As You Like It

I suppose it is long enough after the event to talk about this production without fear that the press will pounce, vulture-like, on my every word when I describe my experience of working with Sienna Miller.

So let’s cut to the quick: what is she like? I hate to disappoint her detractors but she is truly a ‘child of light’. Honest. Beautiful-of course, talented- undoubtedly, but also a hard grafter, who is open to impulse and inspiration. She also has the ability to be someone different every day: woman and girl; vamp and innocent; celebrity and girl-next-door; icon and human. I adored her. But…"the play’s the thing…"

I landed the role in such an obtuse way. I met a dear friend, Julian Forsythe, at a memorial, who told me he was waiting to hear from an audition for ‘As you Like It’. It turned out that a mutual friend, the composer Tim Sutton, was on board so I gave him a call. Four days later I was auditioned and offered the dual roles of Duke Frederick and Hymen.

From day one, the actors who were playing or singing were called the ‘musicians’, and such segregation we all found elitist and galling. Even more so as the other ‘musicians’ were wonderfully talented in all their disciplines and had been cast members in the extraordinary Watermill production of Sweeney Todd.

The part of Duke Frederick is woefully underwritten- his reported transformation at the end of the play is not only unexpected but wholly unbelievable. Bad bard! Bad bard! In order to at least prepare the way for this incredible change of character we toyed with the idea that he was riddled with some disease, perhaps cancer, as a result of his guilt at overthrowing his brother. Indeed, we rehearsed his last scene with him collapsing, dry- retching in the bile of his self-loathing. We even rehearsed the wrestling scene as if the Duke could only speak with a strained wheeze. This would have played a heavy toll on my singing voice so the idea was jettisoned quite late in the process.

I was painfully aware of being too young to play this role- we worked out that I must have conceived Sienna when I was 17! So, inspired by pictures of Mussolini and collaborators in Nazi France, I packed on 2 stone, shaved my hair and looked vaguely like a wart-hog!

You cannot play power- you can only be seen to be powerful by the way others on stage react to you. With a very strong willed and characterful cast this was always going to be difficult. Honestly, I don’t think we ever achieved this transference of status in the big scenes- too many egos at play.

Change was endemic in the process. Four days before opening night and the music for Hymen (a beautiful, ethereal, Brittenesque tour de force) was thrown out- as was the whole conception of this deus ex machina. Originally designed to be a beflowered Krishna appearing to these French intellectuals in Arden (complete with gold forehead and chimes), it was decided that this spiritual, rather esoteric apparition was not in keeping with the world of the play. So, with opening night looming, I’m learning a soft-shoe routine from Ben Wright, our choreographer, and a new song in the style of a French chanteur. Just to add to the mix, I’m now dressed in a disgusting lime-green, Oswald Boateng suit with matching tie and shirt. Thank you Richard Hudson (our designer)! I felt like a singing kiwi fruit!

The reviews were very mixed but all were agreed on the performance of Helen McCrory. She is as extraordinary to act with as she is to watch, believe me. She is present and open every moment of the play and she makes you a better actor by her very force and talent. She will act a scene differently every night and she will rightly expect you to jump on board the exhilarating train of the play’s journey. She creates every moment anew and never recreates something that may have worked the previous evening. Thank you Helen!

It is revealing that even the publicity of Sienna’s private pain could not eclipse the might of Helen’s performance when people entered the theatre.

With the bombings in London taking their toll on attendance figures at all the London theatres, As You like It managed to keep going with the publicity surrounding Sienna and Jude’s relationship, coupled with the decision (wrong in my opinion and in flagrant breach of union rules) to put Sienna on as Rosalind when Helen suddenly fell ill during a performance. This decision demoralised us as a cast and I don’t think we ever recovered. It was a circus and it was disgusting. After all, the play’s the thing not the players. The understudy should have gone on -she was more than ready.

I subsequently lost my respect for the whole enterprise and found myself longing for the end of the run.

Ps. I still have the suit!