Jeremy Lloyd Thomas, Karen Henson & Andrew Ryan Interview: The Demands of the Thriller Season
Title
Jeremy Lloyd Thomas, Karen Henson & Andrew Ryan Interview: The Demands of the Thriller Season
Date
19 July 2017
Description
Oral history interview with actors Karen Henson, Jeremy Lloyd Thomas and Andrew Ryan, stalwarts of the long-running Theatre Royal Classic Thriller Season run every year during the summer.
What's the story?
The Theatre Royal's Classic Thriller season has been a regular fixture during the summer at the theatre since 1986.
Often comprising four plays in repertoire, a company of actors rehearse a play during the day ready for the following week's run, whilst performing in another play during the evening. It is the classic British repertory system.
Working with the Theatre Royal, the season was founded by legendary producer Colin McIntyre, whose extensive experience included working alongside Laurence Olivier at the Old Vic in London.
Following Colin’s sad death in 2011 the season was re-named in his honour and is now co-produced by Chesterfield based Tabs Productions.
On the season’s 30th anniversary in 2018, Karen Henson from Tabs Productions, said:
“Coming back to Nottingham every summer is like coming home. The audience is so loyal and welcoming that it feels like we’re performing for friends. We are thrilled that we have survived thirty years of murder, mystery and mayhem and look forward to many more to come.”
In this interview actors Karen Henson, Jeremy Lloyd Thomas and Andrew Ryan talk about the hard work required to perform in the Thriller season, with Jeremy sharing memories from 2005 of trying learn lines for Dangerous Obsession.
For added theatrical atmosphere this interview took place in one of the Theatre Royal dressing rooms.
But, having said that, it’s an awful lot of hard work to do it, but it’s also really rewarding, as well. You get sometimes if you’re playing, particularly in a Durbridge thing, where if you’re playing usually the lead man, which has got so much to do and so much business and so many people to kill, or to save, or to do whatever, so many phone calls to make, I’ve got to the end of it and actually wondered “How did I do that, how did that all go in the right order (mostly!)?”
It’s also having a steely nerve, I think. It’s like you can’t indulge the fear that goes with the job, although it’s not a fear, because it’s our job, isn’t it? But on an opening night you could get completely bogged down: “God, I’m not going to get through it, what if they don’t laugh or what if they don’t ooh and aah, or whatever they’re meant to do and what if I forget this, that and the other” and then you cannot indulge it.
What I do, I go “First line”. Just think of the first line. Don’t think of anything else beyond that and if you start thinking beyond it: “oh, how is it going to happen?” I had one very bad experience here with Colin in 2005 or 2006 and it was a three-hander: Dangerous Obsession and I had never panicked ever about anything and I had a complete melt-down because I didn’t know it and I couldn’t get it in order. It’s a play with three people in. The character I was playing had locked the couple in their conservatory and it was in real time, so there wasn’t any sort of like “two days later” or whatever or even any “I’ve got to make a cup of tea” or “I’ll go to the toilet”. I’d locked them in and I was holding them at gunpoint and the whole play revolves around an incident that has happened. And it was a nightmare. I’ve never panicked. I had to have Rescue Remedy and be calmed down. And I was crying and saying “I’m sorry I’m letting everyone down, but it just wouldn’t go in. Did you do it? Yes. Somebody said “Oh, I thought you were marvellous, the way you held on to your briefcase and looked like you were frightened and really tense”. I just was.
I was once in that play and another actress came and said “That was amazing, that’s so clever of you to play it pregnant”. And I wasn’t.
Often comprising four plays in repertoire, a company of actors rehearse a play during the day ready for the following week's run, whilst performing in another play during the evening. It is the classic British repertory system.
Working with the Theatre Royal, the season was founded by legendary producer Colin McIntyre, whose extensive experience included working alongside Laurence Olivier at the Old Vic in London.
Following Colin’s sad death in 2011 the season was re-named in his honour and is now co-produced by Chesterfield based Tabs Productions.
On the season’s 30th anniversary in 2018, Karen Henson from Tabs Productions, said:
“Coming back to Nottingham every summer is like coming home. The audience is so loyal and welcoming that it feels like we’re performing for friends. We are thrilled that we have survived thirty years of murder, mystery and mayhem and look forward to many more to come.”
In this interview actors Karen Henson, Jeremy Lloyd Thomas and Andrew Ryan talk about the hard work required to perform in the Thriller season, with Jeremy sharing memories from 2005 of trying learn lines for Dangerous Obsession.
For added theatrical atmosphere this interview took place in one of the Theatre Royal dressing rooms.
But, having said that, it’s an awful lot of hard work to do it, but it’s also really rewarding, as well. You get sometimes if you’re playing, particularly in a Durbridge thing, where if you’re playing usually the lead man, which has got so much to do and so much business and so many people to kill, or to save, or to do whatever, so many phone calls to make, I’ve got to the end of it and actually wondered “How did I do that, how did that all go in the right order (mostly!)?”
It’s also having a steely nerve, I think. It’s like you can’t indulge the fear that goes with the job, although it’s not a fear, because it’s our job, isn’t it? But on an opening night you could get completely bogged down: “God, I’m not going to get through it, what if they don’t laugh or what if they don’t ooh and aah, or whatever they’re meant to do and what if I forget this, that and the other” and then you cannot indulge it.
What I do, I go “First line”. Just think of the first line. Don’t think of anything else beyond that and if you start thinking beyond it: “oh, how is it going to happen?” I had one very bad experience here with Colin in 2005 or 2006 and it was a three-hander: Dangerous Obsession and I had never panicked ever about anything and I had a complete melt-down because I didn’t know it and I couldn’t get it in order. It’s a play with three people in. The character I was playing had locked the couple in their conservatory and it was in real time, so there wasn’t any sort of like “two days later” or whatever or even any “I’ve got to make a cup of tea” or “I’ll go to the toilet”. I’d locked them in and I was holding them at gunpoint and the whole play revolves around an incident that has happened. And it was a nightmare. I’ve never panicked. I had to have Rescue Remedy and be calmed down. And I was crying and saying “I’m sorry I’m letting everyone down, but it just wouldn’t go in. Did you do it? Yes. Somebody said “Oh, I thought you were marvellous, the way you held on to your briefcase and looked like you were frightened and really tense”. I just was.
I was once in that play and another actress came and said “That was amazing, that’s so clever of you to play it pregnant”. And I wasn’t.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Contributor
Interviewers: Liz MacKenzie & Laura Knowles
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
