Love Monologue Sunday with Creative Electric. Plug the heaters in and get the scripts out! Sundays in the winter will be just fine ♥

27

Photography & Blog by Lynne Jefferies

Creative Electric, young company members Lynne Jefferies and Robbie Gordon were recently given the opportunity to attend the press and social media call for National Theatre of Scotland’s new piece 27, in co production with the Lyceum Theatre.  Directed by Vicki Featherstone. 27 is a new play from acclaimed writer Abi Morgan about loneliness, ageing, science and the loss of our sense of self.

Dr Richard Garfield has given Ursula a difficult choice. She is the Mother Superior in waiting of a convent that has been given the opportunity to take part in his revolutionary scientific study. This American study would require that the Nuns donate their brains after death to potentially unlock the mysteries of Alzheimer’s and dementia. 

Ursula must weigh up the value of preserving her faith, versus embracing science. 

The study is agreed and Richard and his team come to the convent every year to test the Nuns who are willing to take part. This union will change their lives forever. For Ursula, with the impending pressure of taking over the ailing convent, the study brings more challenges than she could ever have imagined and rocks her faith and her hitherto cloistered existence to its core.

Drawing on research contained within the book and study Aging with Grace, 27 is an extraordinary examination of a lifestyle in decline, but it could hold the key to the issues of our times – our ageing population and the decline of our minds.

We were really privileged to be able to speak to two members of the cast, Maureen Beatie who plays Sister Ursula Mary and  Emma Heartly-Miller who plays Audrey Marie and the director Vicky Featherstone who kindly answered our questions.

How did visiting the convent affect your work on this piece?

Vicky Featherstone: Hugely! In the first place in a play like this you trust the writer, Abi Morgan, has done the work to create a real world, but you know the nuns in out play are not the way I expected nuns to be. There not obsessed about religion ad talking about it like you think they would be, they talk about their daily life and concerns. Going to the convent was an amazing experience all these women living together, it converted in a way despite ourselves! These women who live together have this real bond and a real sense of community, and their very funny, their very witty… One of them even recognised Nicholas Le Prevost from midsummer murders, and they were really star struck! It just struck us how pure, beautiful, kind and generous they are. You can tell we were all really bowled over by them!

Creative electric is a young company for teenagers in the local area, how did you get into theatre and acting?

Emma Heartly-Miller: When I was little I was in the school choir, I was picked to do a solo for Joseph and his Techni-coloured Dream Coat at the Edinburgh Playhouse with Phillip Scofield, which was like, wow! And he was doing Gordon the Gofer the time! I was also involved in more musical theatre side of things until I joined Lyceum Youth Theatre and that was really the first time I realised I could do this as a career! Think I was about 15, the work we were doing really made me think, it gave me the chance to develop myself as an actor and try different things. I’m so happy to be back at the Lycuem!

Maureen Beattie: My father is in the business he’s an actor, so it was a bit like if your fathers a plumber you’ll be a plumber! I wanted to be a chorus girl you know, all the glamorous costumes, but then I fell in love with Shakespeare and went on to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and went through the drama school route.

What would be the main piece of advice you would give to young actors hoping to make it in the business?

Maureen Beattie Don’t be deterred! You’ll find out soon enough that people will always think you can’t do it, and their will be many things to distract. But you want to be celebrated, not celebrity; famous for the sake of being famous. Theres a line in Hamlet; don’t be cut short, don’t give up because that’s when opportunity will come along and you wont be ready for it. Really take it seriously.

Emma Heartly-Miller I would say you’ve got to be prepared to sacrifice a lot and you’ve got to really want it, be prepared for being in your mid late twenties and your life plan having not worked out! Just be prepared that if you want to do it and it’s the most important thing than it does come above everything else and there will be sacrifices for that.

Maureen Beatie: and just to say, sorry we're on a bit of a roll here, I really feel passionate about it! This is a job where you are unbelievabley lucky when you do it-your performance of an evening live in front of people and change people’s life’s, that doesn’t happen everyday! But there’s been times where I’ve been on stage and I’ve known the production I’m in has changed peoples lives, they (the audience) were thinking differently, they were lifted six inches off their seat, and we are so lucky to e able to do  that! It’s a fantastic job, its just amazing and to be on stage and hear that first ripple of laughter tear through an auditorium.. there’s just nothing like it.