|
ELAINE CASSIDY
by Mark Shenton
 Age: 26. "My birthday is New Year's Eve; I was born in the last hours of 1979."
Currently: Playing the pivotal role of the 17-year-old Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Abigail is discovered conjuring spirits in the forest with other girls, which leads to an unravelling of the entire community.
Hometown: Wicklow, near Dublin. "It's more like a suburb of Dublin. It depends on traffic, but if there's none, it's about a 40 minute drive to the city." For the past two years, however, home for Cassidy has been London, though for the year before that she was living here on and off, too.
Bitten by the Performing Bug: Cassidy was just three years old when she first discovered the joy of having all eyes focused on her. "My uncle was in an amateur play in this village hall and there were these people onstage, but I was wandering around and suddenly I flicked the switch on that turned the lights on in the auditorium Everyone looked at me!" she laughs. "I have a feeling that I must have subconsciously worked out somehow that the attention had shifted from the stage onto me." Becoming an actress was something that she put into her sights early on. "I was always playing dress up and stuff and working on plays and make-believe and living in my own fantasy world," she recalls. By the age of eight, Cassidy was in a drama group. She later attended a Saturday school run by Debbie Sheenan that nurtured young talents and put them up for roles in films being made locally in the thriving Irish film industry. "I did a short film when I was 15," Cassidy says, "and that led me to my first feature film, The Sun, the Moon and the Stars."
Fleeing an Office Fate: "I always thought if could make my hobby my job, it would be great, but whenever I looked into the future, I just saw an office job," Cassidy exclaims. "I was being realistic. It was always my desire to act, and the fact that I'm able to make a living from it now is just something else." However, she never had any formal training: "I applied to two places and didn't get in," she notes. "I got into a computer course instead." But another film intervened, so she deferred the computer training for a year, and never did it. The film was Felicia's Journey, and it would prove to be her big break. "I had three auditions for it, and then I had to wait forever," she remembers. "I was down to the last two, but by the time I found out I had got the part, the excitement had long gone. But if I hadn't have got it, it would have been awful knowing I got so close." And it's a job that even more importantly led to others-including such films as Disco Pigs, The Others, The Bay of Love and Sorrow and The Truth.
 Dashing Debut: Cassidy's first professional theatre job was in the cast of the West End transfer of the RSC's production of Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore in 2002 (currently, coincidentally, transferring in a different production from off-Broadway's Atlantic Theatre to Broadway). The director was Wilson Milam. "I met Wilson a year or two previous to doing that-he was directing a play, and I was offered it, but I was doing a film called The Others, so I couldn't do it-and then Lieutenant came up, and I couldn't remember that I'd met him. When he reminded me, it all made sense." Why was she keen to do theatre, at last? "I thought it was quite nice to try something quite different, where your whole body is acting. In film, it is predominantly your face. I'm still learning all the time, of course," she says. " I'm just gathering all the material, and I still have years and years and years to go. I'm trying to skill up more and more and more with each job I do."
Learning the Ropes: Her next stage job took her to the National Theatre, where she appeared in another Irish-set play, Scenes from the Big Picture, directed by Peter Gill, who provided her with even more valuable experience. "I love Peter Gill so much," Cassidy gushes. "He's such a teacher. Sometimes I didn't know why he was saying certain things, but I just needed to pay attention, because he's a far more intelligent man than me, and I just knew there was wisdom. It's all running around my body now. Working first for the RSC and then the National at such a young age is quite an achievement. "People would say to me how amazing it must be, but because of where I grew up, if I were working at the Abbey or the Gate it would have been like I'd made it," Cassidy explains. "So, no disrespect, and I have more understanding of what it means now, but at the time it was, "RSC, yeah, whatever!"" It was my ignorance. But I've still not worked at the Gate or the Abbey. I did have a chance to work at the Gate once, though, and it was that typical thing of you wait for a bus and it doesn't come and then three come at once. I had three job offers all at once." Now she's back with the RSC, and again in the West End with them, working in The Crucible; "Technically, the most I've learnt ever is on this job. And even if I had gone to college, it's still very difficult. You could learn the technical side of things at college, but when it comes to working with the director, each job is completely different, so it's like you're doing it for the first time."
Feeling the Words: Cassidy feels the key difference between theatre and film is language. "In the theatre, you're just a vessel to get the writer's words out of your mouth. I've never done a bad play, and I never plan on doing one, but of all the plays I've done, if it's good writing, you are going to have to just feel it and let the writing do the work. In a film, it's all about how its shot and the director and the designer and you're just one part of the big picture. I love both, but when I go to the theatre, I don't like it being too different from naturalism. That's my personal taste, but I get offended when people are forcing things on me; I like observing people's feelings, and I try to bring that to the stage when I'm working there, too."
On Cooke and The Crucible: "Someone said that [director] Dominic [Cooke] has the perfect balance between intellect and heart. He's cast [The Crucible] brilliantly." She is particularly impressed by star Iain Glen. "He's the driving force of the play," she says, "but he's very humble about it and generous with it and you never feel it's his play." Cassidy notes the significance of the play to today's audiences." It's set in 1692, but it is so relevant to now. You could get the Bush government and slot them into Salem and it would be seamless!"
Runaway Train: "My character gets on a train and she just can't get off," Cassidy says of her character, who can be described as the vehicle that drives the play. "Her natural instinct is, "I'm not going to die. I'm going to survive." So she doesn't have time to sit down and think. What she does is instinctive. She can't backtrack and she has to go with it."
Impinging Abigail: Cassidy recently recovered from a stint of vocal strain. "Vocally this play is very demanding and everyone's tired," she says. "It's life and death from the word go, and I didn't have a chance to warm up one night and it shouldn't have happened but it did, but I've recovered now. It was like twisting an ankle; I just needed to rest. I have to go straight home every night-I don't get to go to the pub. Abigail is infringing on my life, though. She's taking everything from me including my energy and my voice. I have to be careful. She'll have every inch of me if she had the chance!"
© Theatre.com
|
|
• 
• 
me & it will be promptly taken care of. I am not affiliated with Elaine Cassidy, her family or anyone who represents or works with her. For full terms and conditions, please check out the 
