Anything but child's play

1:25pm Friday 22nd February 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Our man Rick Bowen meets Maxine Peake

THERE was a period in the early 90s, when the Royal Exchange Theatre seemed obsessed with churning out period play after period play.

That was the reason why the Studio theatre was created, as a venue for more modern and challenging work. But this famous venue has never lost sight of the fact that there is still scope to be different on the main stage and this season is a case in point, firstly with A Conversation and now with The Chilldren's Hour, featuring former Shameless star Maxine Peake.

Careless talk ruins lives in Lillian Hellman's play, set in a girls school in 1930s New England. Maxine plays Karen Wright, who runs the establishment with a woman called Martha Dobie. The school, built up by Karen and Martha from scratch, is a resounding success, until one of the students, motivated by malice, starts spreading rumours about Karen and Martha.

What made her want to appear in this play?

"It's such a fantastic piece - and the last revival was about ten years ago at the National Theatre. These opportunities don't come along that often and I wanted to work with the director again. Charlotte Emmerson, who is playing Martha, is one of my really good friends anyway so it had quite a few plus points," says the 33 year old, Bolton born actress.

They say you need to be versatile to make it in the acting profession and Maxine has certainly proved she's just that, playing everyone from the dim "Twinkle" in Victoria Wood's sitcom Dinnerladies to the monstrous Myra Hindley in the harrowing ITV drama See No Evil. Maxine was fresh out of drama school when she landed the role in Dinnerladies. What was it like, working with a comedy icon like Victoria Wood?

"That was nerve racking, because that was my first job after drama school. I don't think it really sunk in until I finished and I thought I've just worked with Victoria Wood. It was a brilliant learning experience. Her scripts are like music and if you get a word wrong it does sound out of key," she says. Rick Bowen * The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman is at the Royal Exchange Theatre from March 5 until April 5 at 7.30pm, including matinees. Tickets are available from 0161 833 9833. For the full interview, see the April edition of Lifestyle magazine.