It takes two to truly make a conversation, to sit and chat without the meaning being lost and the understanding being stilted and diluted, watered down and the froth of life being spluttered upon and half drawn conclusions met.

Meeting up with Jennifer Bea ahead of her performance in the Jim Cartwright play Two, you cannot help but be struck by the fire that dances in the eyes, of the absolute determination to bring a character to life. Even if you have had the honour of knowing Ms. Bea for a while, that fire catches you out and you cannot help but be drawn to it, like a moth serenading a flame, you know that time is short but you revel upon every word.

For Jennifer Bea, a woman whose performances have captured the imagination no matter the situation, a return to the Lantern Theatre is  a welcome prospect and to work on a Jim Cartwright play, an obvious thrill. I ask her:

It must be quite an honour to be part of a Jim Cartwright play!

JB: “It is, it’s an absolutely amazing play. I think every actor must have studied it at one point in their life so I think everyone wants to have a go at it but it’s an amazing play. It’s so real, it’s so dramatic, it’s funny and it’s got everything in it.”

Your character – how is she portrayed?

JB: “Well, which one of them – they are eight of them! The main one who I portray kind of plays the narrator throughout is the Landlady – it’s set in a pub. There’s the Landlady and the Landlord, who host everything and we then play all the characters which appear in the pub. She’s great the Landlady, she’s hard, she’s been through a lot of stuff which we find out about as the play goes on, she puts a face on for the customers but you can see where she’s hurting. She wears her heart on her sleeve really and you see everything that’s going on with her and the pain she’s going through but she does put on a brave face for everyone else.”

I would say this is the most challenging of all the parts you’ve done including the one of Weave you did, you turned that on a dime, the actual performance but this is more complex – having to remember eight different characters!

JB: “Yes it is. It’s quite similar actually in going from one extreme to another so quickly – it is literally seconds and you’re going from one person to being somebody else and then somebody else! We were rehearsing the other day and I came on and I could not remember who I was – what I was supposed to be saying, what I was doing, I had already played the seventh and by the eighth I was so confused but it is really difficult. I think the difficulty of it is you don’t want to play them all as caricatures; you want to make them real and although you can change your voice and the way your body moves, maybe give them different characteristics, in the end you have to make them real. It’s pub, in the 80s in the North and they are real people and that’s what’s going to make it relatable.”

Can you see the links between yourself and any of the characters you play?

JB: “I think with every character I think there’s a part of you without sounding all actory. You have to have some part of yourself in each of the characters – there has to be because I’ve only got this body and this voice and my experiences to play someone else, you must go into each character. I mean it is a challenge as some of them are completely removed from me. I mean, one of them is 72 years old, you know, she’s lovely to play, she’s seen so much and it’s difficult to realise how much she’s seen and done but some of them are very far removed.”

It’s not the first time you’ve performed at The Lantern is it?

JB: “No, we did Weave there, we’ve done a couple of things there, It’s so personal, you’re literally right next to the audience so that it’s good for this play as you feel like you’re in the pub with these people, you can direct things to them, you can talk to them. It’s all really comfortable, there’s no awkwardness with it, it’s not a case of breaking the fourth wall with them, there is no fourth wall – they are pretty much on the stage with you, so it’s nice.”

Are you a woman of distinction when it comes to having a beer, would you go to a pub?

JB: “I would say that I don’t mind a glass of wine! I don’t mind a little gin and tonic! I’m not really a pub person; I actually work in a pub a couple of nights a week so I’ve had enough of it when I work there. Everyone there though helped me, everyone is so lovely and everyone has a different story as well, the barmaid and the landlady – you’re a counsellor, you’re a friend, you’re a bouncer when people need throwing out, you’re everything in one and it helped me a lot.”

It’s almost like theatre itself. You have your good days, you have your bad days, it’s not soap opera as such, more like Greek Theatre, is that how you view it?

JB: “It is! Certainly, there are people who come in – and if you’d read the character in the play you wouldn’t believe it.  There’s a sense of, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you but there is the protagonist, the antagonist, there’s a hero and there’s always a nuisance who won’t go home!  There’s just so much more to it than meets the eye, it’s the same with this play, it’s so good because you know, people come to the pub for a release, come people come for an escape, some people end up there by accident, some are coming in to meet friends. The pub is a meeting place for souls if you like, it’s kind of a middle ground where people feel that they can be open and share things with people and feel safe and I think that’s what’s so charming about it.”

Have you worked with Greg before then?

JB: “Yes, Greg and I go way back, we met about ten years ago and we work well together and it’s a nice balance between us.”

Has he found the same sort of situation with his characters?

JB: “I think he might say he struggled with a character because usually we’re in pairs but there are a couple there that are monologues on their own, he might struggle with the one character within the pair and I don’t struggle with her but in the next one, it will be the other way around. It’s a difficult one. We’ve got a whole week and two day’s left though.”

You said you were struggling with the characters it’s like a euphemism for life in itself. When you see a couple come into a pub, one will always appear very confident whilst the other will be in their shadow.

JB: “Yes, this is what we’ve been exploring, it’s the balance; I think in every couple, in every friendship, there’s a balance isn’t there? There’s always someone who is possibly more dominant, there’s always someone who is possibly more supportive; it changes like a seesaw.  The partnerships in the play are definitely Yin and Yang – you need to get the balance right or it doesn’t quite work if you don’t get the balance right between the partnerships.”

One last question if I may – what’s next for you after this play?

JB: “I’m hoping to do a bit more writing to be honest, after Beside the Seaside last year, I always enjoyed being part of it but then I was the writer, I’m just hoping to get something else written and put on in the Autumn. I’ve had something written for about two years in my head and I’m trying to get it on paper but I’m so busy so I can only do it between jobs and I’m hoping to take some time off and do a bit of work – but if Steven Spielberg calls then I’m going to have to take it!”

Two is on at the Lantern Theatre, Liverpool, from the 12th-16th May.

Ian D. Hall