Interview: Catherine Bailey - currently starring in The 39 Steps

Catherine Bailey is currently starring in the West End production of Alfred Hitchock's 'The 39 Steps' as Annabella Schmidt / Pamela / Margaret at The Criterion Theatre. You can keep up to date with Catherine on Twitter by following @CathBailey. You can also click here to view her Tumblr page.

You’ve been playing Annabella Schmidt / Pamela / Margaret in The 39 Steps at The Criterion for a while now, are you still enjoying it?
We started at the end of last year and I originally found the thought of a long run in the west end rather daunting, but I honestly can’t believe how fast the time has flown by as it is such a fun show to do. It’s all go the minute the curtain goes up so none of us has any time sitting in a dressing room waiting to be called. I am very lucky that the cast and crew are a delight to work with too. There are only four of us in the cast, namely Andrew Alexander, Paul Bigley and Stephen Critchlow, so it is important that we work well together as the show is like a relay race – thankfully we get on very well indeed!

Why do you think people love The 39 Steps so much? 

It is a sharply written pastiche which is enjoyable in its own right, but Patrick Barlow wrote the script with such affection for both John Buchan’s book and Alfred Hitchcock’s film that it retains the joy and ingenuity of both. Fans of film noir appreciate the references, as do those who have seen Barlow’s National Theatre of Brent. But I think there is also such appeal in the notion of four actors with limited set and props taking on such an epic story, the struggle of which is evident in the genius of Maria Aitken’s direction, and Toby Sedgwick’s choreography. This all adds up to a show that is enjoyable for everyone, and it is lovely to do the curtain call and see people of all ages in the audience. 

How do you keep your performance fresh each night? 

Every show is entirely different. There is no feeling of having done “the perfect show” – that would be a disaster! The audience is a different combination of people every night, and their reactions affect us and so things stay alive. It is a delicate balance because if we have a very lively house it can be tempting to get swept up in the hysteria, but that would be indulgent and doesn’t serve the play, so it is all about recalibrating each moment to make sure we remain truthful and don’t just play for laughs. This sounds pretentious doesn’t it – but the audience can tell straight away if we are mugging – the play works because the four characters take it very seriously indeed! 

Have things ever gone wrong on stage? 

Never!! (knowing wink) I am lying, things have gone wrong! But we have such an expert crew who know the show inside out that I doubt the audience would ever notice. We’ve had everything from a handcuff key going missing (and the actor doing the scene with his hand just offstage so the stage manager can pick the lock successfully to free him) to a power cut which affected The Criterion and most of the west end, to a button being sewn back on to a costume in the wings with seconds to spare. Everyone pulls together to keep the show running, even if some extra adrenaline does kick in! 

Paul Bigley is the latest actor to join the cast, what is he like to work with? 

Paul had to learn the show very quickly, I believe he watched many performances before starting rehearsals, which is how I learnt too. He is totally part of the team, brilliant in the role and lots of fun, and he has done so well in taking over from our previous man 1, Ian Hughes, who was also excellent. It is great to see how two different actors stay within the remit of the role but have varied nuance and interpretation. Paul had taken over from Ian in another show a few years back, so this was yet another passing of the baton! 

You have many TV credits including Eastenders, Residents, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Doctors and Holby City just to name a few. How does working on TV compare to working on stage and which do you prefer? 

I love them both, and I don’t think I can say which I prefer as they are so different. With TV you almost have more freedom because you can do several takes of the same thing, and I like how a camera can catch the nuance of an actor’s performance – it is quite intimate, decisions and choices can be much smaller. On stage you have the benefit of performing to a live audience, which is thrilling. As I said before, it is different each night, and although each take you might do for TV might be varied, there isn’t the immediate gauge of the audience reaction. Then there is the physiological difference of stage acting, vocally you have to be up to it, to make sure your voice is heard by 500 people or more. 

You are also involved with ‘BAZ Productions’, tell us more! 

We started BAZ in 2009 simply as a way of making the kind of work we wanted to see. We had noticed a sense of inevitability when watching many productions of the classics, so we decided to make watching one of our plays as exciting and tense as a sporting event, where the players make split second decisions, and the whole event is so live and spontaneous that you don’t know how it will pan out. We make sure we give equal opportunities to women, so the cast of each show is at least 50% female, bucking the current (and indeed age-old) trend of all-male or male-dominated productions. We also explore gender-blind casting, especially in classic plays, such as in our sell-out run of Macbeth, which we put on last year in a 17th century crypt in Holborn. Our work takes months to put together, as we workshop ideas with a team of actors over a long period of “training” time. Check out the website for more news about our next production! www.bazproductions.co.uk

Are there any other roles that you would like to play in the West End in the future? 

I would love to be in another Shakespeare after playing Viola in Twelfth Night last year. There is something so fulfilling about speaking the verse and telling the story, it’s magical. There are some exciting looking Shakespeare productions coming to the West End soon… 

Finally what would you like to say to everyone who supports you? 

Thank you for your support! It’s all about you, the audience, so here’s a favourite quote from David Mamet: “To serve in the real theatre, one needs to be able to please the audience and the audience only.” If you want to be an actor, read his book “True and False”, it is vital. 

Click here to find out more about The 39 Steps and to book tickets.