Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding’s chilling dystopian text is given a contemporary reimagining as a group of schoolgirls find themselves stranded on a remote island following a crash landing. Twins Lowri and Mari Izzard play Sam and Eric and joined us to tell us more.
Lord of the Flies is at Theatr Clwyd 20th September – 13th October 2018, and Sherman Theatre 17th October – 3rd November 2018.
You’re appearing in Lord of the Flies, what can you tell us about this staging of the famous play?
Our version is set in modern day – in a world that is in turmoil, dictators have thrown us into a nuclear world war and British children are being sent away for their own safety. Directed by Emma Jordan, our version is female-led, meaning that all roles apart from the Naval Officer (Matthew Bulgo) have been re-written as female!
The retelling of the story focuses on how humanities flaws rise to the surface when thrown into a devastating circumstance, when fear and liberation take over and cause reckless decisions – rather than toxic masculinity being the cause of destruction.
What do you like most about your characters?
What we love most about our characters is that we get the opportunity to act with each other – it just feels like being back in A Level Drama all over again!
Is this the first time you’ve had the opportunity to work together as twins playing twins?
Yes – the first time professionally!
Are there many roles for twins out there?
It varies! We go up for a lot of commercials together but not so much in theatre…But like everything else it depends on the stories being told at that time.
Have you ever gone up against each other in auditions?
Of course! Just like we go up against every other short, brunette, blue eyed, Welsh actress for a job! But we’re incredibly supportive, when one of us gets a call and the other doesn’t it’s because there’s a reason why – although we look a like, we are incredibly different as people and we always help each other out when it comes to auditions and self tapes! But if one of us doesn’t get the role, we’d obviously prefer the other to get it over anyone else – so it’s double the chance really!
We’d really love to have a bash at a Shakespeare together – perhaps Twelfth Night or Comedy of Errors one day…
What would you say to anyone thinking of coming to see Lord of the Flies?
Just like any other classic that has been adapted for stage – don’t compare directly to the book, it is its own version. Just like the Harry Potter films are so different to the books…
Rachel O’Riordan said on day one of rehearsals, we are smashing the original apart and making it relevant for our audiences today and I really feel that that is exactly what we are doing here – the roles of gender within society has changed forever and we aren’t holding back!
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