Laura Donnelly on Starring in London's The Ferryman and the 'Hell' of Working with Hugh Jackman

Laura Donnelly appeared in London and on Broadway in Jez Butterworth’s intimate tease of a play The River and is now at the Gielgud Theatre in the West End in Butterworth’s epic new piece, The Ferryman, directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes and co-starring film name Paddy Considine and 1992 Tony winner Brid Brennan. Born in Belfast but long-based in London, the eloquent actress spoke about a play that carries great personal meaning—and also what it was like sharing a New York stage with Hugh Jackman.

How did your first West End preview go, following an earlier sellout run at the far-smaller Royal Court?
It was actually brilliant. We were a little bit nervous but it was really lovely to have all those laughs again, and also that absolute silence. This play has been dying to get into a bigger space all along, and the Gielgud really suits it.

What is it like being part of a vast play that includes among its cast any number of children and animals and an actual—amazingly well-behaved—baby?
I’ve certainly never been in a company this large, and I have to say it makes it really fun coming to work. Everywhere you go there are people milling about and chatting, and the animals bring their own special atmosphere to the play.

In what way?
You find yourself getting ready, and the next thing you know, whatever it is that geese do they are doing it loudly and we can hear it. The baby, in turn, brings a kind of calm to the chaos.

What is your perspective on Caitlin Carney, the character you play?
I would say she’s a series of contradictions. She’s incredibly together and leads a family of many children and elderly relatives—a family she came into through marriage and that she is running on a day-to-day basis. At the same time, she’s incredibly vulnerable and is hiding many things. I sort of see her as a duck whose legs are paddling frantically under the surface.

Is it true that Jez wrote the play largely in response to an event in your past?
I would love to think that was what made the play happen, but I think it would have happened in some form regardless. I do know that Jez had said he wanted to write a play set in a large family kitchen at harvest time, so the seeds if it were there long before we ever discussed my family circumstances. But it’s equally true that the play might not have had the political backdrop to it had my family history not come up.

What is that history to which you refer?
It has to do with my uncle who had been a member of the Irish Republican Army [IRA] and was “disappeared” [i.e. abducted and murdered] by them on New Year’s Day 1981, leaving behind several children and another on the way. When I was two, he was found by accident in a bog near the border in 1984, so the family was able to have a burial and my mother didn’t have to wait so long for his remains to be discovered.

What happened in other circumstances?
Many families had to wait 10 or 20 or even 30 years, and three of the “disappeared” haven’t been discovered to this day. A lot of it had to do with punishing the people who were left behind in the circumstances: it was beyond cruel that families could be punished in that way—incredibly heartless.

Were you surprised on behalf of a largely Irish cast to find an Englishman writing so comprehensively about the “troubles” in Northern Ireland in 1981, when the play is set?
I knew this was going to be a special event and even more so for me because of where it was based, but the thing that really shocked me was that Jez could write in a different vernacular in a country [Ireland] he didn’t grow up in. After the first read-through, we all sat there open-mouthed. He entirely got our way of speaking—not just the rhythms but also the attitudes and what the history and culture do to you as a person.

Having first worked with Jez in London and New York on The River, were you following his progress on The Ferryman?
I understand enough about the creative process to know that things sometimes don’t happen, so I wasn’t going to him every few months saying, “OK, where is it?” But I knew there was the potential here for something that I absolutely wanted to be part of and I just had to be hopeful that [the play] would come to the fore in the way originally intended.

Was working on a three-hander like The River useful prep?
The thing about that play was how different it was and how intimate and in no way similar to Jerusalem, which had come before it. I loved the fact that I got to explore something so unique and completely against what everybody was expecting, so when Jez told me about his plans for this next play, I was immediately 100% on board.

What are your memories of doing The River on Broadway in 2014 with Hugh Jackman?
It was hell [laughs]! No, Hugh is one of the most wonderful people I have ever met professionally or personally. He’s an incredibly nice man who has charisma for days, and what was amazing was that he could walk into any theater on Broadway and know the name of everyone from the people at the door to the bar staff. He’s just so interested in what is happening outside himself.

Was it odd playing a character in The River [the so-called “Other Woman”] who didn’t have an actual name?
We spent a lot of time on that play looking for clues to the character in the text, so I think in my mind she had a different name in London to what she had on Broadway. I had to do a lot more creating with who I thought [the character] was than I have had to do with Caitlin.

After working with Ian Rickson on that play, what was it like finding James Bond alum Sam Mendes in the director’s chair here?
It was incredibly galvanizing. Sam comes with this reputation that far precedes him, and the idea that this big production with so many technical elements that needed to come together was going to be the work of the guy who helmed the Bond films made all of us feel as if we were in safe hands. Sam has an incredible way of not making it seem difficult; it was as if the play came together without us seeing how it happened.

Given the track record of both your playwright and your director in New York, can we assume a transfer of this is on the cards?
Well, I would certainly hope so. I don’t think there are any firm plans in place yet, but given how well it’s gone down in London, that’s something all of us would love to have happen.