Capturing the capricious Bathsheba Everdene on stage

SussexWorld

After a number of years in film and TV, Abi Casson Thompson is loving the thought of a three-month theatre tour as Bathsheba Everdene in Worthing-based Conn Artists’ new adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.

00:05Lovely this morning to speak to Bathsheba Everdeen from far from the Madden crowd,

00:09otherwise known as Abbey Castleton-Thompson. Now, Abbey, you're about to embark on a huge

00:14tour with Worthing Bay's con artists going all over the place for the best part of three months

00:19with this fantastic Thomas Hardy novel in a stage adaptation and you are playing Bathsheba Everdeen

00:26and she's, well, what a character, she's so interesting, isn't she? What makes her so?

00:32She's super interesting. I think because, as I've said previously, she goes on such a journey,

00:41she starts in one place and I feel like throughout the course of kind of what happens she changes

00:46and she changes and she changes again and she's so impacted by the people around her

00:51but by the end I think she kind of hopefully establishes knowing who she is finally.

00:58Absolutely, so to start with, how do you have to put her across, do you think?

01:04I think, well, my interpretation is she's young, she's quite frivolous, she's a lot of fun,

01:12she's kind of never had much responsibility so she's always enjoyed just kind of going with the

01:17flow, not really having too much of an awareness of her impact on other people and it's just kind

01:24of like a almost lovely youthfulness that I feel like we all grow out of, unfortunately,

01:31and she does too. Yeah and it cuts both ways, we were talking about the thing that she does,

01:35she sends this frivolous, unintended, un-meant valentine to poor old farmer Boldwood which

01:42basically drives him in the twist, doesn't it, with this unrequited love that he then conceives,

01:47is she to blame for that? You don't think she is necessarily, you would defend her, wouldn't you?

01:53I would defend her, definitely, but thinking about it I'm sure most people probably

02:00have done something of that ilk at some point in their life, maybe not meaning to,

02:07but no I don't think she's fully to blame and I do think that his response

02:11is kind of disproportionate, but then I suppose it is a different time.

02:20And it's such an interesting setup isn't it, it's just the five of you to convey this massive novel,

02:26how on earth are you going to do that? I think it'll be a challenge, I think it'll be an amazing

02:33opportunity, especially for the other actors in it because they get to do so much multi-rolling

02:37and when we had the read-through the other night it was so nice to kind of hear all these different

02:41characters being brought to life and I'm sure that when they add in the physicality and all

02:46that kind of thing as well then it's hopefully going to feel like there's many more people on

02:51stage. But you don't multi-roll then? I do have a few lines that are kind of out of character and

03:01we need to have a little bit of conversation actually in rehearsals about how we're going

03:04to go about that, whether it's a complete character shift or it's kind of more,

03:09there are elements like parts where it's narrated to kind of add a bit more to the

03:15imagination I suppose that we can actually maybe show on stage. But yeah, so we'll see how that

03:22goes. And this is your return to the theatre, your longest return to the theatre for a little while

03:26isn't it? Yeah, I have been working in film for a while which has been lovely but there is,

03:34I don't think there's anything that compares to the atmosphere in a theatre when everyone is really

03:40kind of in the zone. It sounds silly but like when you're really in the zone, you're really

03:44in character, you're all fully believing in what you're conveying and the story that you're telling.

03:49I think that is magic. It sounds fantastic, really looking forward to seeing it. Abi,

03:54lovely to speak to you and all good wishes on the tour. Thank you very much.

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