Interview

As You Like It Q&A evening

by Ola Ignatowicz
24/08/2005

Monday August 22 was again an exciting date in the lastminute.com calendar with the fabulous cast of As You Like It taking time out of their busy schedules to be interrogated by our faithful theatre customers during the official lastminute.com exclusive Q&A evening.

With the 'real action' forecast for the '3rd half', everyone excitedly shuffled into the stalls. Despite slightly painful posteriors after 3 hours of this hilarious Shakespearian adaptation we waited for our compaire - Mark Bower - to ask the first question as we pondered on the storyline of the last 3 hours.

Having slipped into something more comfortable with their bottles of Bud in hand, our actors reappeared onstage one by one, accompanied by the masters of ceremony - the director David Lan and the composer Tim Sutton.

As the audience sat poised with their camera phones and other photographic contraptions, nervous excitement fell on the auditorium. Thank god for Mark and his ice breaker.

Q. So was there a clash of the 'dreaded egos' and how did you pull off such an ambitious production with a top cast?

David: Not at all. We found that everyone had something to give and wanted to get a piece of the action - so the musicians also got into dancing, and actors got into the singing, it was a collective effort. We made sure we got the creme de la creme of the actors and musicians to make the play as good as possible.

Q. Where did you find your accordionist?

Tim: Ah that was a special find, the music is so important in this play and we wanted to convey the melancholy and the feel of the 1940's France without a pastiche element. We made sure the songs were Edith Piath's style yet totally new material, so that the audience would have never heard it before, thus giving it more authenticity. The lady accordionist actually was playing in a gypsy band in a xmas panto last November which I managed to see, and I knew she fitted the bill for our production.

Q. And how did you deal with the Shakespearian lingo?

Sienna: Like most things, the more you do it the better you get.

Q. How did you manage to tackle the cross dressing and still make it a serious plot?

Helen: It was more of an empowering thing for Rosalind and for the women of the era, and it gives her a way of watching Orlando's affections from a distance, all the while courting him in her male persona.

As the wine and beer flowed and the cameras clicked, our actors and audience relaxed and laughter filled the auditorium. Orlando's confusion over Rosalind's male persona and the relationship between the actors were key topics, to which Sienna answered with a glint in her eye, "no, we hate each other". Can't get any more honest can you? We think it was the beer goggles talking though.

Q. So do you get on? Really?

Sienna: Yeah, we do actually get on, and tend to all go out after the show.

Ah, we thought so, just one big happy family. Shakespeare would be content to see that his happy ending continues long into the night.

Sienna was also a star at answering a probing question about her motivation onstage despite personal issues as she thanked actor's favourite friend "Dr Theatre - for the opportunity to do something that I love and keep me focused".

As the evening came to a close, a devoted fan was seen launching herself on stage to follow Miss Miller, who was a great sport and posed for a photo, thus ending our fun & frolics at the Wyndhams Theatre that night.

As the crowd filed out, satisfied excitement was in the air as questions were analysed and photos compared amidst exclamations - "wasn't she gorgeous!". We certainly thought so.

Needless to say, if you're after a great 3rd half at the theatre, keep an eye out for our Q&A evenings, you don't get any closer to the West End stars than this.

Look out for Sienna Miller in As You Like It in the Wyndhams Theatre