Mother’s instinct tested
South Wales Evening Post, February 2010
CARDIFF-based actress Lisa Zahra carves out another heavy-duty lead role, appearing in Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, from Fluellen, at Swansea Grand Theatre, tonight.
Last year saw Lisa, aged 28, taking lead roles in Black Rat’s production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as playing the romantic lead in Romeo and Juliet with Rada on the Queen Mary II.
She says her latest role stretches different acting muscles.
“It is Brecht, so it is more like storytelling than a play,” she says. “If we had a full cast it would feature 80 characters, so the actors here are playing several roles, except for me because I’m the lead – Grusha.
“She is an interesting character, because at the beginning of the story she saves this baby, out of instinct – because she knows you can’t leave a baby behind when there is danger and confusion all around. But it is only when the mother comes back that she realises she has this bond with the child.
“And it becomes and emotional role to play at that point as well, because for most of the play I'm carrying a doll in a shawl on my body, but when the mother comes back we have a little boy, Morgan Davies-Walker, from Jill Williams’ Class Act Theatre school, in the role.
“And it is lovely for me to play opposite him at that point.”