Feisty old lady holds her own in play revival in Selsey

Tickets £10 from Brent Lodge Bird & Wildlife Shop in Selsey High Street or from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/artsdreamselsey

In the play, Miss Barwick is a little old lady living in a little old house on some very valuable land. Golden Future Properties think they have got just the offer to persuade Miss Barwick to hand over her keys and move out and if that doesn’t work, well, they have plenty of ways to persuade her. Or so they think… Poor Miss Barwick doesn’t stand a chance. Or does she?

The piece was first produced at The King's Head theatre in Islington some years ago – and Gillian is delighted to be reviving it again now.

“Miss Barwick is in a very old house on very expensive development land. She is in the way and the unscrupulous property developers think she is so old that she's not going to be much trouble. They think what could be simpler than persuading her. However it is not as easy as that. The chap they sent is totally turned around. He knows what he needs to do to get her out but gradually he falls in love with her really. He is seduced by her and there is a big turn-around. In this black comedy the point is that she's got one or two little tricks of her own. I wrote it a decade or so ago and now I'm old enough to play her for the first time.

“I have been in my plays before and I have had to pretend to be somebody else when I've been directing one of my plays and had to do it under a different name. Drama festivals and lots of theatres don't like the director and the writer to be the same person, and I think I can see that point of view! But at least if you are in your own play you know the author's intent. And I do think I can put it into different compartments. You just think of this as an actor, that this is the story and you have to think how best can you serve it. The writing is done. The writing is over. You then have to think how best to serve the play – and it really doesn't at all feel as if I'm reading my own words. But I have updated the script. I have tweaked it here and there and I have changed some of the roles. There are five of us in the cast.”

As for the role: “I guess I have got to get her feistiness and her subterfuge really. I think there's a hidden agenda in every character, and there is with her. She is very sweet but underneath she is quite calculating and I think younger people do sometimes underestimate older people. Sometimes the younger generation don't understand the lives that older people have led, the experiences that they've had and the people that have met but I think Miss Barwick understands so much about the other four people she finds herself in the story with .”