Delighted to be back in Chichester after acclaimed 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.

“I was in The Crucible at the National from September to November last year so I was already a fan of his writing at least. But The Crucible is very, very different. It's very large acts, basically four large scenes but with this one it's like it's really moving like the ocean with people constantly coming in and out. And the fact that it's set on the docks is great. There are people entering and exiting quickly all the time.”

But certainly it still feels like Miller: “I love the foreshadowing that he does, the mirroring he does. You hear something and then it is significant later. There's a point where Eddie says ‘I wanted the best for you’, and he says it twice but each time it is very, very different,

“People say that I'm in my Miller era which is hilarious but it really is a lot of fun and I was saying to Luke who plays Rodolfo in this that if you're not totally genuine and truthful in what you are saying, that if you are not to a T truthful, then it immediately feels eggy. These characters have their hearts on their sleeves all the time. They are very vulnerable but they're all in such tricky situations because of the dynamic that they have created. You can't point to a villain in this play which is what makes it exciting. You can't say Catherine is the villain and you can't say Eddie is the villain. All the characters are just trying to get through their lives as best they can. But Catherine is complex. I very quickly discovered that she has got all the teenage hormones, all that need for freedom and that need to explore but she has no lightning rod. She has not got out a lot and she has all that teenage angst and the only logical place for that to go is towards Eddie but that is complicated because Eddie is her uncle. She is very innocently in dangerous waters. It is so confusing and so uncomfortable for her and it is not just that she is drawn to him. It is just this really weird complicated set-up that they have.”

Rachelle’s Chichester return will revive plenty of happy memories of Our Generation: “We all worked so hard on that story. Everyone was so integral to it. It really was such an ensemble piece. And I think it was so important.” It focused on young people's voices before and into the pandemic: “Young kids get so much flack for being either lazy or not knowing how to respect their elders but you forget that they had their childhood interrupted in such a horrible way by the pandemic and there are so many knock-on effects that we are feeling now and still discovering now. I would love to be with those characters again. They're all angels and we're still in touch. We have got group chat upon group chat and we still celebrate each other’s wins and what each other are doing.”