Interview: Nancy Carroll Talks MANOR at the National Theatre

Nancy Carroll's credits include seven previous productions at The National Theatre and, recently, The Crown on Netflix. She is currently starring in The National Theatre's production of Manor, a new play by Moira Buffini.

Carroll plays Diana, the owner of a country house who finds a group of strangers knocking at her door one stormy night. She spoke about her involvement with this project over the course of two years and its relevance.

How have you been over the past few years?

We've had an interesting ride. Like a lot of people, it's been a mixed experience. We've lost members of our family and we've had to do online schooling, but at the same time we had a roof over our heads and we're still here. We were lucky that although we didn't do brilliantly from furlough, we had repeats coming in and the National were extraordinary: they continued to pay us until the end of our contract for Manor in the original form it took. In terms of the industry supporting its own, we were lucky and came out of it from a good place.

The main thing is that it's made us hold onto our family tighter. Our home felt like a cocoon, not a prison sentence. It's made you recalibrate life to look deeper in the eyes of the people you love and be more thankful. It's made me fall completely in love with what I do, and that again was a mixed experience. It made my husband and I re-evaluate and feel grateful for the experience of being actors.

You must have been associated with Manor for a long time. Let's go back to the beginning - what appealed about it?

I've always loved Moira's writing. Dinner was extraordinary and I loved Harlots. Before we started the first version of Manor, I knew her work. I loved what she was attempting to do; she wrote to me and explained that it was everything that was keeping her awake at night. I loved the character I'm playing: she's so out there, but the language Moira has given her is a gift.

We workshopped it the Christmas before we started the first set of rehearsals - the quality of the writing and the microscope on our nation through the prism of dark humour was unlike anything I'd seen before. I was desperate to be involved and what's happened since we started rehearsals in early 2020 is that the entire company has shed a skin. We all feel proprietorial about that experience. It feels like a tight ensemble, and not every experience feels like that; it's rarely negative, but there are different levels of positivity. There's a tenacity that we all own.

Has your character Diana changed much during rehearsals?

Moira had a strong image of who she was - she's grown up in an aristocratic, establishment family with very right-leaning parents. She married below her, and her character taps into that champagne socialism. There's a bitterness about her. The play questions trying to get through anything without sharing; division in society is presented as the root of our problems. Every character on stage represents a gradient of society.

She's an incredibly complex woman: she has come from something and has found herself at sea. What I've found this time around is how extraordinarily Moira's writing lends itself to the theatricality of the crisis. She goes into swathes of poetry - to play that, you have to be in a state. We start in a state of crisis and then it gets worse until we're all quite feral. Added to that is a Miss Marple mystery, and it's only grown in extraordinariness as we've rehearsed. She's a brilliant, brilliant writer, and I hope people see what she's trying to do.

Can the play be condensed into asking a particular question to the audience?

People experience theatre in such individual ways, and it's always to do with their taste, day, experiences, and so people will take from it what they want. If they see it as a whole, I would hope that they see how Moira is asking questions of lots of different things. Ultimately, we've got ourselves into a right mess, and what she's offering as a solution is love, community and listening, but I don't think she's shoving that down our throats. It's about what it means to be human.

Why do you take on a project?

Lots of different things. Often it's life-fit - can I fit with my family and the needs of my kids? Occasionally something comes up that cannot be turned down and we make that work. It's a combination of lots of things, and often it's instinct; sometimes it's the part, the director, the location, the writing and having the chance to have those words in your mouth.

Any actor, particularly older actors with families, will tell you that it's a balancing act - if the opportunity to do something that is creatively exciting is part of that, it's a boon. Returning to The National Theatre takes my breath away - I grew up in south London and this is my eighth show here. Every time it's an honour and a joy.

If you had to be locked in a house on a stormy night with five people, who would they be?

It'd be my family and my best mates. I should say something like people from history, but having gone through lockdown with my family, I realise they're my people.

Manor is at The National Theatre until 1 January 2022.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.

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