Kris Marshall 3pp.qxp_Layout 1 27/01/2023 14:07 Page 1
THEATRE
Charlotte and Theodore
Lotty and Teddy are two dreamers wanting to make a difference in their worlds – but can they do this on an academic campus? Melissa Blease chats to Bath boy Kris Marshall who joins Eve Ponsonby in a two-hander at the Ustinov
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here did your long-standing relationship with actor Kris Marshall begin? It may have been 23 years ago, when the long-running BBC sitcom My Family became part of our families and introduced us, along the way, to Ben and Susan Harper’s eldest son Nick, an affable, laid-back layabout with a heart of gold who reflected the air of almost surreal anarchy that only the most interesting characters bring to family life. Or perhaps Marshall melted your heart as super-loveable Colin in Richard Curtis’s 2003 Christmas rom-com Love, Actually: when Colin packed his bags and took off to America in search of a woman who would see his bungling ‘Britishness’ as a perk rather than an impediment, legions of women across the UK slumped in their cinema seats and secretly wished he’d stayed put, with them. Or perhaps quirky crime/comedy drama Death In Paradise sealed your fate: when Marshall joined the plot as DI Humphrey Goodman in 2017, his tricky, largely unrequited love life proved to be as captivating as the crimes he almost preternaturally solved. Oh, but there’s yet more – much, much more – on Marshall’s CV: multiple, highly acclaimed stage roles including Treats opposite Billie Piper (which opened at the Theatre Royal Bath in 2007 before transferring to the West End); the London revival of Glengarry Glen Ross alongside Christian Slater; a stint as Tom Parker in British historical drama TV series Sanditon; Samuel Pepys in the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of his 17th-century diaries... and now, he’s preparing for a lengthy residency at the Ustinov, starring with Eve Ponsonby in the world premiere of Ryan Craig’s taut two-hander Charlotte and Theodore, which is poised to introduce us to an as-yet-unseen Kris Marshall
Eve Ponsonby, who plays the role of Lotty, in rehearsal for Charlotte and Theodore. Photograph by Alastair Muir
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altogether. But before we move on to explore Kris’s Teddy, I have to ask – is Kris the busiest, most adaptable actor on the planet? “I’ve never really thought of myself as that!” he says. “The way I see it, I’ve just been very lucky; I’ve been doing what I do now for what, 30 years?” Okay, there’s a certain amount of good fortune involved in any successful career. But there’s surely more to Kris’s success than that? “Okay, luck has been strongly involved, but I guess I’ve worked pretty hard at what I do. I bang on doors, I don’t take no for an answer, and I’m generally good at making a nuisance of myself, so that’s helped as well. I think perseverance and tenacity are, in my world, a virtue – they have to be. But I know I’ve been fortunate too, and I want to acknowledge that. And my work has allowed me to travel to the kind of amazing places that, especially when you're young, are dream locations. But I try not to travel too far away now – my wife and I have two children, aged 10 and 7; they’re a force of nature, but they’re amazing! And basically, I just want to hang out with them, at home, as much as I can.” And for many years, home, for Kris, was here in Bath.
The Ustinov is a brilliant space, especially for two-handers; it’s direct, and intimate, and we have the time to really bed the play in, and make a home there “I’m a proper Bath boy, born in St Martins before growing up in Corsham, Wells, and in and around the city,” he says. “My wife and I moved back to Bath when we had kids, but we relocated to the New Forest last year, basically as lifestyle choice. When I’m not working, I’m all about just enjoying myself as much as possible – I’m big into sailing, surfing and skiing... oh, and Scrabble! All the S-words, really. As much as I love Bath, there’s not much in the way of coast there! So now we’re a 10-minute drive from the beach and a five-minute drive from the forest, and I love it. But I’m looking forward to spending five weeks back in Bath, and I’m really looking forward to working at the Theatre Royal again – I’ve done the main house, but never the Ustinov, so I can’t wait.” And the play – and the role – that Kris can’t wait for promises to bring all manner of explosive theatrical fireworks to the tiny Ustinov stage. “The play’s writer Ryan Craig is a very old friend of mine, as is his brother Dean,” says Kris. “I’ve been friends with Ryan since I did one of his very first plays: Happy Savages at the Lyric, Hammersmith, back in 1988. But I haven’t worked with him since then, and I know that the Ustinov is the best place for his new one. It’s a brilliant space, especially for two-handers; it’s direct, and intimate, and we have the time to really bed the play in, and make a home there. I’m really excited about it, but I’m slightly daunted too, as it’s a monster of a part, and I’ve got to get it right, because I can’t blame the writing if I don’t!” So what does the ‘monster of a part’ involve? “Without giving too much away, it’s basically about two professors on a campus of a small but illustrious UK university. Charlotte (Lotty) started off being Theodore (Teddy’s) assistant, but they got together, got married, had kids. We follow them over the whole trajectory of that ten-year process, jumping forward and backwards in time,