OK. Grand. I'm Niamh Cusack, I'm an actor, and I play Lenu in My Brilliant Friend.
I'm Catherine McCormack, I'm an actor also, and I play Lila in My Brilliant Friend.
I thought it would be a real adventure to do it.
They're four books squashed into two plays,
so it's an epic journey that our two characters go on.
– That was part of the thrill, wasn't it? – It was.
Knowing that you were going to be playing women
from the age of six,
all the way through to your 60s.
They're hugely well-loved books.
There's an intimidation with that
but, you know, you rely on the fact that your director has cast you,
has offered you the part, so they've seen something in you.
Something I think is really useful, if you're a student of acting
and if you're trying to work out how to get into a character,
I always think to myself,
'Where does my character say "yes" and I, as a person, say "no"?'
You start to try and make comparisons
between who you are and what you can bring to it –
your way in to playing that part.
There's a liberation, one, in obviously jumping off of yourself
and playing someone who is unlike you.
I have quite a lot of fear and anxiety.
It works differently for me, that fear, in life – it probably cows me.
But with Lila,
it does the opposite.
Her rage against the world,
like it's all about trying to keep that fear from overwhelming her.
So, that kind of crossing over, although I react very differently,
it was very helpful to go, 'Oh, well, I know that feeling.'
The two-week break is quite a break.
When we come back, we get together and we do a line run, all of us,
and actually, that's really important.
Otherwise, I would go on terrified, I think.
It's kind of for security,
because we've done so much work on this and it's in our bodies,
and your bodies are actually pretty reliable.
You have to have faith as an actor –
you've practised it, you've understood it,
you've embodied it and that it'll stay there in your body for quite some time.
Every performance is a different one.
You work within guidelines of all the rehearsal and what you know the story is
and your script is and you never go too far from that, obviously –
you can't and you don't want to.
But once you've rehearsed it, you come in every night with your stresses of the day
or you've had a great day, so you bring a different energy to things.
So, you're not always sticking directly, trying to hit a certain thing –
although that works for some actors.
– You play off of the other person's energy. – That's the big thing.
As a young actor, or as any actor actually, there's a great relief in that.
It's not all about you.
The exciting thing is you trying to connect with another person.
When I'm feeling tired and under, I try, and I don't always succeed,
I try to come in a wee bit earlier
and just be on stage for a wee bit longer doing a warm-up,
but also just, I sometimes find coming into the auditorium
and walking round the seats, having a look at it,
and just feeling this is my place.
I think recognising when you're a bit tired is a good thing
because then you can just do a little bit more preparation.
Actors are all, obviously, very different
about how they approach the preparation to going on, and we do do a warm-up.
Often, I have a thing
where I like to be distracted off-stage till the very last minute before I go on.
So, laughing, making a joke, trying to forget I'm about to walk on stage.
Sometimes when I think too much about it, I then begin to go, 'Oh, my God!'
The nerves build up. It just seems to work for me.
I have to take a couple of seconds
just to, not think what I'm going to do, but just be still.
I think the best performances come when you're really relaxed,
because then you really can listen.
Previews, press nights,
they're all about kind of playing and trying to discover what it is.
We're always going to be nervous at those press nights.
Now, I feel like there's a level of relaxation of playing those parts.
So, I'm happiest a few weeks down the line
when we've been playing it and then I go... (SIGHS)
It's quite a big ask, this play, in terms of the length of time it covers.
The sooner you start work on it,
the more possibility there is of it just coming in through your pores,
and know that it's a process that never stops.
It's not like winning a race. It keeps on going.
That's right up to the last day, so you're right, another...
It's always going to... And that's the beauty of it.
It's really important to have down time,
where you're not concentrating all the time.
Things percolate when you're not thinking about it directly.
There is a depth and a profundity
to having particularly a great speech or a great play, living with it.
Just let it live there in you.
Every character you ever play stays with you for the rest of your life,
and I think that's a beautiful thing to hold.