prompted this meeting, so I did ask her how she relates to Samantha, the mistress she has to act throughout the festival. "The character was so incredibly difficult to remember as she splits into four women in her head from about a third of the way through. I had to learn each of them separately and then put them together and the transitions from one to another took so much work. The Director, Guy Masterson, reminded me yesterday that I asked to be challenged and pushed and that is exactly what he has done." She admits that there are points during the performance where she fears she cannot keep going but the adrenaline keeps pumping and she manages to stay intact to the end of each show. Yet her dream is to work in the West End in London and to tour The Mistress throughout Australia. "Which of The Mistress characteristics do you identify with?" I asked. "They say that the character closest to you is the hardest one to play and whilst I don't want to be like Samantha, the mistress, there are definitely parts of me that are. "I read a book called The Myth of Having It All and it looks into the myth that women can have it all, career, family, friends and lifestyle. We can't, and I faced that head on a few years ago. I had worked so hard to achieve what I thought would make me happy that I never stopped to see what would happen if I stopped trying to control everything. Samantha is the same in that she controls her men and as a result, stops herself from getting hurt. She denies facing reality so she never fails or gets hurt and now that she has finally fallen in love, she can't have him and it breaks her. I truly empathise with her and find that the audience does too." Martha confesses that she still hopes to fall madly in love and have babies.
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