Promising villainy on the Portsmouth panto stage this Christmas

SussexWorld

After bringing her villainy to Southampton's Mayflower theatre last year, Rachel Stanley is looking forward to being evil in the rather more intimate surroundings of the new Theatre Royal in Portsmouth this Christmas.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers and I'm lovely

00:06to speak again to Rachel Stanley. Last year as pantomime in Southampton at the Mayflower,

00:11this year moving down the coast. It's Portsmouth, New Theatre Royal, Beauty and the Beast and

00:17it's December the 13th to January the 5th and you are malevolent in this.

00:22I am.

00:23What a fabulous name for a character. How nasty are you going to be?

00:32Oh, incredibly nasty with a name like that. Oh, yes. I mean, she's, yeah, she's quite

00:40a character. But she's, it's a touch of the Bette Davis, you know.

00:45Oh, yeah.

00:46In there, yes. Bette Davis, Bette Joan Croft, we'll put them all in there.

00:52Fantastic. And you were saying you love playing the villains. Now, what does that say about

00:57you, that you love playing the villains?

01:00I know, what does it say about me? Well, because I'm normally very nice, you see. So, I like

01:08to play the opposite.

01:09Really? So, where does the stage villainy come from, then?

01:14How do you mean? As in, as in for me, how do I get on with it?

01:17Yeah, if you're a naturally nice person.

01:20Oh, I think we've all got a dark side. So, you know, I just, it's just, it's just a lot

01:25of fun. I just love, I just love the interaction with the audience. I love the boo. It's just

01:30a lot of fun to play someone evil when it's not, you play something opposite. It's just

01:36a great, it's just great to be a bad, I mean, there's not much more to say on the matter.

01:41It's just so, such good fun. And you get a great costume as well.

01:45As we can see.

01:46I always like that.

01:48And moving from the massive Mayflower at Southampton to the much more intimate New Theatre Royal.

01:53It'll be a different kind of performance, won't it? A very different kind of theatre.

01:57Yeah, a much more intimate, and it's a very pretty theatre. Yeah, it'll be a much more

02:03intimate performance. I'll be able to, you know, pick on people. I'll see them a bit

02:08more because it's so, the Southampton Mayflower is so massive. There's such a big gap between

02:14us and the audience, but there's not, so people better beware.

02:18So there's no escape for the audience then?

02:20Oh, no.

02:22And if someone looks away, you just get the next person?

02:24Yes, yeah. Yeah, I'll get them.

02:28It sounds fantastic. Well, really lovely to speak to you again. Thank you for your time.

02:33Lovely to speak to you too.

02:34Looking forward to seeing your malevolence in Horsemouth.

02:37Oh, great. Thank you. Thank you. Looking forward to it myself.

02:41Thank you. Bye-bye then.

02:42Thank you. Bye-bye.

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