Feature: Nina Brazier tells Dan Carrier how she got involved in a new play at the Pleasance Theatre
Director Nina Brazier
Published: 17 May, 2012
by DAN CARRIER
When directors takes on a play, they normally sit down with the producer and the person in charge of casting, read the script and then either approach actors they think will fit the part or hold auditions.
But for a new production of Amy Rosenthal’s Henna Night, which opened on Tuesday at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington, the two leads – Claire Cartwright and Annabel Norbury – decided to put the play on and then addressed the question of finding a director. The answer was Nina Brazier.
“The two had got together to do the play and they were looking for a director,” Islington-based Nina recalls.
“They interviewed me – it is an unusual way of doing it and actually quite risky.
I was fortunate that the women were very talented and capable. Normally I would select the play and then the people to go in it – but this time it has been the other way round.”
Henna Night tells the story of two women thrown together in trying circumstances.
Recently dumped by Jack, Judith leaves a desperate answerphone message, hinting at both pregnancy and suicide, expecting him to come running.
However, it is Ros, the other woman, who arrives, just as Judith has started a DIY henna treatment.
Confronted with the woman who has “stolen her life”, sparks start to fly between chaotic Judith and dependable Ros.
But despite their differences, it is clear that they are two women who, under different circumstances, could have become friends.
Nina has a background in theatre but has more recently been directing operas, and has a reputation for directing new writing. “I really enjoy working with writers and you feel like you are taking part in something completely new,” she says. “With new writing it felt particularly like a choice but also it is because it is what people come to me for.”
She once directed Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, but that’s the only traditional piece she has done.“Amy writes this very insightful and fast-moving dialogue,” she says. “It has to be properly paced so you capture the nuances and moments.”
• Henna Night is at the Pleasance Theatre, Carpenters Mews, North Road, N7, until May 20, 020 7609 1800, www.pleasance.co.uk/islington