The Other Boleyn Girl offers the enticing prospect of a “dark and intense thriller that will sweep you into the Tudor world,” promises Lucy Phelps who is playing the other Boleyn girl of the title in the opening play of the 2024 Chichester Festival Theatre summer season.
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00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil here at Group Arts, Editor at Sussex Newscapers. Now, what
00:06 a fabulously exciting sounding start to the Festival Theatre season in Chichester. We're
00:11 starting with The Other Berlin Girl, based on Philippa Gregory's novel, opens on April
00:16 19th. The Other Berlin Girl is Mary Berlin, and Lucy Phelps, you are Mary. Now, it's an
00:21 extraordinary world you're going to take us into. Violent, superstitious, religious, all
00:27 these things, ruthless, cutthroat, this Tudor world is going to be an exciting place to
00:31 be, isn't it? Yes, I mean, we're hoping the audience will be really taken on quite a ride
00:35 during the show. It's definitely a thriller. And yes, I guess quite an oppressive, terrifying
00:44 world, but also exhilarating. It's been being a bit sort of plugged into the matrix when
00:50 you're in the Tudor court, I think, and having to remember what life could be like outside
00:55 of such an exciting world. It sounds fabulous. Now, you are playing a rather neglected, obscure
01:00 character, Anne Berlin's sister Mary. What kind of person was she, as far as we know?
01:06 Well, that's been, it's the big thing. She's quite an enigma. Only two letters actually
01:11 survive written by her. But I guess what we can glean from that, that she was a woman,
01:16 I guess, ahead of her time, like her sister, but operating in a different way, operating
01:21 much more from her heart rather than her head. But everything else we know about her, as
01:28 it is often said, can be written on a postcard with much more room to spare on it, which
01:34 actually gives us the freedom to really make our own interpretation of what Mary was.
01:40 Given that freedom, how are you regarding her? What do you think her key characteristics
01:44 are? Are we thinking of someone who's a survivor, essentially?
01:48 She is, well, to be seen in the production. I don't want to give too much away. She is,
01:53 I think you have to be a survivor in this world, even if you are operating from your
01:57 heart. You all have to operate on the terms of the society, which is it's a ruthless,
02:02 violent, deeply religious, cutthroat world where death is always waiting for you around
02:07 the corner in its various guises through illness or somebody waiting around the corner with
02:12 an axe. But Mary is trying to navigate herself around this world when she is somebody who
02:18 operates primarily from her heart. It is a sensorial world. I mean, everybody's operating
02:22 very much from primal instincts, however much they appear to be attempting to be operating
02:28 from courtly love or from their heads. You know, we're ruled by Henry VIII, an increasingly
02:34 despotic leader who does what he wants when he wants.
02:37 And is she very different to her sister Anne? Are they different characters?
02:41 Yeah, I think they're two sides of the same coin. I think it can often be the case, can't
02:44 it, with siblings, which is what they have in common is that they're both being used
02:48 by their family for political gain. And they both are trying to find agency in this world,
02:56 which I guess is a rebellion in itself. And they choose to do so in very different ways.
03:03 They are two sisters that don't understand each other and operate completely differently.
03:09 But there is, at its heart, love there, but they often do not like each other.
03:15 Well, it sounds a truly thrilling sum up to the summer. Opens in Chichester Festival Theatre
03:21 on April 19th with Lucy as Mary. Really lovely to speak to you. Thank you for your time.
03:26 Thank you for chatting to me.
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