Returning to the theatre to play eccentric medium Madame Arcati in Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit has been a learning curve for Jennifer Saunders — but she says the longer she spends on stage the better it gets.
The actress said she had had her eye on the part for some time, adding: “I have always had Madame Arcati in my head as a very good comic role so when the director Richard Eyre suggested it I thought it could be really funny, and I like being funny.
“Originally it was four weeks in Bath and that to me is the perfect length of run — in and out. But actually what I have learned about theatre is that if you do it for longer it gets much better. Theatre is as different as you can get from TV but there’s not one I like better. I think because I am older now and I don’t have kids at home to get home to it is actually quite nice to do theatre. I have found the more you inhabit someone, the more they become real."
The Bafta-winning comedian and actress, 61, returned to the stage in 2018 after a 25-year hiatus with a role in Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan. This summer she will join Whoopi Goldberg at the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith for hit musical Sister Act, playing Mother Superior.
But Saunders said she was “bloody terrified” and nearly backed out after realising what a high-profile production it was.
