The Comedy about a Bank Robbery's Charlie Russell on Playing an American & Not Going Wrong with Mischief

The Mischief Theatre Company has now had three West End shows, starting with the ongoing and Olivier-winning The Play That Goes Wrong, then Peter Pan Goes Wrong and now The Comedy about a Bank Robbery, which opened at the Criterion Theatre to rave reviews last month. Their first show set in the U.S., director Mark Bell’s production casts Charlie Russell as the wily, wonderfully named Caprice Freeboys, daughter of the manager of the Minneapolis bank of the title. Russell took time one recent evening to talk about the little company that has gone from strength to strength as they start to look toward Broadway.

This show is quite different from Mischief Theatre’s two previous West End entries—for one thing, there’s no “goes wrong” in the title.
I was pretty nervous, actually. I think I knew I had it in me [to play an American] and that it was something I wanted to do, and that it was really important for us as a company to step forward, but I was scared, to be honest.

What are the challenges of Bank Robbery?
There’s the accent, of course. Also, with our other plays, I was playing an actress [Sandra] who was helping to put on the show we were doing, so there was a huge connection with the audience. With this one, I’m playing the character of Caprice throughout, so I had to keep myself from breaking the fourth wall.

Is it important that Mischief tries new things?
Sure, and it’s a little like someone’s second or third album: are people going to like the new thing we’re doing? But we knew that even if they didn’t, we had to do what we liked as a company and not try and do the same old thing just because it’s making money.

Why the 1950s American Midwestern setting?
We got something of a Fargo vibe about Minneapolis in the late 1950s that seemed right, and it was important also that we were talking about a smaller bank! This isn’t a huge New York thing with a huge vault—it’s meant to be a smaller bank with smaller criminals.

I love your character’s name—Caprice Freeboys!
Yes, I’m constantly pinching myself that I am getting to play this part because it’s such a gift. Caprice is named for the word capricious, which gives you an indication right away of what her character might be, and the part plays into my favorite sorts of roles: slightly vintage period stuff from the 1940s or ‘50s, a girl with quite a bit of sass.

Not to mention that most of the rest of the cast falls in love—or at least lust—with her.
It’s nice that my friends [who co-wrote the play and also appear in it] thought the casting would be appropriate! It’s nice that Caprice is in demand and what’s even nicer is how independent she is for a woman in 1958. She actually has her own apartment, for one thing, and she’s quite wily.

How are you holding up physically, given the toll that Mischief’s comedies have been known to take on their actors?
I’ve not done anything that has given me long-term damage physically, though psychologically might be a different matter. No, I’m joking. I’ve had a few scrapes and trapped a nerve mid-show during Peter Pan Goes Wrong, but I do go to the gym quite regularly now. I’ve sort of accepted my fate.

You do some pretty gravity-defying stuff as Caprice.
If you want to know the truth, I actually do get scared of heights! Luckily, I’m surrounded by top professionals in case anything really does go wrong, and one thing I did do at LAMDA [drama school] was stage combat so I’m OK with big heavy weapons and things like doors coming at my face or people throwing me out a window.

How does it feel now that you and your Mischief colleagues have remained together across three shows?
And to think that I was 19 when I met all these guys! We really are so lucky: it’s not to say that we haven’t worked really hard all our lives, but we’re very fortunate that our hard work has turned into a success.

Do you ever yearn to break away and maybe go off and audition elsewhere, away from Mischief?
I think we’d all love to do loads of different things: I mean, I still hold on to the dream that I’ll be a superhero! But I don’t think I’ll ever underestimate how wonderful it is to be able to work with your best mates.

And with Broadway mooted for The Play That Goes Wrong in 2017.
Oh my God, like, what the f*ck? That would be a dream come true—like, how have we earned that? Surely someone’s going to call fraud! To go to Broadway would be just amazing; I would love that more than anything.