Friends tease Rachelle Diedericks that she is in her “Miller era.”
After appearing in The Crucible at the National, she is now in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge at Chichester Festival Theatre from October 6-28 – a happy return for Rachelle who was previously at the CFT in the landmark pandemic era production Our Generation.
After appearing in The Crucible at the National, she is now in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge at Chichester Festival Theatre from October 6-28 – a happy return for Rachelle who was previously at the CFT in the landmark pandemic era production Our Generation.
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00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Now, Arthur
00:06 Miller's A View from the Bridge is going to be the last main house production in this
00:10 year's summer season at Chichester Festival Theatre. And returning to Chichester, we have
00:15 Rochelle and you were here, how many years ago was it, in Our Generation? But Arthur
00:19 Miller, very different kettle of fish, isn't it? And a really interesting part you're playing
00:25 in this, Catherine. Yes, yes, I'm very excited to be back. I can't wait. What do we need
00:32 to know about Catherine? Because she's in sort of slightly innocently dangerous waters,
00:37 isn't she, in this? Yes, she's complex. And what I would say is to never make a snap judgment
00:49 about any actions of anyone in this play, because it's so knee-jerk. Sometimes I hear
01:01 it in the audience when certain things happen, there'll be a gasp or a just a 'ugh', because
01:07 it's so everything that they, all of their responses to what happened in this play, and
01:13 the way that they behave, is so on the line of, is that them being manipulative or is
01:20 that them just being completely innocent? And it's that. It is like, all choices and
01:29 you know, actions are interesting. That's very intriguing. And you are talking as the
01:36 Arthur Miller expert, so your friends are teasing you that you are in your Arthur Miller
01:40 phase at the moment, being just on the Crucible as well. Yes. What makes him so interesting
01:47 as a playwright, do you think? I love that he kind of like spells out a lot of the time
01:54 what is going to happen at like, at random points at the beginning of plays, he will
01:59 spell out what is going to happen at the end. With the Crucible, like Mary Warren has a
02:05 speech where she's like, my hands went cold and then I started screaming and I saw the
02:09 devil, whatever. And then literally in Act Three, she's like screaming and like crying
02:14 because she's like, oh God, it's happening. And in this as well, it's the same. Like people
02:19 are saying what is going to happen and really interesting, like, you wouldn't even like,
02:26 you wouldn't think about it twice, but they're telling a story and then an hour later it
02:32 happens and you're like, oh God, you told us. That is clever. That implies that the
02:36 totality of it is in his mind before he even starts writing, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It
02:42 is so many little things that, and I'm still discovering it at like every night, like I'm
02:47 like, oh gosh. And there's so many like little moments that are mirrored and it's like, oh
02:52 God, if at that moment you just stopped, you stopped your impulses to get what you wanted,
03:01 this all wouldn't happen. So it's heartbreaking, but it's exciting. It's an exciting play.
03:08 And lovely too for you, the fact that it's bringing you back to Chichester where you
03:12 did Our Generation, which I saw every single production that Daniel Evans did in his years
03:17 in the Festival Theatre. That was the one that was the most memorable. Must have been
03:21 so special to be in an act piece at that time. Yeah, it was so special. And I remember I
03:30 did an audition for it really like during COVID. And I remember being like, I need to
03:35 go to work like on the Zoom audition. I was like, I need to go to work. I've got like
03:39 15 minutes, like let's do this audition. And then it just snowballed into that three hour,
03:47 three and a half hour marathon that was just, yeah, it was so fun to do every night. I never,
03:53 yeah, I never had a night where I was like, oh God, I have to do this play. It was always
03:59 like I get to have the best time with the best group.
04:02 It's the best kind of play because it felt, it was so entertaining, but it also felt so
04:06 significant, didn't it?
04:08 Yeah, I loved it. And I loved when kids came to see it. Because like the kids were the
04:13 ones that were the most vocal. Like, there was one bit where the brothers are having
04:17 a go at each other. I don't know if you remember it, but like there's these two brothers and
04:21 they're having a go at each other. And one of them kind of tells on the other one. And
04:25 this one night we had this group of kids up, they were like on the balcony and they just
04:29 went "snake! He's a snake!" And they just like fully, fully was so vocal and so engaged
04:36 with it that they were just like, they couldn't help but verbalise. And that's why I loved
04:40 it. I was just like this, this is so special to be a part of. I loved it.
04:45 We're probably not going to get that with the Arthur Miller in the main house.
04:50 We have had a few, a few verbalisations. But not like, not to that level.
04:57 Fantastic. Well, congratulations again on Our Generation. Just wonderful and very, very
05:03 best wishes for View from the Bridge. Looking forward to seeing it very soon. Rochelle,
05:07 really lovely to speak to you. Thank you.
05:09 Thank you, Phil. Lots of love.