BWW Interviews: MAMMA MIA!'s Harriet Thorpe

Hi Harriet, how's it going in Mamma Mia!?

It's absolutely fantastic. It's such a wonderful party - filled with Lycra and platform boots. Can't ask for more.

I was going to ask about the Lycra...

The idea you have to wear Lycra is so chilling when you're a lady of a certain age. Obviously I did a bit of nil by mouth during the rehearsal process to survive. Actually it's kind of great, and ultimately really liberating.

The whole show is about female empowerment.

It really is. What's wonderful about this is it's ladies of a certain age, again celebrated and different and allowed to be funny, independent, careless, witty, and I think that's why it's had its extraordinary longevity. It's 11 years this show has been running in London. It's pretty fantastic that it's still wanted. That's testament to the writing, and the sense of party. I watch the audience at night. If they're not doing a giant karaoke they're mouthing the words, happy as anything.

It's a different kind of atmosphere to go into. Wicked has its intense fandom, but you don't have the same singalong aspect!

You really don't. Both of them have extraordinary fanbases that come back again and again. They know they will deliver - both totally different, but it's the same quality for both - it brings people back.

Let's talk about Wicked briefly. Was that fun to do?

It was an absolute joy. It's a phenomenon as a piece of work. It has the most amazing journey, and things you don't imagine it to have - self-parody, irony, wit. It touches everyone whether you're nine or 90. It has something to say. Interestingly enough, there is a parallel with Mamma Mia! again, whether you're a young girl who's trying to understand herself and life and the world, or you're a slightly older lady trying to understand yourself and your life and your world as it's changing, it delivers a different message but has exactly the same scope of age that it affects.

Thinking of your part in Wicked, she's an odd character - you move into the darker side in the second act.

The wonderful thing is that she's the only person who is truly wicked. She has no redeeming features. She's out for herself. Elphaba is trying to be good and accepted; even though she makes dark choices, her will is to evolve in a good way. My character has a façade of jollity, but underneath was working everybody for her own ends - no redeeming features. And that's a joy to play. I never play anybody normal. I don't know what that says about me. I've never played a young, pretty girlie, I've always played nutters. I've just finished Harry Potter, playing another witch; earlier on in the year I did a series called Material Girls where I played a predatory mother. So I'm playing another predatory character in this show, after all the young boys, so I guess I'm either a witch or out for middle-age sex.

And your character in Cabaret would fit into that too...

My role in Cabaret! Yes, absolutely. (Laughs) Exactly. Prostitutes, witches or predatory ladies! I did a role a little while ago that was a Spanish lesbian housekeeper, so mixing and matching there.

And people of my generation would remember you in The Brittas Empire too.

What's normal about her? She's not normal! She kept her children in drawers! Like I say, I've never been normal. And thank God for it. If one's lucky enough to be a character actor, there's longevity in it. I never play me. There are elements of me, but not me, thank God. I'm lucky to have a mask of madness!

Would you have ever wanted to play the ingénue characters?

I think in my youth I would have liked to have been the ingénue. I would never have been Juliet; I would always have been the nurse. At drama school I was thinking Chekhov and Shakespeare, and I've done both. But I've never wanted to be an ingénue, because the emotional journey isn't as much fun as being a little character who comes on and does a bit of scene-stealing and goes off again.

Do you have anything on your wishlist still?

Good heavens. I haven't thought, really - I'm always so grateful to have a job. I'm always practising my Oscar acceptance speech, obviously. I've been doing that for 30 years - there's always hope ahead. I like each new thing that comes along because it's always a new challenge.

harriet thorpe stars in Mamma Mia! at the Prince Edward Theatre.

 

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