Interview: Posting Letters to the Moon
Two well-known actors are bringing a very personal performance to the Suffolk stage this month.
‘Posting Letters to the Moon’ features readings of the correspondence between Oscar-nominated actress, Celia Johnson, and her explorer and writer husband, Peter Fleming (brother of James Bond creator, Ian Fleming). The letters were written during the Second World War, when Celia was filming Brief Encounter, and Peter was working in Military Intelligence in India and the Far East.
Romantic, funny and very touching, they provide a fascinating portrait of wartime and its true austerity and fearfulness.
Bringing them to life for the show are their daughter, Lucy Fleming (Love Sarah, Miranda in The Archers) and her husband, Simon Williams (Upstairs Downstairs, Justin in The Archers, EastEnders).
We were delighted to be able to ask the lovely couple a few questions ahead of their visit to Sudbury...
Tell us a bit about your show.
LF: Posting Letters to the Moon is the two of us reading my parents' wartime letters.
SW: It's the story of the war; it's the story of a newly married couple who are separated by 6,000 miles. It was very tough, you know, rationing of petrol, rationing of food, the blackouts, and there was Celia, trying to be a film actress and a local policewoman, and helping run the farm, driving a tractor and things. They are wonderful stories and wonderful, touching, funny letters.
When did you discover the letters and how did you choose which to perform?
LF: I always knew about the letters but they were just in a drawer, and I didn't look at them. But then, after my mother died, my sister wrote a very good biography of her, and she made some notes on the letters. About 20 years later, I looked at the notes and I found them fascinating, and I discovered more about my parents.
SW: We started reading them over the kitchen table and they just came alive. They came alive so much so that we thought we should put this in front of an audience.
How did you choose which letters to perform?
LF: That was very, very difficult. There are over 500 letters!
SW: We could do a 24-hour show.
LF: We ultimately chose them to create a story arc which lasts just over an hour, and it's very funny.
Lucy - what was your childhood like, growing up with Celia and Peter?
LF: My childhood was lovely. We were quite free-range children and lived in this isolated house in the Chilterns. Occasionally people like Noel Coward rang up, or Anthony Quayle or John Gielgud popped in, but mostly it was just a nice, country childhood with my mother going off to do plays in the evening sometimes.
Did your parents talk to you about their careers and life during the war?
LF: No, sadly they didn't. I think everyone had had enough of the war by then. They'd just been going through so much and they were exhausted. They lost friends, they suffered shortages, and they didn't really want to talk about it. I wish they had.
Simon – you and Lucy married after Celia had sadly passed away, but did you know her well?
SW: Yes, I did. Lucy and I first met doing a play with Celia when we were in our early twenties and we became very good friends. Even though we weren't married before she died, Celia was certainly aware that we were a partnership. I think she probably approved because she and my father, Hugh Williams, often worked together. They first met in a production of Pride and Prejudice in the 1930s, and Celia was actually in the most successful play my father wrote, The Grass Is Greener. So, it was a happy thing that we were joined together.
How does it feel performing something so intimately connected with your family?
LF: Sometimes I wonder if it's too intimate. But people don't hear real stories about the war now. They don't realise how little communication there was in those days. There was the BBC’s Nine O'clock News on the radio in the evening, but no television, hardly any telephones. So, everybody wrote lots and lots of letters and they are wonderful; they're so touching. They’d send terrible jokes just to cheer each other up.
SW: I think if people keep letters and treasure them - both parties in this instance - it’s a good signal that they wouldn't mind you sharing them; that somewhere down the line, they would like their children or grandchildren to know what it was like living through those dark times. And they're such beautifully written letters. They're funny and they give a very good bird's eye view of what it was like living through the war.
Have you written letters to each other when working apart as actors?
LF: We used to in the old days but, sadly we don't anymore. We all use our phones now, don't we?
SW: Yes, but it's a shame and that I think that's really the crusade of this show. Posting Letters to the Moon is a reminder to, every now and then, write someone a handwritten letter. The thrill of an envelope coming through the letterbox with a stamp on it, seeing someone's handwriting that you recognise, and realising that they've spent half an hour writing something from their innermost self - it’s lovely.
What is it like working and being on tour as a married couple?
LF: Well, it's rather good in some ways because we share the driving, we share the cost, we share the highs and the lows. You can get a bit fed up with each other but mostly it's fun. Sometimes we take our dog with us too.
SW: It's very nice because there's a lot of loneliness in touring - you only work for two and a half hours at night in the theatre and then you've got all day to fill. So, it's great to be together, to spend time looking at country houses, going for walks and visiting local attractions and things. Also, it's good that you can keep an eye on each other's performance to make sure we're not going too far off what was rehearsed. You need to be kept in line!
What are your favourite theatres to play?
LF: I like the Richmond Theatre very much, I think it’s charming. I also like the Theatre Royal in Bath, and we did our show at the Minerva in Chichester a couple of weeks ago and it went so well - that audience is perfect for our show.
SW: I just love playing the beautiful old, shell-shaped theatres with gilt décor, plush curtains, beautiful boxes and chandeliers. I've also directed a play at Southwold and that’s a pretty little theatre. It’s a lovely place to work, Southwold.
What was your first professional performance and how did it go?
LF: My first professional performance was at Farnham Rep in the days when they had Rep and you could join as a student. You were paid a pound a week, and you learned all about the theatre from the inside out.
I had to go on for somebody my first week because she'd hurt her back. We were doing the J M Barrie play, Dear Brutus, and I was 17 playing somebody 45. I had no fear because, you know, one doesn't as a young person. My mother came to see it and thought it was okay. It was great fun. I got the itch then.
SW: Well, I didn't get into drama school - they wouldn't have me. So my first job was as a sort of dogsbody in Worthing Rep. The first part I got was the Genie of the Lamp in the pantomime, Aladdin, and I've never been so happy in my whole life. It was absolute heaven. ‘What are your commands, my master?’ [he says in a deep voice] - that was my first line. There was a great roll of drums, a puff of smoke and there I would appear.
What character would you love to play?
LF: If I was younger, I’d like to play more Shakespeare. I played Viola and Celia, and I love doing those, but I'm a bit old now. Women's parts in Shakespeare, unless you're playing a man of course, don't come up nowadays. I also love doing comedy.
SW: That's a very tricky question for me. I'm now so old! I would love to have had a go at Richard II. I'd love to have played some Chekhov. What excites me most, though, is a new play. I mean, if Alan Aykbourn or David Hare or Tom Stoppard were to ring and say: ‘we've got a new play and we think you'll be great in it’, then that's what I'd like to do.
There have been various versions of Brief Encounter but none that matched the film. If remade today, who would you cast in the lead roles?
LF: I wouldn't cast anybody. It was remade once with Elizabeth Taylor and it just didn't work because it's a classic. I think that Noel Coward and David Lean, and my mother and Trevor Howard, and all the cast, just came together and were perfect. I don't think you should ever do it again.
Finally: what does the future hold?
LF: More shows of our play, and we're both in The Archers. I play Miranda Elliot and Simon plays Justin Elliot. We're divorced and we have great fun being rude to each other.
SW: I'm very happy doing The Archers too. We have the most wonderful company of actors - they're very down-to-earth and utterly brilliant, all of them. I’m also a writer, and I like writing in the morning, walking the dog in the afternoon, then sitting and watching telly with with Lucy in the evening.
And Posting Letters to the Moon is just a delight, because people love the show and I get to hear Lucy reading her mother's letters, and it brings a tear to my eye every time.
Posting Letters to the Moon is at The Quay Theatre, Sudbury on February 19.
FOR SHOW DETAILS AND BOOKING LINK, CLICK HERE