00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil here at Group Arts, Editor at Sussex Newscapers. Now, what
00:06 a fabulously exciting sounding start to the Festival Theatre season in Chichester. We're
00:11 starting with The Other Berlin Girl, based on Philippa Gregory's novel, opens on April
00:16 19th. The Other Berlin Girl is Mary Berlin, and Lucy Phelps, you are Mary. Now, it's an
00:21 extraordinary world you're going to take us into. Violent, superstitious, religious, all
00:27 these things, ruthless, cutthroat, this Tudor world is going to be an exciting place to
00:31 be, isn't it? Yes, I mean, we're hoping the audience will be really taken on quite a ride
00:35 during the show. It's definitely a thriller. And yes, I guess quite an oppressive, terrifying
00:44 world, but also exhilarating. It's been being a bit sort of plugged into the matrix when
00:50 you're in the Tudor court, I think, and having to remember what life could be like outside
00:55 of such an exciting world. It sounds fabulous. Now, you are playing a rather neglected, obscure
01:00 character, Anne Berlin's sister Mary. What kind of person was she, as far as we know?
01:06 Well, that's been, it's the big thing. She's quite an enigma. Only two letters actually
01:11 survive written by her. But I guess what we can glean from that, that she was a woman,
01:16 I guess, ahead of her time, like her sister, but operating in a different way, operating
01:21 much more from her heart rather than her head. But everything else we know about her, as
01:28 it is often said, can be written on a postcard with much more room to spare on it, which
01:34 actually gives us the freedom to really make our own interpretation of what Mary was.
01:40 Given that freedom, how are you regarding her? What do you think her key characteristics
01:44 are? Are we thinking of someone who's a survivor, essentially?
01:48 She is, well, to be seen in the production. I don't want to give too much away. She is,
01:53 I think you have to be a survivor in this world, even if you are operating from your
01:57 heart. You all have to operate on the terms of the society, which is it's a ruthless,
02:02 violent, deeply religious, cutthroat world where death is always waiting for you around
02:07 the corner in its various guises through illness or somebody waiting around the corner with
02:12 an axe. But Mary is trying to navigate herself around this world when she is somebody who
02:18 operates primarily from her heart. It is a sensorial world. I mean, everybody's operating
02:22 very much from primal instincts, however much they appear to be attempting to be operating
02:28 from courtly love or from their heads. You know, we're ruled by Henry VIII, an increasingly
02:34 despotic leader who does what he wants when he wants.
02:37 And is she very different to her sister Anne? Are they different characters?
02:41 Yeah, I think they're two sides of the same coin. I think it can often be the case, can't
02:44 it, with siblings, which is what they have in common is that they're both being used
02:48 by their family for political gain. And they both are trying to find agency in this world,
02:56 which I guess is a rebellion in itself. And they choose to do so in very different ways.
03:03 They are two sisters that don't understand each other and operate completely differently.
03:09 But there is, at its heart, love there, but they often do not like each other.
03:15 Well, it sounds a truly thrilling sum up to the summer. Opens in Chichester Festival Theatre
03:21 on April 19th with Lucy as Mary. Really lovely to speak to you. Thank you for your time.
03:26 Thank you for chatting to me.
03:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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