BWW Interviews: Beverley Callard Of LITTLE VOICE

Hi Beverley - how's the tour of Little Voice going?

It's going really well. It's been difficult with the snow - four feet of snow in some areas - but it's been amazing.

Your character Mari drives the show, doesn't she?

Yes! She's the leading role. She just totally drives the play. She is a juggernaut. It's an amazing role. I thank Jim Cartwright for writing it and asking me to play it.

You do tend to play these feisty complex women...

Absolutely, I love it! I wish more writers would write more roles for women. There are so few. You take a classic play and there are 12 men in it and two women every time, and think, "COME ON." There's never enough work. They always seem to write for men more than they do for women, and I think it's so wrong.

Is that because writers do tend to be men?

Do you know, I really don't know. I think even if they're men, they could still write for women. Jim Cartwright is a prime example. But that makes a change.

Obviously he's directing this tour as well.

It's just amazing. When Jim asked me to do it two years ago, I just said yes, wherever, whenever, because he is truly the most amazing man. First of all the scripts that come out of that man are incredible, but also to be directed by him as well - the play has been on all over the world, and there was the film as well, but they tend to hack the script about if they're making a film of something, and he decided he wanted to direct it himself so it would be exactly how he intended the play to be, and that's what we've got. To work with him was truly an absolutely joy. He is inspirational.

Tell us a bit about Jess Robinson, who plays Little Voice.

She's AMAZING. She is a classical singer, and the medley in the play, when she comes to the fore, was tailored for her, and she is truly amazing.

And what do you have planned after the tour finishes?

Not sure - things are coming in. I'm hoping to have a little bit of a rest, because I think I may be exhausted, but I never rest for very long - we'll see what happens. Nothing's as exhausting as Coronation Street, I have to say, that is just relentless.

But playing Mari is very physical as well as mental - it's great, I love it, but it would be nice to be in a place longer than a week, because your days off are Sundays, and that's when you're moving cities. We'll have done 32 weeks - a long time - but I'm loving it, and I still find jewels in the script that are so inspiring.

The Fall and Rise of Little Voice is on tour around the UK.