Valley parade after Square deal
HANNAH Waterman is waiting for fellow Carrie's War cast members ahead of heading for a walk up a hill in Malvern when she calls.
"It was a company meal last night so they may be in bed still," she says brightly.
"I left early and went to bed early for a change so I'm all fit and ready."
Fortunately she's not found life too much of an uphill struggle since leaving Albert Square, having barely been off stage or the TV.
She was last here playing Ruth in the huge stage adaptation of Calendar Girls which took her touring for eight months, including the West End.
"It is nice being on the road with a few more men, though, for the balance of the sexes," she says of Carrie's War, a coming of age tale which follows child evacuees Carrie and Nick Willow to the Welsh valleys.
"It's a really interesting production because it's got so many different elements to it - singing and Welsh choral stuff - it's very family-orientated.
"You see grand-parents bringing their grandchildren. Some of the grand-parents may have even been evacuees and children quite often know the books and want to know how their grandparents lived.
"It's the only time it's ever happened that children have been shipped off to other people.
"Some had terrible times living in very alien environments. There were others who had wonderful times.
"In fact, someone was telling me their husband's brother was evacuated and loved the family he was staying with so much he didn't want to go home and the woman he was staying with wanted to adopt him."
Hannah plays kindly Auntie Lou in the adaptation of Nina Bawden's 1973 best-seller, based on her childhood experiences.
"She's very repressed to start with and quite similar to Ruth who I played in Calendar Girls who starts the play repressed and in a dark place and ends up liberated, so there's that nice journey to play."Big soap run has opened stage doors
THERE was once a time when appearing in a soap opera was a life term or an acting death sentence.
Hannah Waterman is one of a handful who found fresh feet in theatre while keeping in with the telly, including another episode of New Tricks with dad Dennis in the series that began screening this week.
"I loved my time at East-Enders," she says, "but I played the same character for four and a half years and that's not why I became an actor.
"I became an actor to play lots of different parts and having the freedom to do that since I left is something I have relished.
"They used to say 'death by soap' but these days people are more open to you simply being an actor who happens to have appeared on a soap and I'm fortunate in that I've been embraced by a lot of theatre companies who have kept me busy and interested."
That said Hannah's quick to point out that in Albert Square she "got married, divorced, gave birth and died on screen".
In Carrie's War she has to tackle a Welsh accent.
"I'm doing Valleys, love," she confirms convincingly.
"I speak a bit of Welsh in it as well, so it's been a challenge.
"It's the hardest accent I've ever had to do, but it's getting better with each show.
"I'm surrounded by proper Welsh people so I keep on track."
She didn't need too much guidance with the story, however. "I read it as a child and re-read it before the production.
"It's a gorgeous book and a very good adaptation, very truthful to the novel.
"The only thing that's slightly ambiguous is the time-frame because we've two hours to tell the story, not four years.
"The production is magical with the lighting and the environment it's set in. There's a spookiness and story-telling.
"It really is quite absorbing, but it's not a children's play in that that's all that it is. It will hopefully appeal to children but also has relevance to parents and grandparents as well because it's about relationships and people's lives.
"It's funny in parts so they laugh and they cry – and it's beautiful as well."
And unlike Calendar Girls Ms Waterman gets to keep her clothes on. "The 1940s is not a shape for me - I look square-shaped in that stuff," she quips.
"They are brilliant costumes, absolutely right, but you immediately age about 20 years."
Also starring Brigit Forsyth, Carrie's War runs at The Lyceum until Saturday.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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