Harold Fry offers a "very British" musical in Chichester

SussexWorld

Jenna Russell returns to Chichester to play Maureen Fry in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, the new musical which opens the Minerva season this year (May 5-June 14)

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now this

00:06is exciting, the first interview of the new season, the 2025 season at Churches Festival

00:11Theatre. Lovely to speak again to Jenna Russell, who was here three years ago in a fabulous

00:16eight-porn. This time it's the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry in the Minerva Theatre, which

00:22Jenna, you haven't been in before.

00:24No, I've not. I've sat as an audience member, but I've not been in anything. Very exciting.

00:29As a performer, what makes the Minerva appealing as you are contemplating this show, this new

00:35piece?

00:36New piece? Well, it's the intimacy of the space that I love. I'm a big fan of having an audience

00:43close by. I've never been afraid of looking in the whites of other people's eyes. In fact,

00:48I quite relish it. So it's always nice. And also it's, you know, virtually in the round,

00:55which is always a lovely thing because there's nowhere to hide. And I like that. I like that. I

01:02like watching things that close and in that sort of major thrust environment. I like it very much.

01:11Sounds fascinating, especially as the starting point, as you and Mark, as Harold, are very shut

01:17tough couple, aren't you? And then a big adventure happens that, as you were saying,

01:23forces you to look outwards, to open your eyes.

01:26Yeah. Open your eyes, look out and feel some hope again when you think that maybe you'll

01:32never feel that. You know, it's second chances and forgiveness. There's a lot of that in the

01:40in the show. Gently, you know, we can carry pain forever, but letting go of it's very hard.

01:48And that's the point, there is unspoken, but shared trauma between them, isn't it?

01:52Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But like I said to you, you know, every family has, has a story. Every,

02:00every family has a, a, a, a trauma in their backgrounds or things that they may not talk about,

02:08or when they do, you know, you're never quite sure what the truth is, what the, what's been

02:15imagined, what's been retold through time. That's the beautiful thing about drama, isn't

02:21it? You just have these delicate tales.

02:24But in a way, you've got the tougher journey. Harold has the literal, literal journey, doesn't

02:28he? Whereas you stay at home.

02:30I stay at home. I stay at home and fester a bit. But that'll be interesting as well, because

02:37it, you know, I think there'll be lots of, lots of movement and lots of colour, because

02:43all the people that Harold meets on his journey are kind of normal people, but extraordinary

02:47people, you know, who, who have knowledge to pass on. And Maureen's journey is a, is a quieter,

02:56subtler thing, but that might be nice in contrast to, um, the, the outward journey that Harold's

03:05making, um, and, and Maureen is, is, is happening inside our house and kind of taking a deep

03:13breath and trying to move on that way.

03:16Well, it sounds a really enticing, appealing start.

03:20It's gorgeous. It's really gorgeous.

03:22It's really lovely to speak to you.

03:24And you.

03:25Thank you ever so much.

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