When
Julie Hesmondhalgh left Coronation Street in 2014 after playing Hayley Cropper
for sixteen years, she didn’t have a clue what would happen next. After being
on the nation’s TV screens every night, suddenly she was a jobbing actor again.
The fact that Hayley herself had become iconic as the first serious depiction
of a trans character in mainstream TV drama made things potentially even
harder. Given that Hesmondhalgh is both a brilliant actress and clearly one of
the warmest people to walk this earth, she needn’t have worried. As it is, what
happened next saw the Accrington-born actress come home on very level.
“I
asked my husband to write me a play,” says Hesmondhalgh of her request to her
actor/writer hubby Ian Kershaw, whose stage work has been seen at theatres
including the Royal Exchange, Manchester and the Lowry, Salford, while TV
credits include Shameless, EastEnders, and of course Corrie. “I said to him,
whatever it is, write it so it doesn’t have to be a particular age, so when we’re
in our seventies we can bring it out and take it anywhere.”
The
result is the wonderfully titled The Greatest Play in the History of the World…,
a seventy-minute charm offensive running throughout August at the Traverse
Theatre. In what is essentially a piece of dramatised story-telling, Hesmondhalgh
confides what happens in the small hours one night on the Preston Road in
Manchester when time appears to stand still at 4.40am precisely. Out of this
freak occurrence comes a series of inter-connected incidents that bring people
together in unexpected ways.
“It’s
a love story,” Hesmondhalgh says. “It’s about love, fate and what’s meant to be
and what’s not meant to be.”
Key to
Kershaw’s play is The Golden Record, the vinyl compilation of sounds from earth
intended as a time capsule launched into space by NASA on the two Voyager
spacecrafts in 1977 lest any extra-terrestrials stumble upon it.
“It’s
about how we tell the story of earth to others,” says `Hesmondhalgh of the show,
co-produced by Tara Finney Productions and the Royal Exchange. The latter of
these is the second strand of what is essentially a family affair.
“The
Royal Exchange is my theatre, really,” Hesmondhalgh says. “It’s the theatre I
grew up watching stuff when I was a teenager, and I did Mother Courage there,
so it really does feel like coming home.”
On
one level, Mother Courage is a long way from Hayley. Both, however, are mighty
roles.
“I
thought I’d be at Corrie forever,” says Hesmondhalgh, “but leaving set me off
on a different path. I didn’t know how things were going to go, but the first
thing I got offered was a Simon Stephens play. I hadn’t done theatre for years,
and was really scared of it, and then I did a stage version of a play I’d done
on the radio called The Killing of Sophie Lancaster, and I thought seriously
about leaving Corrie then. In the end it was the perfect time to go. I loved
playing Hayley, but as a cis woman playing a trans man, I think eventually that
would have become an anachronism, but I’m really proud of what we did with
Hayley. I don’t think it can be underestimated how much art, especially popular
art, can change attitudes. People were really rooting for Hayley and Roy, and
even though it was just me in my red anorak, I think it made a huge difference.”
Beyond
The Greatest Play in the History of the World…, Hesmondhalgh will shortly be
seen in the new series of Sharon Horgon and Rob Delaney’s comedy drama,
Catastrophe, as well as in Mike Leigh’s film, Peterloo. As for The Greatest Play
in the History of the World…, “It leaves you thinking about life,” she says, “and
about what legacy we all leave behind, but in a funny way.”
The
Greatest Play in the History of the World…, Traverse Theatre until August 26,
various times.
The Herald, August 9th 2018
ends
Comments