Got your tickets yet for 3Women? The debut play by the award-winning comedian and writer Katy Brand premieres at the West End’s Trafalgar Studios 2 from 15 May. You’ll get a brilliant feel for the three generations of the complex women of the title – played by Anita Dobson, Debbie Chazen and Maisie Richardson-Sellers – from the show’s new trailer. Plus the cast, also including Ollie Greenall, tells us more about their characters.
3Women explores the relationships between three generations of the same family – grandmother Eleanor (65), mother Suzanne (40) and granddaughter Laurie (18), played by Anita Dobson, Debbie Chazen and Maisie Richardson-Sellers respectively. On the eve of Suzanne’s wedding, they’re brought together in a hotel room for a night of tensions and revelations in this darkly comic and pertinent exploration of what it means to be a woman.
From generation to generation, mother to daughter, this female-led play explores what it means to be a woman in the 21st century and the consequences of the generational gap on our attitudes, cultural expectations and family dynamic. It’s directed by Michael Yale, with designs by Zahra Mansouri and lighting by Nic Farman. The premiere is produced by Stage Traffic Productions, who had a hit at the same address last year with Jordan Tannahill’s Late Company, transferred from the Finborough Theatre.
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Check out our new trailer for award-winning comedian and writer Katy Brand’s debut play, 3Women! Opening at Trafalgar Studios 2 on 15 May starring Anita Dobson, Debbie Chazen & Maisie Richardson-Sellers! #3Women pic.twitter.com/4qY2NrxYb2
— 3Women The Play (@3WomenThePlay) April 28, 2018
Meet the 3 women … & 1 man
We asked each of the four cast members to introduce us to their character and how, if at all, they identify with them.
Debbie Chazen: Suzanne is the middle generation of the three women in this play and has her own mother and daughter in the room with her. She is about to get married, having been a single mum for 18 years, and she is making the best of some disastrous decisions. I think everyone who comes to see this will identify with one or more of the characters. They all make decisions in their lives and they all have to deal with consequences as they go along. It’s a very relatable play, everyone has some family problems at some stage.
Maisie Richardson-Sellers: I play Laurie, Suzanne’s daughter, who is an 18-year-old university student exploring sexuality, gender and the world for the first time. She is trying to cross the intergenerational boundaries in this play by putting forward what she believes to be true. As wise as she is naïve, she is determined to resolve the family fractures. I identify with Laurie because she is a great symbol of the upcoming generation in terms of their thirst for equality, justice and also her vivacious approach to life.
Anita Dobson: My character is called Eleanor and she is the grandmother in the play, in the autumn of her life. She is very slim, smart and slightly brittle. Although she had been a teacher and is very intelligent, Eleanor feels that, by getting married and having children, she gave up her career and the opportunity to do something with her life. In order to mask her feelings of self-doubt, she drinks heavily. She has one daughter, Suzanne, who she is very disappointed in, and she has her granddaughter, Laurie, who she thinks has the potential to be the woman she wasn’t. I am very different from Eleanor as I completely embrace and love my family for who they are. Although, like her, I love Italy and all things Italian, and we both share a love of the odd glass of champagne!
Ollie Greenall: I play Rufus, who is a very attentive room service waiter. He will carry out your requests no matter how bizarre… With maybe some boundaries! He is eager to please anyone he meets. I guess I identify with his inherent niceness – he doesn’t want to disappoint people and neither do I. That’s his redeeming quality.