BWW Interviews: BRITANNICUS's Sian Thomas

Amy Hanson

Hello Sian, and welcome to BWW:UK. You're currently in rehearsal for Britannicus - how are things going?

Well - pretty well. We're now into the final week of rehearsals. It's a difficult weird play, like putting a Rubik's cube or jigsaw puzzle together. It's complex with twisted plots, particularly from the point
of view of Nero and Agrippina, the monster son and his monster mum - they have eyes on back of their heads, these two. It's a wonderful play with twists of details. And it's nice for me getting to play a monster!

This is translated from a work by the French playwright Racine, who many in theatre think of as "untranslatable". How have you found this version of his work?

(Sian is obviously a bit shocked at this reputation!) Well, I've never done Racine before although I have seen it done. My partner has worked on translating Racine before, so maybe it's easier if you're a poet; the original play is 18th century Old French with very strict verse and rhyme, but most productions do it less strictly, as does this one. This translation doesn't rhyme but has a pulse, a poetic meter to it - it needs the metrical device to push it forward. The play takes place
over one day; it starts at dawn and ends at dusk. We're performing it without an interval, so it plummets through the day with no breaks.

The script is quite a mouthful and it's not been easy to learn. It has great long speeches - the nearest thing to liken it to would be opera, I suppose. It has a formality yet is very passionate. It's tricky and intellectual - you can't get it all at once. It's a good challenge and it quite takes you over.

Your director, Irina Brown, has been recently known for comedy work such as The Importance of Being Earnest and The Vagina Monologues. Is there comedy in tragedy?

There are some moments of comedy in the tragedy but we're not looking for laughs. There are moments where it becomes almost preposterous; there have to be moments of release from the tension of a tragedy, that's the way it is. These people are monstrous, larger than life. It's like a clash of the titans at times. So that has to have moments of comedy before it becomes terrifying again - you could describe it as punctuations of comedy!

What do you think this production has to offer modern audiences?

It's all to do with power, raw power, and also love. It's about big, big subjects, but it's accessible - this is a new minted modern translation. The play is like a game of chess with a big central relationship between Nero and his mother, a terrible possessive woman, the power behind the throne so she could be powerful and use him as a pawn.

There's also a beautiful poetic love story (between Britannicus and Junia), a doomed love story that is very moving and terrible. They become manipulated by Nero and his mother. It's a great study of human behaviour with innocence at the centre with large beasts prowling around them manipulating things. 

It's complicated but fascinating and people are drawn into the terrible machinations - any modern audience can relate to that. We all seek power at some level in our lives. Apparently politicians like this play very much! It's all to do with power and how you keep it and how you lose it and how you try to hang on to it.

Could you tell me a bit about your character Agrippina?

She is a monster. I have to find ways of making her attractive, even though they're not very nice people at all. She's very defensive and offensive and it's tiring to play her because she's always on the front foot and suspicious of people. Still, she has a vulnerability when she starts to lose power. Maybe we've all got a monstrous creature inside us that we just keep under wraps.

She is a woman in a man's world, forced to be tough and like a man, but of course she's not, and being a woman is her Achilles heel. That forces her to manipulate people. Her great tragedies are that she wasn't born a man, and that she is a mother who, somewhere, loves her son, who turns against her.

You've previously appeared in other notable adaptations, including The Persians with National Theatre Wales and the musical version of Spring Awakening. How do you approach adapted works as a performer?

For The Persians I read different versions of the show in translation. I did actually do Ancient Greek O level but forgot most of it! I'm lucky enough to live with someone who has translated Aeschylus from the original, so it's always good to find out the background, to get the context right and to find the character.

For Spring Awakening, I did read the Wedekind. The original is quite a different, tricky, chilling, dark piece. For a musical it was dark and edgy but quite sweet compared to the play. But the more research you do, the more you can bring to the role.

I would have loved to have gone to Rome to research Agrippina! I think it will be a very exciting evening - short but thrilling.  There's a mad energy to it - like a big dipper, a mad crazy flight into the unknown and back. People of all ages and all classes and backgrounds and such will find it really exhilarating.

Britannicus begins previews at Wilton's Music Hall on October 13