So we went along to our actress friend’s play. Just about squeezing into the sold out performance at a pub in east London, we didn’t quite get why there were a bunch of rotund men loitering outside with heavy long-lens cameras. That was, until we saw that Cressida Bonas was also starring in the production – we found out just by glancing at the cast list as we loitered outside the entrance, trying to get in on the very long waiting list. Here are five things we learned from going along to the play, There’s A Monster In The Lake.
1. The paps are unrelenting
About five of them waited outside the pub for at least three hours, on a beautifully hot evening, waiting for Cressida to leave so that they could get a few photos of her.
** 2. She’s not the star of the show**
Cressida’s on stage throughout but so is everyone in the play. Far from playing the alpha nurse-turned-sexy-queen – that role went to our friend, Tara Postma (look her up, she’s great) – Cressida played a grubby health-and-safety obsessed middle-aged wolf who lives near the woods and feels unfulfilled in his career. Yep, his! She played a male wolf obssessed with paperwork.
** 3. She isn't as posh as you think**
Cressida was the only one in the play who needed to have an accent, because the wolf was cockney (it was quite a surreal play) and though the expectation is that she's proper posh, she can pull off a pretty decent mockney, sounding nowhere near as ridiculous as Russell Brand, for example. She’s actually not so bad at acting, so it’s high time she was allowed to do something other than be Prince Harry’s ex.
4. You can actually cry at a play with a cockney wolf in it
The play, written by Tallulah Brown, the daughter of Private Eye satirist Craig Brown, was all about an old man, convinced he is 500 years old, as he approaches death, and his two daughters and how they come to terms with it. Even though it was totally surreal at times, with the old man forced by the devil to become King of the Woods, we still found ourselves a bit teary towards the end.
5. It’s pronounced Cress-EE-dah
Not CreZIHdah, not Cressy-dah, not Cressudah, not CrezziDAH. Just FYI, next time you bump into her down the pub after her play.
Oh, and here's a video for the play's Kickstarter, check it out – you get to hear that cockney accent!
There's A Monster In The Lake - Kickstarter from Lily Ashley on Vimeo.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
Picture: Rex
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.