Jamie Hampson is currently part of the cast that is thrilling Royal Court theatre goers that have been going in their droves to see Fred Lawless’ latest monster smash hit A Nightmare on Lime Street. Originally from Halewood she was bitten by the acting bug before she hit her teenage years.
Having completed her training at the famous Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (L.I.P.A.) she has gone on to become one of the rising stars of Liverpool theatre with superb performances in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Macbeth and in Nicky Alt’s You’ll Never Walk Alone to her name. Multi-talented and enjoyable company, there is seemingly nothing that will stop this young actor becoming a house-hold name in years to come.
On a bitterly cold afternoon in Liverpool, Jamie talks of the latest play and the Shakespeare productions at the Royal Court Theatre during the summer and her thoughts on the future.
It is good to be inside the Royal Court Green Room at the moment with the cold weather outside.
“I can’t believe how the temperature has dropped, I feel the cold so easily anyway though. I’m wearing 20 layers (laughs).”
You must get very warmed up though on stage because the play is quite a physical piece?
“Yes it is, I don’t know why but when you get on stage you lose yourself and you forget about the cold and just enjoy it then.”
How do you think A Nightmare on Lime Street has been received?
“All of the feedback that we’ve been given is been fantastic, it seems like everyone really enjoys it. It is a strange one because obviously for a few years now it has been exactly the same cast and a lot of the same people have been doing the show here, so I think we were a little bit…not worried because we knew the audiences are amazing here anyway but it was a bit different, it has changed a little bit this year and we just hoped that other people were ready to accept that and still enjoy it and they have been, they’ve been brilliant. It was just so much fun to do.”
It is a great show to watch. Playing the part of Julie alongside Michael Starke, Mark Moroghan, Lindzi Germain and the other members of the cast, has that bonded you as a team?
“Funnily enough everybody in the team has worked with someone else somewhere along the line. I think there are only one or two people that haven’t worked together before, so we are friends anyway. It’s a tight knit community of actors in Liverpool, everyone knows each other and everyone is really supportive of each other and I have never had trouble in that way, I have always felt like everyone has my back in this community in Liverpool. So it has been easy really, everyone has just slotted in nicely and been getting along really well, It feels like a big family anyway.”
When you first read through the script did it instantly grab you?
“It did yeah, you could see from the first read through that we had something really, really great and that we were going to able to play with. I was excited from the beginning, it was funny and the story is just so out there, who would have thought of a comedy-horror for a Christmas show. Somehow those things, you got a way a making them work, they are just so far from anything else that goes on.”
Were you a fan of the type of comedy-horror genre when you were growing up?
“Yes, at Christmas time I used to go to the Everyman Theatre Rock ‘N’ Roll Pantomimes as they were my thing but in general, theatre wise, I have always had a very eclectic taste, there has never been just one area that I have wanted to go into or one are that I have wanted to go and see. I have always been quite focused at different genres and being involved with different things.”
You have been at the Royal Court a lot this year; you did Macbeth and A Midsummer’s Night Dream. How different is the process for you to go from incredible Shakespeare to great Christmas Fare?
“Well it’s worlds apart really. The great thing about those shows is that I have been, even though they were so polar opposite in terms of the process and the actual production, the team here is a good team and good people and it’s not scary in anyway, it’s a challenge going in to the Shakespeare. I mean to play Hermia was like a dream role. It was so much fun and I was thriving on that. Shakespeare’s language and everything about it was just fulfilling and brilliant and to come to this play which is a lot less heavy and physical and fun and being in the moment.
The show itself is very technical of lights and sound but for me and the other actors on stage it is just having a laugh which is so refreshing and so nice. I think with shows like the Shakespeare ones, you put a lot of pressure on yourself as you think that the roles have been played by some pretty amazing people. Also bringing Shakespeare back to the Royal Court for the first time in 20 odd years was a big deal and we wanted it to be really good and to touch people and for them to feel to feel like that this was something the Royal Court could give.”
The shows were presented in such a way that may have differed to what the audiences were expecting, especially Macbeth, and yet was possibly one of the most dark portrayals on stage possible.
“They were pretty dark yes; I think it was important for the Royal Court and what they wanted for it to be accessible for young people of today and not to be a period adaptation of it. It is so accessible, the story of it is universal, they will carry on forever and forever as they can be applied to life at any time. It is real human problems, real human issues that will always be needed to be tackled. A show like Macbeth, both of my characters were pretty hard-core and the things that Lady Macduff experiences in the story are horrific and sadly things like that still goes on!”
There was a moment on stage where the kill the baby where the fear and the anguish on your face was so real, was that a hard thing to do?
“The thing that was difficult about it was revisiting that moment every night. I hoped that people still saw it as new and it was real, when obviously it was completely not. Even though I am not a mum, I was surprised that I found it quite easy to that motherly place and to find that instinct within me. I know how my mum feels about me, we have had some pretty amazing women in our family and we are quite close knit so I know how it is to be that close to someone. It was such a visual moment to see Zane, the actor who played the murderer, walk over and physically use his fists to do it. To see that, to imagine that it was your loved one there helps a lot, it’s not just something you have got to keep in your head.”
What does 2013 hold for you?
“I am actually free for the year for the moment. My first year and half since leaving University has been really full and exciting. I moved to London in January and I was in a play there and joined a band so hopefully that’s going to continue as well. I have some music things coming up but theatre wise I don’t have anything booked yet. This play has just been extended till the 26th January. I would love to get some T.V. work just for the fact it is a different experience to the theatre.”
How do you see your acting and your music, are they two different entities?
“Sort of, what I see in performance and being an artist quite deeply. I feel I always want to do work that is going to touch people or show something new or give the audience something to take away. In that sense I hope the music and acting will always follow each other and I can always do that or have the chance to do that. They both fulfil me in different ways. I put more pressure on myself as an actor to get into the part properly and listen and respond in the scene, whereas with the music it is a lot more carefree. I just enjoy singing and I have started learning the keyboards so hopefully there will be a lot more of that.
Audiences can catch Jamie Hampson at the Royal Court Theatre in A Nightmare on Lime Street.
Ian D. Hall