Interview: Gemma Sutton Talks THE RINK at Southwark Playhouse

Gemma Sutton is taking on the role of Angel in The Rink at Southwark Playhouse. The actress, whose previous credits include Gypsy at the Savoy, discusses musical theatre, roller-skating, and more.

When did you decide you wanted to do a professional actress?

Ooh... Probably from about the age of five when I used to sing with my dad, who's a pianist - we'd sing Disney songs at the piano. And then I did a lot of amateur dramatics growing up and that sort of fed my passion for it.

Do you have a favourite musical?

That's a tricky one! It changes every week, I'd say. I'm really enjoying the new, more innovative pieces and things that have lots and lots of different disciplines.

For example, I really like Kneehigh's stuff - I think it's fascinating that a musical doesn't have to just be something that has people breaking into songs quite dramatically every five minutes. It can use projections, or different styles of movement, different kinds of singing, different instrumentations...

So, anything that's innovative is really fascinating to me. I enjoyed Girl From The North Country a lot, just because I thought that the way that musical is arranged with Bob Dylan's incredible lyrics is spectacular.

Is there a role you'd really love to play?

I've always wanted to do new things. I think it's so much more interesting to create a character as opposed to following in somebody's footsteps. My dream would be to create a role somewhere like the National or something - that would be the ultimate dream.

What kind of challenges do you like your roles to present to you?

I always like to learn new skills. For example, I really enjoyed learning to roller-skate for this show; I enjoy having to learn new accents, it puts me in a whole new mindset for the character. I've never played an Irish character before - I'd like to do that.

What's The Rink about?

It's a story set in Coney Island between the Fifties and the Seventies. It's about the relationship between a mother and a daughter, and they've grown apart over the years.

My character, Angel, ran away at 17 and returned at 30 to try to patch things up. It's a very domestic story about the complexity of human relationships. It's two women looking back at the past with their very different perspectives.

It's a memory play, really. It's about memories, and there are always three versions of the same story: Angel's truth, Anna's truth, and then the truth. And it's about trying to work through it and finding forgiveness, and reconnect and communicate, to move forward.

Tell me about your character, Angel. In what way is she similar to you?

She's similar to the wild child in me. She's gone through some traumatic experiences in her life - her relationship with her parents wasn't a particularly happy one. How she's had to react to that is why she's become a hippie.

She ran away to California when she was 17 and joined a hippie tribe, became a peace activist, a free spirit. She's had a lot of adventures along the way, met a lot of interesting people, had her worldview expanded in many ways...

It's hard for her to come back to her mother at 30; she's been stuck in the same place for her whole life. They come back together with completely different outlooks and views on the world. Change is inevitable, and yet it's really difficult to let go of what we're used to, what makes us feel safe and secure, and what home means. That's what we explore a lot in the musical - what home is.

Has the musical changed since it first premiered more than 30 years ago?

There have been various drafts of it. There was the very famous Broadway production with Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli, and that's one version. Then they did it in the UK about five years later and that was a different version. And then they've done it again multiple times - at one point there was a one-act version too.

We're doing the two-act version, but it's a new production. We've been in contact with Terrence McNally, who wrote the book, and John Kander, and they've given their blessing to get it in a cohesive shape again.

Without any spoilers, what are you changing?

There are no big changes, it's more of a clarification of the story. Basically, the version we're doing is a sort of amalgamation of what's gone on before.

It's a more complete version of it. At various points, songs have been taken out and put back in... I'm not gonna say any more than that!

You role was originated by Liza Minelli - do you feel any pressure about that?

You know what, no! I'm so totally different from Liza - we couldn't be more different. I can't fit into her shoes, I've just got to do it my way.

I adore Liza - who doesn't - and of course I've listened to the cast recording and I've watched her in every piece of footage available online and everything... The character is so fascinating and that's how I approached it, what's on the page. Liza is there in my memory, but I'm so different from her.

Do you think the musical is going to be received differently now?

What's interesting about the show is that you've got two very strong female protagonists and that's great to see. It's not a romantic love story, many musicals are. It's more about loss than love. It's two female characters talking it out rather than a male-female dynamic. That intimacy is going to be so helpful for the nuances of the relationship.

I think the show will be received differently: we're in a smaller space so the audience will get a different experience of the show. It's not Broadway, it's not a massive West End theatre with many levels - we're gonna be able to connect more on a human level. I love smaller spaces because they always feel rather filmic in a way; it's going to be very liberating to be able to not simply throw it out to the gods.

Do you have a favourite line in the show?

Ooh, that's fantastic! They really go at each other, Anna and Angel. It's a tempestuous relationship, to say it lightly! They know how to push their buttons, but my favourite line at the moment is "I can be had, Ma, but not that easy".

What can the audience expect from it and why should they see it?

They should see it because it's not been done in this country in 25 years. It's a little lost gem in the Kander and Ebb repertoire. It has the most brilliant music.

What attracted me the most to the piece was the book and the character; she's so different from everyone I've played before. I read the script and then I listened to the music, and song after song I was blown away. It does surprise the audience.

There may be roller-skating too! And that's always fun to watch. I think it's a story that everyone will connect with, because we've all had a parent and child relationship. It's about how your past affects you and how you need to move forward and let go of things.

Did you know how to roller-skate before this?

I used to roller-blade, but skating is much harder than any of us expected! We have skate school every day - we're all learning a new skill and spending time together. We've all laughed so much and we've all got more than a few bruises! But it's so, so satisfying to learn something and see the progression, especially when you're an adult.

It's great fun - I'd advise everybody to buy some roller-skates!

The Rink runs at Southwark Playhouse from 25 May to 23 June

Photo credit: Darren Bell