Past/Present/Future for … Lesley Sharp
Actress Lesley Sharp opens this week in the first major revival of Jim Cartwright’s Olivier Award-winning comedy The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, playing Mari, the mother of the title character LV, played by X Factor star Diana Vickers making her stage acting debut.
Her myriad television roles include Cranford, After Life, Bob and Rose, Clocking Off and three series of Playing the Field. Film work includes two films for Mike Leigh, Vera Drake and Naked, as well as The Full Monty.
After The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Sharp will remain in the West End in the new year to star as Mrs Alving in a new production of Ibsen’s Ghosts, co-starring and directed by Iain Glen.
PAST: There was no tradition or notion of acting as a profession in my family. There was always a slight worry associated with it, not least a financial worry. My father was a tax collector so he was always dealing with people who had got into a dreadful financial mess. His view of acting was that it wasn’t a viable career, and he tried to persuade me to join the civil service, though when that didn’t work out for me he was actually very supportive of me going to drama school. I was very fortunate in that regard.
When I was in my early twenties I was doing a lot of theatre work, but getting paid very little. I still find it interesting the response from people when you tell them how much you work, compared to how much you earn. They’re astonished. They tend to think that actors, no matter what they’re doing, are on amazingly high wages. That’s not the case. It’s easier to keep it going when you’re younger and you don’t have any responsibilities, but it gets tough as you get older.
When I started my journey, I wasn’t a pretty young girl. If as a youth you’re very beautiful, you’re cast in a particular way. What happened with me was that I just wanted to do good work – I think largely because I started off at the Royal Court, and their taste rubbed off on me. It was all about the writing and I’ve always loved good writing.
Someone asked me a couple of days ago if I thought it was harder for men or women in the profession, but I think it’s got increasingly hard for men and women as they get older because you want to do things that normal people do like have a mortgage and children and go on a summer holiday. But that’s not the kind of life that we’re in. Work is harder to come by as you get older, and it’s less and less appealing. Sticking at it and staying at it is something to be admired, because you’ve committed yourself to a life of uncertainty.
I’ve been lucky to work in TV, film and theatre, though they’ve tended to happen in phases. When I did Harper Regan, it was the first major stage role that I’d done in ten years – I’d been off doing lots of good stuff on TV. But I’m very glad I took it, as it turned out to be one of the highlight roles of my career, and it began another theatrical period for me.
PRESENT: Little Voice is really a dark fairytale. It’s magical and full of wonder and hope and sparkle, but it has this dark side to it as well. I think in some ways it’s a response to parts of our culture and entertainment which are all about trying to get people to succeed in talent shows. The journey that LV goes through symbolises this; she has this wonderful gift for mimicry and singing like other people but at the end she finds her own voice. I think that’s an interesting notion in light of what’s happened in the past few years, with the explosion of TV talent shows.
Obviously Diana (Vickers) has come through the TV talent show route, which is very different to how I got into the industry. But that said, I don’t think we should be snobby about TV casting; there are many different routes into the industry and thus has it ever been. There are a lot of people who didn’t have the money to go to drama school; they have to find their way into it. Plus, these TV shows have done a lot of good in that they’ve brought theatre to the attention of a lot of people. The terrible danger with theatre is that it becomes an elite medium – the theatre should be for everybody and there should be different kinds of theatre for everybody.
I’ve been really impressed by Diana because she’s so young and completely professional. She’s utterly committed to rehearsals, and she’s fearless. She has a connection to the story and she goes for it no matter what. Her singing and the work that she’s done on getting a handle on all of these voices is phenomenal. She has a beautiful voice of her own, and I’m really in admiration of her. She’s also very intelligent, and really has her head screwed on – I wouldn’t dream of giving her any advice!
We also have James Cartwright, Jim’s son, in the cast. I did Road with Jim in 1986, when James was tiny and was referred to as ‘Little Jim’. So I find it strange but brilliant to be sharing a stage with him now. He’s grown into a fine, handsome and very talented young man.
FUTURE: Straight after Little Voice I’m doing Ibsen’s Ghosts at the Duchess, directed by the wonderful Iain Glen who’s also acting in it. I’m incredibly fortunate that it’s come along at this time. It wasn’t particularly planned on my part – it’s a project we’d been sort of bottling away as something that might happen and then, suddenly, it did.
I’ll actually be overlapping slightly, as the start of rehearsals for Ghosts are at the same time as my last few performances in Little Voice. So it’ll be a busy time but I’m really looking forward to the challenge. It’s actually a real stroke of luck, because the chance to play two mothers – Mari and Mrs Alving – who are so completely different, in such very contrasting pieces, is a dream.
Beyond that, I suppose my ‘wish list’ would be to play Lady Macbeth, and Beatrice in Much Ado. I’d also love to tackle The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull – I definitely have my sights on Chekhov after tackling Ibsen. As I mentioned earlier, I think that what happens when you get older is that there’s less writing available. It’s not often that there’s a great older character and if there is, they’re rarely the focal point of the story.
– Lesley Sharp was speaking to Theo Bosanquet
The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, which is directed by Terry Johnson and also stars Diana Vickers, Marc Warren, Rachel Lumbert and James Cartwright, opens on 20 October 2009 (previews from 8 October) at the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre, where it continues until 30 January 2010. Ghosts runs at the Duchess Theatre from 23 February to 15 May 2010 (previews from 8 February).
