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Interview: Young director shows her comic touch
It's a sunny morning, but a bad start to the day means my mood is dark. It brightens considerably when Tamara Harvey arrives.
The wunderkind director of British theatre has a CV which belongs to a much older person – and a sunny disposition.
She's done classics, contemporaries, worked with Neil LaBute, Terry Johnson, Patrick Marber – and her last production was the debut play of theatre critic Nicholas de Jongh, who has since quit his post at the Evening Standard to take up full-time playwriting.
Not bad for someone who has been at it for just over a decade, and a woman in an industry dominated by men.
"If I was asked the question about being a woman in the industry five years ago, I wouldn't have really thought about it, because there were women who went before me," says Harvey.
"I do have a different perspective today and there is a difficulty being a woman director."
Harvey says that this is compounded by the fact that she is relatively young and manifests itself in people sometimes not taking her seriously in a rehearsal room.
"And it's not just from men, women actors as well.
"For example, I've had a situation where, if there's a fight scene, I will explain how to do it and the actors almost ignore it and go ahead and do it a different way. As if I couldn't possibly understand a fight scene because I'm a woman.
"It also doesn't help that I sound posh."
Not wanting to give her secrets away, I won't explain how, but even in these situations the director clearly gets her own way.
It is a combination of intelligence and steely determination which
works – and which has also helped her advance so far and so quickly in
her career.
The subject of the difference between the sexes is on the table because Harvey is in Yorkshire to direct Alan Ayckbourn's classic comedy, Bedroom Farce.
The play tells the story of four couples squeezed into three bedrooms in one night. Set in 1975, it centres around Malcolm and Kate's house-warming party, which turns into a disaster.
Harvey, who has gained a reputation for deft directing of comedy, is a little nervous to be directing an Ayckbourn play in Yorkshire.
Fortunately, she can take confidence from a fairly solid source.
"Alan has been amazingly supportive and encouraging to me," says Harvey.
"I went to have a meeting with him, hoping to work at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, and he was lovely.
"He sent a letter to my agent saying 'I've no idea how you can tell if someone can direct by simply chatting over a cup of tea, but let's give her a go'. It was such a kind thing to do."
It wasn't only kind, and Ayckbourn is a smart man. Harvey had already
built an impressive CV, and her work at the Stephen Joseph was good. She went on to direct Touch Wood at the theatre – and did so impressively.
She was also invited to meet with Ian Brown ahead of this latest production – when she had to admit that, despite her impressive credentials, she had never directed an Ayckbourn play previously.
"I know. I'd worked in his theatre and he had been very helpful to me,
but I'd never actually directed his work. Fortunately, he's been able to help out – sent me a few emails and encouraged me.
"So, hopefully, he'll approve."
Bedroom Farce at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, tomorrow to July 4. Box office 0113 213 7700.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
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