Gráinne Keenan is currently starring in the sold-out world premiere of Ciphers by Dawn King which opened at the Bush Theatre earlier this month following a short UK Tour last year.
After a young woman is found dead, Ciphers follows her sister as she sets out to uncover what happened. She stumbles into a world of secrets and subterfuge that makes her question who Justine really was. How well can you ever know someone who lies for a living?
Gráinne’s theatre credits include: Dancing at Lughnasa (Royal and Derngate Theatre), Scenes From an Execution (National Theatre), Playboy of the Western World (Old Vic), and The Thunderbolt and Alison’s House (Orange Tree Theatre). On screen her television credits include: Law and Order UK and Titanic and her film credits include: Half of a Yellow Sun and The Book of Love.
Recently I spoke to Gráinne about how she finds performing such an intense play every night, the brilliance of Dawn King’s writing and the joys of touring…
You toured with Ciphers before bringing it to the Bush, are you enjoying the run?
Coming to the Bush has been brilliant, because it was almost sold out before we even started which is a lovely endorsement! It’s been great and it’s really nice performing in the Bush’s space which suits Ciphers as it’s quite an intimate play. The Bush is perfect so we’re really happy with that!
The journey of the play sounds huge, how do you find performing it each night? It must be exhausting!
I enjoy it, but it is quite a rollercoaster emotionally and practically. All of us play two characters and there are a lot of very quick scene changes. The play is performed out of sequence but there’s very much an emotional arc that is steady. It comes to a big crescendo at the very end. I’m on stage pretty much the whole time which a lot of people say “oh that must be really exhausting” but I actually think it’s a bit more exhausting when you have to go off for a scene or two and then rev up and come back on. You’re on a bit of a locomotive when you’re on-stage so it’s only maybe an hour or so after the performance that you start to get hit by tiredness!
Dawn King has received high praise, what do you think makes her writing so brilliant?
Well she has a great talent for creating suspense and there’s something really theatrical and exciting about that. Her writing is very sparse – there’s a lot going on between the lines which is quite exciting to play and probably also to watch. There’s a lot of silence in this play and sometimes you can feel the audience thinking ‘oh God, has somebody forgotten their line’ and then they become really soaked in by it. She’s got a real talent for that! She gives hints about the plot and characters without giving too much away. She’s great!
Grainne Keenan & Ronny Jhutti in Ciphers
Did you enjoy touring with the production first?
It was interesting because it was the first proper, long-ish tour that I’ve done. I did a job in Northampton that we then took to Oxford, but that was just two different venues whereas this was week on week. It was quite a challenge but it was interesting to feel the different atmospheres and to see how the play responds differently to different spaces. In the Tobacco Factory (in Bristol) it very much felt like the audience were on stage with us, whereas at the Oxford Playhouse, which has quite a large space, if felt like the audience were figuring things out from a distance which is also interesting but different. Touring was fun and kept us on our toes – you can never become complacent with this show.
There are just four of you in the cast, what are they like to work with?
Lovely! The cast are great and we just have a really good time if I’m honest! I’m lucky because we toured for six weeks and had been rehearsing for weeks before that and we all get on really well. It’s fun to go into work each night, have a chat and then perform an amazing play!
What do you think audiences can expect from Ciphers and who should come and see it?
Woah – I think everyone should come and see it [laughs]! People can expect to come and do a little bit of investigative work, the play is deliberately written to keep an audience on their toes and it asks them to lean forward and fill in the gaps and figure things out along with the characters and other audience members. I think that is one of the major strengths of the play and I’ve seen people become really excited by that because they’re given that trust. So anyone who is excited and willing to enter into that should come! All ages – although it’s not a kids’ play, that’s the only thing I’ll say!
Throughout your career you’ve done a mix of stage, TV and film work, is variety something which is important to you?
Yes! I would love to keep that variety going; I think most actors would say the same. I would probably lean a bit more towards theatre than film and TV, but I certainly enjoy all of them and they’re all quite different challenges.
What are the biggest challenges? How do they compare?
Well you don’t often get rehearsal periods for TV and film, what you do in the casting room is what they’re looking for – they tend to do “right, that’s what we need” and it’s faster. I’ve not yet done a film or TV job where I’ve had a really long time to develop anything whereas with theatre I suppose you go into a casting room and they don’t want to see a finished product. They want to see that they can work with you and that you can go on a journey together with the piece. So it is quite different, but with any job – even from one theatre job to another – it’s a life of variety! And I think that’s part the reason why I love it!
Do you like having the immediate response from theatre audiences? Theatregoers can be very passionate! What’s it like having that support behind you?
It’s lovely, it’s lovely – it’s really lovely! Every night, no matter how confident I feel about what I’m doing, I always feel very vulnerable after a show. Sometimes I just want to go home but then I go into the bar and people are really nice and then I realise that everything is ok! It’s lovely to hear that people enjoy what I’m doing, no matter what job you’re doing it’s nice when people tell you that you’re doing a good job!
Interviewed by Andrew Tomlins (Editor)
Ciphers runs at the Bush Theatre until Saturday 8th February. The run is now sold out, for returns call the box office on 0208 743 5050 or check online (www.bushtheatre.co.uk) on the day of the show.
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