Interview: Theatre director Marianne Elliott on really, really good and bad plays

Ah! Here comes the girl from the temping agency. That’s my first reaction when I meet Marianne Elliott, director of the global hit War Horse, and winner of this year’s Olivier for her work on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. She’s a trim, attractive fortysomething with a neat blonde bob and she wears a shrill turquoise blouse of the kind favoured by Romford copy typists in the 1980s. Her blue eyes are amazing — huge, screen-goddess orbs, which shine with an exceptional brilliance and clarity. She’s two weeks into the rehearsal period for her next play, Sweet Bird of Youth, at the Old Vic, which stars Kim Cattrall. ‘And how are the actors? Complaining like mad?’

‘They’re a great bunch,’ she says, taking a discreet glug from a Styrofoam cup of broth. It’s lunchtime but she rarely gets a minute to herself during her 16-hour rehearsal days. ‘It’s fascinating to work on Tennessee Williams. It’s like doing a different job. Normally, I do my usual thing, I prep on the text, to the hilt, until I think I know what it is. But when the actors get up and do it, it becomes something else. Something else comes into the room. And you realise everything’s different, the objective is different, the tone is different, because he wrote so subconsciously, especially with the later plays, because he was off on drugs most of the time. And it’s very raw, it’s very ugly, it’s very out there.’

Kim Cattrall plays a fading Hollywood beauty and she was initially reluctant to take the part. The pair first met while Elliott was in New York to oversee the Broadway transfer of War Horse. ‘We had various conversations, but then I think we both got a bit scared about the play. We both felt, maybe Kim’s not old enough for it yet, and then time went on, and I read it again, and said to Kim, “Come on, we want to do something together.