The Glasgow-born
Actress on Growing Up, Making it in Theatreland and wonder.land
Interviewed by Shola Adenekan
Tuesday, November 17, 2015.
1. Can you please tell us about your background? Your experience of
growing up in Glasgow, your parents, early school days and childhood memories?
I was born and brought up in Glasgow, with a few of
my early years spent living in Malawi. My mum is Scottish and my father is from
Malawi, both of them are engineers. Not a showbiz bone between them. In
Scotland, I lived with my mum and my sister, spending most of my time before I
attended school with my gran and papa. My gran prides herself in being a top
quality jive dancer and my papa used to write and recite poetry, so I like to
think that they may have kick started my creative bug. I really loved growing
up in Glasgow. It's relatively rough around the edges, and kind of feels like
Edinburgh's loud, confident, and more badly behaved younger sister. But there
are always cool things to do in the city, everything from fashion and theatre
to graffiti art and music has quite a wide following. Unlike London you can't
really go anywhere without someone stopping and talking to you, which if you
are late for a train can be a nuisance, but it definitely is home for me.
2. When did you first decide to be an actress?
I think I was around 11 years old when I thought
I'd quite like to be a pop star. So I started dance classes and joined a stage
school in Glasgow. The whole concept was abandoned though, when I realised I
had the most fun in the drama class. And if needs be, in that class, I could
arguably still be a pop star sometimes, or a doctor, or even an engineer just
like mum! So it seemed obvious that acting was the one for me. I was 15 when I
told my mum in all seriousness that I wanted to be an actress. She warned me of
the pitfalls of such a career; that I might not earn any money; that I'll need
to work other jobs; that success may never ever come; but she has completely
supported my decision since that conversation, and doesn't give me too much of
a lecture when I ask her to lend me rent money.
3. Holby City was arguably your first break onto the mainstream, how did
you become part of the cast and what's the experience like for you?
Holby city was so exciting for me. My friends and I
joke about there being a Holby and Casualty Film School, as they are so great
for taking on new graduates and treating them so well. My character ended up
dying, so the prosthetics team at Holby made a cast of my head and I had a
prosthetic chest put on so they could rip open my gown to perform CPR. It
was really surreal seeing my own face on a surgery slab, post brain surgery.
The crew on a show like that are also amazing. They are such a well-oiled
machine, and everything is done quickly and with perfect precision. I was super
nervous on set though. I was attached to a real pulse reader throughout my
first scene and after the first take my pulse was through the roof, completely
giving away that I was not half as composed as I was trying to make out.
4. Looking back at your
acting career over the course of two decades, what will you say is the
highlight? And are there any low points for you?
Definitely one of the highs has to be performing at
The Globe. I toured with Richard Bean's 'Pitcairn', and the atmosphere in that theatre
is quite overwhelming. You can see right into the faces of the audience and you
are completely at the beck and call of the elements. Since the globe has an
open roof, if a plane passes or it starts to rain, everyone knows about it, and
of course the show must go on ! 'Pitcairn' in particular was great fun. We had
one show where I accidentally pulled off another actress's (Saffron
Hocking) skirt, mid-scene . Trying to compose ourselves enough to get to
the end of the play was not easy. There was another night at The Globe when the
rain caused me to slip to the ground, at the end of Tahitian tribal dance in
act 1. The rest of the girls helped me up but I could see the laughter in their
eyes!
There have been many lows between jobs when I've
had many a phone call to my mum, crying that 'I don't want to be a waitress'.
Or when I've been temping in an office and they ask me for the 20th time if I
know how to make a decent cup of tea, and I feel like screaming “ I actually
have a degree, you know!!”. But I do get over these experiences pretty
quickly.
5. Do you think we still need more Black and Minority Ethnic
representations on both the stage and on television, from script-writing to
production?
Absolutely. We still appear to be light years away
from total equality. The industry doesn't seem to have taken on board that the
diversity of our country should be reflected in what we are writing and putting
on to our stages and screens. It often feels that if characters aren't
specifically 'not white', people can be reluctant to have 'too many' BAME
actors in the one show as then it can look like it's a deliberately 'ethic'
program. The theatre is also still very elitist. Regional theatre is often too
expensive for its local audiences, so theatre isn't reaching as many as it
could, and new plays rarely go down well. Drama school fees are going up and
up, as the number of scholarships go down, so the students accepted into drama
schools are now, more than ever, more likely to come from families that are
able to support them through their training. These factors all affect how
accessible theatre is or who may start to write their own material or who might
risk becoming an actor. Nevertheless, things are getting better and there are
so many BAME actors that are doing well and flying the flag for equality.
6. You are currently
appearing in wonder.land, can you please describe your character Aly, and can
you relate to her at all?
Aly is a teenager, who has just started at a new
school after her parents have split. She's trying to make friends and conscious
of fitting in, but the girls at school aren't exactly making it easy. Like a
lot of people today, she turns to the internet, and finds solace in an online
game where she has re-invented herself as an Alice more like the Lewis Carroll
icon- Beautiful, brave and curious. Even as adults, people struggle to fit in
and are concerned about body image so I think it's a story that a lot of people
can relate to.
7. Please tell us why people should come and see this particular
musical?
It's completely mad in the best sense of the word.
We've tried to capture as much of the quirkiness of the original book, but with
our own modern story running through. Our Red Queen equivalent, the headteacher
of the school, can be vicious; our Cheshire Cat is bonkers and we have the most
extraordinary projections (from 59 Productions) throughout. It's a great one
for the whole family.
8. If you are not
working what do you do to relax?
Most of my free time is spent with friends. Either
at the cinema, the theatre, or lounging about the house eating pizza (often
considering whether or not we should actually go to the gym).
9. What's the future for Ms Lois Chimimba?
I have no idea. I hope wonder.land is the beginning
of a great relationship with The National Theatre. I'd love to do more comedy,
and it would be cool to do some TV work after having such a great theatre job
this year. I have a brilliant relationship with my agent, Kerry, and have faith
that together we will find work that suits me and that I want to do. I
definitely can't complain so far, so long may it continue!
Wonder.land will be at
the National Theatre, London, from 27 November to 31 January 2016.
Ticket
prices:
£15, £28, £39, £50
Saturday evenings:
£15, £28, £44, £55
Preview prices 27 – 30 November
£15, £26, £32
General ticket information
£12 tickets for schools
Restaurant Packages available from
£17.50