9:00am Wednesday 18th February 2009
By Lucie Richards
NATIONAL treasure Shirley Ann Field is coming to tread the boards at The Haymarket next week in Daphne Du Maurier’s classic thriller Don’t Look Now.
Asked to join the cast by director Ian Dickens, Field (pictured) describes the play as: “A very good murder mystery and a very good story.”
The play is about John and Laura who visit Venice following the death of their daughter. They meet two sisters, one of whom claims to have psychic visions of the dead girl, and strange occurrences ensue.
Field, who plays one of the sisters, said: “I’m a mystery lady. I keep very still and support the story but don’t draw attention away from the main story of the play.”
She added: “It is a challenge sitting still and being very quiet, and getting the audience to wonder what happened and what I’m thinking about.
“The audience is just as important as the play because we are interacting and it’s interesting to travel around and have different reactions.
“If you look at the West End, it’s full of musicals, so it’s a privilege to be in something where people really sit and listen.”
The experienced actress, who started stage acting at 17 and shot to fame in the 1960s, has acted with likes of Sir Laurence Olivier and Steve McQueen and has flitted effortlessly between cinema, stage and television.
She said: “They say if you can do theatre, you can do anything and that is probably true.
“Theatre is like a party every night – sometimes it’s a good party, sometimes a bad party and it’s different everywhere, but when I’m doing it I think there’s nothing like it.”
The play is running at The Haymarket from February 24 to 28, with matinees on Thursday and Saturday.
Tickets from £16.50, with concessions available, can be booked at the Anvil Arts box office, on 01256 844244, or at anvilarts.org.uk.
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