Challenging role for Warwick actress

Meg Lloyd, who studied at the Aylesford School and had her acting skills nurtured by the Playbox Theatre Company in Warwick, will assume the role of Katharine Hepburn in Matthew Lombardo’s Tea at Five at the Stratford Fringe festival this weekend.

After studying drama at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London, Meg took a step away from acting during the past year to focus on setting up her and mother Jan’s natural therapy business, Iasis Therapy, in Hampton Magna.

But after being offered the role of Katharine by Chris Wraysford of Indefatigable Productions, which is producing the show, she took up the chance to reimmerse herself into drama.

She said: “When Chris offered me this role, I jumped at the chance.

“It was only when rehearsals started that I really became aware of the scale of the project of taking on a one-person show and maintaining a through flow of action in the form of a monologue. But the beauty of a this type of play is the time to really get an insight into the character’s life and personality from a first-person perspective.”

Audiences are invited to the Hepburn family estate in Fenwick, Connecticut, where Katharine Hepburn is serving reminiscences, wit, fiery spirit, and patrician verve.

The 21-year-old is awaiting the call to find out whether she got the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind - and then the 76-year-old looks back on her life and amazing career.

Performances take place at 7.15pm at the Attic Theatre at Cox’s Yard from tomorrow (Saturday) until Tuesday and again on Thursday and Saturday June 9. To book tickets, call 01789 404600.

Also showing during the nine-day festival is The Actors Collective’s production of Unresolved: Voices of Spoon River.

Over the course of eight evenings, eight actors take audiences into the minds of eight Illinois townsfolk in the early 1900s - each of whom have something they need to share, solve or keep to themselves.

The fly-on-the-wall-style encounters lead onlookers to explore and question their beliefs about the meaning of humanity, justice, culture and community.

Performances take place from tomorrow (Saturday) until next Saturday at the Attic Theatre at 5pm each day. To book tickets, call 01789 299011.

The two shows are part of a packed programme of theatre, comedy, talks, picnics, poetry, music and cinema at various venues in the town. To find out more, go online.