‘I want to be a vagabond’

Lloyd Evans talks to Sophie Thompson, whose lack of vanity defines her approach to acting

Straight off, as soon as I meet Sophie Thompson, I can see the look she’s striving for. Elegant ragamuffin. Torn jeans, scruffy trainers and a charity-shop blouse all offset by some peachy designer accessory worth five grand. Then I realise there’s no peachy accessory. She’s just pulled on her gardening gear and left it at that. And not a trace of make-up either which, for a woman over 45 — even though she looks ten years younger — is either reckless or bold. Or perhaps just genuinely modest.

Thompson is starring in the social satire Clybourne Park, which opened at the Royal Court last autumn and arrives in the West End this week. The play is a hilarious and shocking deconstruction of racial taboos, and its second half culminates in an exhilaratingly funny scene where all the characters, black and white, abandon the usual courtesies and taunt each other with bigoted jokes.