Chichester's Top Hat: "Oh my gosh, those costumes and those wigs!"

Lindsay Atherton is loving all the freedom of her return to Chichester Festival Theatre in Top Hat (until Saturday, September 6).

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, group arts editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely

00:06this afternoon to speak to Lindsay Atherton. Now, you are in Top Hat in Chichester this

00:11summer, Chichester Festival Theatre, and you've earned a bit of normality amid all the glamour,

00:15haven't you? Because last time you were here was South Pacific, just as we were all navigating

00:20a return to theatre after the pandemic. And there were all sorts of constraints with South

00:25Pacific, which you've been able to cast aside. Freedom this time, haven't you? Yeah, it's

00:31been amazing to come back and return to Chichester and have the expanse to be able to use, you

00:39know, this time. And then that intimacy as well, and being able to really throw ourselves

00:43into that. Yeah. How do you look back on South Pacific? Because it was such a strange time,

00:49wasn't it? And yet you managed. It was really wholesome, in a nutshell. The way that we were

00:55kind of nurtured back into that space was done with such care. And, you know, Chichester is always

01:02like that. You always feel so taken care of here. But the, yeah, we had, we had our booths, we had

01:09things that would help us maintain the social distancing. But also when it came to reconnecting

01:16with other humans in such a vulnerable space as you do when you're acting, that was done

01:22so beautifully that I think then what we had in the end was, was something even deeper than

01:30maybe we would have got if we'd been used to it, you know, because it felt so much bigger

01:36than, than, because we weren't able to do it. Well, it was extra significance, wasn't it,

01:40in such difficult times. Yeah. But now you can enjoy Chichester in a really unfettered way,

01:46in a fantastically glamorous musical. It's just great, isn't it? Why is it working so

01:50well top hat, do you think? I think because it has a bit of everything. It's got the cheek

01:55and the charm. You know, the wit, the patter in the dialogue is, is just, you can't help but

02:01laugh. And the characters are so well written. And you fall in love with them. I think everyone

02:07can see a bit of themselves in each, you know, in, in each character. Um, but also the music

02:13just sweeps you up into a different world. And the costumes, like I said, like, honestly,

02:19when you put them on, you are transported back into that era. It makes you walk differently.

02:25It makes you talk differently. Um, and it just feels...

02:28Your alter ego, is what you're saying?

02:29Yes. Yes. My alter ego that comes out.

02:32Fantastic.

02:33A love for the, uh, overture. Yeah.

02:36Brilliant. Well, congratulations on a brilliant show. Really lovely to speak to you. And how

02:41fantastic that you're going to live with this show for the next eight months, culminating

02:45in Paris next springtime. Congratulations on that. And great to be too.

02:48Thank you so much. I'm excited. Nice to speak to you too.