Things have been a bit mad lately. I've been playing Penny The Swan, the love interest in Honk! The Ugly Duckling, while also playing Nerissa in The Merchant Of Venice. And in between I've been going to lap-dancing clubs to research my part in Nick Dear's new version of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. Rehearsing five hours of lap dancing wearing fishnets and as little as possible, then going on to do a serene role such as Nerissa at night, with a costume down to my ankles, has been weird.
Nick Dear's version is set in modern London, and the music Stephen Warbeck has written is film like - no arias, the songs are quite grindy. It is an interesting piece and really up to date. When researching in the lap dancing clubs I just sit and watch. The girls don't like that. Last time I went with three men - a couple of my brothers and a friend - and the girls were like, "Hang on a minute, what's going on?"
We also met "Mad" Frankie Fraser. It was amazing talking about the underworld during the past 40 years, and how he still doesn't regret any of his actions. He didn't have much idea about lap dancing, but he gave us some good information about the relationships between gangsters and their wives. Initially when you get the call asking, "Would you like to play a lap dancer and not wear much on stage?" you think, "Um, is it going to be worthwhile artistically?" But there is such a good team involved here, I think it will be.
