Director Atri Banerjee’s highly acclaimed production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie visits the Coventry Belgrade this month. Actress Geraldine Somerville talks to What’s On about returning to a play in which she first appeared some 35 years ago…

Actress Geraldine Somerville - best known from the Harry Potter movies, the film Gosford Park and as Robbie Coltrane’s long-suffering sidekick DS Jane Penhaligon in hit television series Cracker - is delighted when I tell her she’s made my job easier.

“Oh good! I’m glad I’ve helped somebody already today,” she laughs, before I explain that her latest role gives me an instant angle for our chat. She’s playing matriarch Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee Williams’ classic domestic drama, The Glass Menagerie - the semi-autobiographical tale of a family on the verge of meltdown that kickstarted his playwrighting career. It’s also the play that launched Geraldine’s acting career, as she played the role of the daughter Laura in her first professional gig after leaving acting school in 1989.

To top it off, the latest version of the play, directed by Atri Banerjee, premiered at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, the same theatre where Geraldine made that debut 35 years ago. She giggles again when I suggest that her life has come full circle so she can now retire.

“I did think that, funnily enough!” she laughs. “It did cross my mind that maybe this is the end!”

If this was her final curtain call - and it’s evidently not - then there’d be few better ways to bow out than returning to the incredible world that Tennessee Williams created, she admits.

“When I got that job back in 1989, I was cock-a-hoop because it was my first job after leaving drama school - wonderful theatre, wonderful part, wonderful play. But I probably didn’t appreciate quite how wonderful the play is and what an amazing writer Tennessee Williams is. So I came back to it going ‘Wow, oh my gawd!’”

The deep-south accent she adopts for those last words could almost be Amanda, the overbearing Southern Belle she plays in the show but who Geraldine admits she understands and appreciates so much more now that she herself is a mother (and not just to a certain kid magician!).

“My original take on Amanda was that she was stuck in the past, but then you see she’s a woman who has survived on her own in America during the Depression, bringing up two children in a huge city where she’s unable to work - because women couldn’t - and with a daughter with a disability and no support. So she can’t have been just a flighty little Southern Belle - she must have had some grit to survive that and to have got to where she is.

“I think the challenges with Amanda are that she’s the mother of all mothers - in every respect - but because she’s so vocal, and around a lot in the play, you don’t want to be annoying and irritating; you’ve got to find a way into the character so that she’s appealing in some way. That’s the eternal challenge of playing this part. And you can play her in many different ways.”

And as Geraldine points out, Amanda has rather a lot to say for herself…

“Yes, yes, yes! Laura’s a joy to play because she does so much observation; she’s just quietly there, soaking it all in. Amanda is the engine in a way; she drives the energy and the pace of the play, and that’s quite a responsibility. And oh my God, all those flipping lines!”

Like Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams’ beautifully written work isn’t the sort of script you can adlib your way through when the brain freezes, Geraldine admits.

“He was a poet and his dialogue is so poetic. There’s so much of a rhythm and a rhyme to it, so you really do need to get it right. You can’t just generalise your way through or give an appropriation - not that I would, being the very professional actress that I am! That said, I have been known to come out with some gobbledygook now and again, which is funny because it throws the rhythm out of balance.”

Despite the challenge of such a wordy script, Geraldine had no hesitation in saying yes when offered the chance to reprise the role that she first played when the new production debuted in 2022.

“There aren’t many acting roles in my age group, particularly in great classic plays like this, so it’s a great opportunity. I couldn’t say no!”

Better yet, Atri Banerjee’s production (and Geraldine’s performance) earned rave reviews, not least for offering an innovative new take on the original text - something the actress herself says was apparent from the off.

“I think what was - and is - really joyous about the production, and the design and the way Atri directs, is that it has a very dreamlike quality, because it’s a play of memory, and you can interpret that in so many different ways.”

The staging is “quite stark and pared back, almost ethereal” according to Geraldine, who admits the lack of props meant the actors - as well as their characters - were effectively “floating around in the ether of [narrator] Tom’s memory”.

“That was really interesting and different and fresh and new, but it had its challenges, I have to be honest.

“When I did the production back in 1989, we had props and it looked quite authentically 1937 - which is when it’s set - but we don’t have any of that, so it’s challenging. As an actor you have to really use the text to tell the story - I mean really, really use it - because it isn’t visually going to be delivered to the audience. You’re trying to contextualise time and place, because they are very important in order to have an understanding of the characters.”

The challenge is clearly something she’s relishing though - not least because the new production is much more physical, leaning heavily on movement and symbolism to tell the story.

“It was a new territory for me as an actor. I haven’t done plays for a long time because I’ve been busy with my children, so yes, it was really interesting, and I’m very interested in that kind of work - I like physical stuff.

“It’s a more abstract - or expressionistic, maybe that’s the word - version of the play, which I hope connects with the audience.”

One thing that definitely has connected with an audience - or at least the BAFTA-voting one - is Gorka, a short movie Geraldine recently made alongside David Baddiel. The film was nominated for Best British Short Film at the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards, which were due to take place a few days after we spoke. Had she got her gladrags ready?

“Don’t even get me started! I’ve just rustled up something of my own. The whole thing is crazy.”

"Rustled up’? What, so you made it?

“No, no, no! Just something I had at home - shall we call it ‘vintage’? I do many other things, but sewing definitely isn’t one of them!”

The Glass Menagerie shows at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, from Saturday 16 to Saturday 23 March and Malvern Theatres, Worcestershire, from Tuesday 26 - Saturday 30 March

By Steve Adams