Foy plays Emily Richardson, a governess to Wain’s younger siblings. The first line uttered to her in the film is: ‘Please get out of the wardrobe Miss Richardson.’ For me, it immediately signalled that this was to be no leaden costume drama
Claire Foy marches nonchalantly into the hotel bar with all the confidence she displayed portraying the Queen in The Crown — wearing fluffy white slippers.
‘It’s so shameful!’ she hooted, explaining that she had ditched her Christian Louboutin stilettos.
They are pretty, she stated. ‘But they’re not meant to be comfortable. They’re meant to be in a cabinet,’ added Foy, admonishing herself for not carrying blister plasters.
This whole carry on with the slippers is delivered with effortless comic timing, reminding me fondly of how we’re first introduced to Foy’s character in her latest film, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the artist who became famous for his drawings and paintings of bug-eyed cats.
Foy plays Emily Richardson, a governess to Wain’s younger siblings. The first line uttered to her in the film is: ‘Please get out of the wardrobe Miss Richardson.’ For me, it immediately signalled that this was to be no leaden costume drama.
Indeed, Foy had said as much to the picture’s director Will Sharpe when he tracked her down while she was shopping at Ikea.
She told him that she didn’t want to be in a period biopic — ‘I’ve got no interest in doing stuff that I’ve done before.’
The beauty of The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is that it explores the artist’s life (and that of Richardson, who was to become his soulmate) in a way that’s wholly engaging and at times deeply moving.
Louis had schizophrenia, but he also suffered from mental illness. ‘The world wants to pigeon-hole people in a particular way, but the director doesn’t,’ said Foy of the way the cinematic project was handled.
The film instead celebrates Wain’s triumph against all odds. His mother and siblings were his sole breadwinner.
Foy’s Emily is at the heart of the film ‘in the sense that she sees Louis very clearly. She does have to be quite steady.’
The actress, in real life, isn’t a cat lover, even though there are many of them in the movie.
The beauty of The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is that it explores the artist’s life (and that of Richardson, who was to become his soulmate) in a way that’s wholly engaging and at times deeply moving
‘It doesn’t mean I don’t like cats,’ she adds quickly. ‘I have a healthy respect for them and really love their disdain for human beings and their superiority.’ Dogs though ‘are just so sweet and loving. Even though I believe a cat can disarm an Atomic Bomb, a dog could eat it. They’re just not on the same playing field.’
Foy and Cumberbatch are great on the screen. ‘I’ve known Ben for ever,’ says Foy of her co-star, explaining that she first met him when they worked on the 2011 film Wreckers.
Shortly after, Sherlock was released (with Cumberbatch as the lead role).
‘I remember watching from a distance as somebody you know becomes globally huge,’ she said of Cumberbatch, who’ll also be seen this season in Jane Campion’s top awards contender The Power Of The Dog.
I point out that she hasn’t done badly, either, playing one of the few people who have had their face on a stamp. Foy received two Emmy Awards for Elizabeth II in The Crown.
Such is the power of the ongoing Netflix series that people are already savaging the next instalment that won’t be shown for 12 months, which doesn’t make much sense.
Foy wonders if people don’t get that The Crown is a drama. After all, she says, it is not the Queen in The Crown, it’s a succession of actresses playing a ‘version’ of her.
In fact, Foy’s thinking of setting up a club for old Queens — the ones who have pretended to be the real HRH. There’s Olivia Colman (‘or God’ as she jokingly calls her) who stepped into the role after Foy; and Imelda Staunton, who will take over as Her Maj in the next series.
Louis was more likely to have suffered from schizophrenia than a mental disorder. ‘The world wants to pigeon-hole people in a particular way, but the director doesn’t,’ said Foy of the way the cinematic project was handled
‘A private members club,’ says Foy. ‘We could also have Helen Mirren [who played her in Stephen Frears’ 2006 film The Queen]Kristin Scott-Thomas because she was the one who played Kristen Stewart on stage. Kristen Stewart was possible to sneak into the room [currently on screen as Princess Diana in Spencer] even though she wasn’t Queen. Maybe we could all have a meal!’
First, she would like to watch The Electrical Life of Louis Wain which is being shown in cinemas from January 1, as well as A Very British Scandal that will air on BBC1 and Amazon. The latter is about the Duchess of Argyll, her many liaisons, and subsequent bitter divorce from the Duke of Argyll ‘which was scandalous and all that jazz’.
Foy says Argyll was a ‘deeply flawed woman, and everything you would expect from the entitled, wealthy debutante of that period’, but she wasn’t the debauched party girl many people assume her to have been (though in the 1980s I used to see her at a lot of nightclubs).
‘It was actually very innocent and frivolous,’ says Foy of the Duchess’s romantic life. ‘Lots of love affairs, but by letter.’
Looking farther ahead, Foy will also be starring in a film about Facebook, and later on there could be one set in the House of Commons — but I’m not sure if its dress code allows for fluffy white slippers.
The comical success Pride And Prejudice (*sort of) a riotous adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel, with five Scottish women in all the roles, has been playing to packed houses at the Criterion Theatre. Global domination awaits. The original West End cast — Isobel McArthur, Christina Gordon, Tori Burgess, Hannah Jarrett-Scott and Meghan Tyler — are planning a world tour in 2022. David Pugh, the producer, confirmed that comedy with hilarious manners would be touring to Toronto, Los Angeles and Melbourne.
The scorching music of real life is a distraction from the reality of everyday living
Beverley Knight’s rationale was simple: if she could portray Emmeline Pankhurst, as she did in a musical called Sylvia at the Old Vic three years ago, she had no objection to a white author writing a show about The Drifters and the woman who ran them.
Knight is Fay Treadwell’s portrayal in The Drifters Girl. The Garrick Theatre has Adam J. Bernard and Tarinn Calender playing Matt Henry, Tosh Wonogho–Maud as the drifters over many decades.
Ed Curtis who created the series told me that even if the cast felt uncomfortable, he would have been willing to step aside.
Knight plays Fay Treadwell at The Garrick Theatre in The Drifters Girls, a scorching musical
‘There’s something going on over who has the right to tell stories,’ Curtis told me.
Curtis began to incorporate elements from what cast members had told him as they talked about their lives.
Callender was a North London-based actor who told the story of what he did when police pulled him over with his BMW. He turns his dashboard camera on and places his hands in front of the car. Then he smiles.
‘I felt it was crucial to include something like that,’ said Curtis. Curtis said that Michael Harrison, the producer of the show, wanted it to entertain (and it is). But it’s also what he calls ‘progressive’, in that it shows some of what Treadwell and The Drifters endured. You won’t believe what you will hear when they sing songs like Saturday Night At The Movies, and others. They’re electrifying.
Pay attention to…
Samantha Barks, pictured as Elsa at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. She will be singing You Must Love Me (Evita)
Samantha Barks, pictured as Elsa at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, is currently playing the role of Samantha Barks. She will be singing You Must Love Me (Evita) as part this afternoon’s memorial to Andre Ptaszynski who passed away last year.
Andrew Lloyd Webber will perform with her as the composer at Cambridge Theatre. Matilda is another production he has been involved in, along with Royal Shakespeare Company. Matilda songwriter Tim Minchin and the show’s cast will also perform.
Mountview students from the stage school will perform songs from Return To The Forbidden Planet.
Theatre producer Nicholas Allott told me that Ptaszynski’s family want guests to sing along to Good Vibrations, one of the late showman’s favourites.
Lolita Chakrabarti’s breathtaking adaptation of Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi, about a boy adrift on a lifeboat on the ocean with a tiger and other animals, which played to packed houses at the Crucible in Sheffield in 2019 and will begin performances at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre on Monday.
Producer Simon Friend took me backstage to show me how the auditorium has been transformed, with a raised stage shaped like a ship’s bow and audience seating lifted up to meet the imaginary sea. Amazing views are available from the upper tier. ‘It’s a piece of escapism that engages so deeply with the heart,’ said Friend.
Lolita Chakrabarti’s breathtaking adaptation of Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi, about a boy adrift on a lifeboat on the ocean with a tiger and other animals, which played to packed houses at the Crucible in Sheffield in 2019 and will begin performances at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre on Monday