Written by multi-award winning playwright Katy Warner, and brought to FRINGE WORLD by New Ghosts Theatre Company, Paper Doll promises to enthral audiences and challenge some preconceived notions.
We had a chat with cast member Hayley Pearl in the lead-up to the show’s run.
GC: What was it about this play that first interested you?
HP: Initially I said yes without reading the whole play, I was working at the time with the director Lucy Clements, and I was excited to get an opportunity to work with her again. She gave me a solid outline of the themes of the play and I’d been interested in doing a similar production called Blackbird so I jumped at it!
Image courtesy of FRINGE WORLD
GC: What can you tell us about your character?
HP: She seems on the surface to be a confident, functioning woman but once the cracks start to appear we see a complex, troubled, confused, and broken human being, who is struggling to find her own identity and independence.
GC: Paper Doll was written in response to Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge - do you think it’s important for audience members to be familiar with that play? If not, why not?
HP: Although Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge was the inspiration for Paper Doll, I honestly don’t think it’s important to have read or seen the production, ultimately it’s a play about relationship dynamics and love, themes we can all resonate with on a personal level.
GC: How would you describe the issues this show explores and the way it explores them?
HP: It is an incredibly confronting play on many levels. It will challenge your ideas on the dynamics of relationships between adults and children, and the responsibilities we have to ourselves and others when it comes to love and nurture.
GC: What has been the most challenging aspect of your character or the narrative?
HP: Finding her vulnerability within her strength, she is a traumatised child hidden behind the mask of adulthood.
GC: What do you hope for audiences to take from seeing this performance?
HP: That life and its experiences are not binary. We tend to judge things quickly from what we see on the surface, but there are often so many underlying factors.
GC: Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?
HP: This play is dark, gripping and bold. It will challenge you, but be open. This is the type of play you’ll be thinking about for a couple of days, as it’s such an affecting and incredible work.
Paper Doll runs 12 to 16 February at The Blue Room Theatre. Get tickets here.