My Theatre: Deborah Pope

Feature in Issue 11-4 | Winter 1999

What did you see the first time you went to the theatre?

Hedda Gabler at the Down Stage Theatre, Wellington, New Zealand.

What recent performance has particularly inspired you?

The first fifteen minutes of De La Guarda at the Roundhouse and Pina Bausch's Viktor at Sadler's Wells.

Who are your favourite individual performers or companies?

I would have to include the work of companies such as Circus Oz, Ra-Ra Zoo, Theatre de Complicite, and DV8 Physical Theatre, as well as performers such as George Kahl and Rose English.

Who is your favourite playwright?

Shakespeare – but I don't have a lot to do with him.

Which performer, alive or dead, makes you laugh the most?

Angela de Castro, The Marx Brothers.

When was the last time you cried during a performance?

At The Event (a performance by students on the CertHE Course at The Circus Space) at Three Mills Island, Bromley by Bow, London.

What productions will you never forget?

Freaks at the Bouffe du Nord, Paris in 1990 and Archaos in London in 1988.

When was the last time you walked out of a theatre before the end of a show?

During a performance of Salome at the Theatre Centro, University of Sao Paolo, Brazil – I can't understand Portuguese.

If you could meet any theatre practitioner, alive or dead, who would it be?

Peter Brook.

What does ‘physical theatre’ mean to you?

The body as text.

What would you do if you didn't perform?

Learn to fly a plane.

Who do you think should be honoured in the New Year Honours List?

Eugene Balla, an acrobatics master from Brixton.

Deborah Pope performs in Deadly by No Ordinary Angels at the Purcell Room as part of the London International Mime Festival from 15-19 January at 8pm.

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