Theatre Lives
An online conversation series created, co-produced, and presented by Fiona, in association with The Stage and Digial Theatre+. The series features some of the UK’s leading theatre, film, and TV talent in candid conversation about their lives and art.
“Sitting down for an interview with Fiona Lindsay is like chatting to an old friend who knows you well and has a genuine and well informed interest in what you do. She manages to achieve a balance between incisive questioning that really gets to the heart of what it is to be an actor and moments of off the cuff surprise questions that bring about an atmosphere of fun and humour. It’s a lovely way to spend an hour of your time.”
– Dame Julie Walters
Theatre Lives
“This is easily one of the most relaxed and informal interviews I've ever been a part of. Fiona helps you to be honest and detailed in a way that you often don't get the opportunity to be, and encourages a meaningful discussion. I had a great time discussing the process of performance with her. Roll on a second series and a live version.”
– Adrian Lester, CBE
Guests
Dame Julie Walters
Julie Walters talks to Fiona Lindsay about responding to the 'whim' of the industry over having a concrete career plan.
She explains how one can be an insecure person but a confident performer, and how she learned that acting and teaching are fundamentally similar disciplines.
Julie discusses inheriting her 'funny bones' from her parents, why comedic instinct cannot be taught, and how character development begins with the voice.
Imelda Staunton, CBE
Imelda Staunton talks to Digital Theatre+’s Fiona Lindsay, about how her innately Irish comfort with melancholy, and attraction to darker, dysfunctional characters, led Stephen Sondheim to peg her for Rose in his musical Gypsy.
Imelda describes the intense year-long process of building a 360° character for her BAFTA-winning role in Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake, and how that fully immersive and improvisational creative practice is the closest she’s come to writing.
Adrian Lester, CBE
Adrian Lester talks to Fiona Lindsay about the key roles he's played and industry realities he's encountered. He discusses developing physical signifiers, handling complex text and dealing with high emotion.
Lester explains how drama school teaches aspiring actors about graft, how mastering Taekwondo helped focus him as a performer, how his roots aren't necessarily geographical, and why he will always return to the stage.
Juliet Stevenson, CBE
Juliet Stevenson reveals to Fiona Lindsay how she overcame stage fright by saying yes to the ‘nightmare’ of being buried up to the neck on stage in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days. She discusses the hybridity of inhabiting a character and letting that character inhabit you, and likens imagining the theatrical world to ‘child’s play’.
Stevenson explores how, from birth to death, all the great events of our lives are simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary, and how great writing, great characters and great theatre are no different.
Michael Grandage, CBE
Michael Grandage explains to Fiona Lindsay why he dislikes the term ‘revival’, how an old play must become new for a company to ‘crack’ it, and talks of bringing current work into perspective through the past.
Michael discusses how, as a director, one begins working with actors in a rehearsal room, and ends collaborating with an audience. He describes how his privileging of the aesthetic is born of growing up amidst the abstract art movement.
“There is real value in talking about what we do in a way that restores dignity and meaning. Fiona makes it very easy and pleasurable and always asks questions that are interesting, challenging, and fun to answer. I hope we have the opportunity for another encounter. ”
– Juliet Stevenson, CBE