THE PLAY
This historical play by Canadian writer Vern Thiessen, touches on the little known life of William Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway.
The play starts immediately after Will’s funeral, and Anne has been handed Shakespeare’s last will and testament, by one of her least favourite people, his sister Joan. Anne initially ignores the will itself, and instead spends an hour reminiscing about her life with (or, as it turns out, largely without) Will. After an hour she finally reads the will, and in it finds some quite unexpected surprises.
THE PLAYER
Sally Hyde Lomax
Anne Hathaway
When first asked to do a one woman show, Sally's reaction to the director, Marianne, was: you must be joking! She then went home and read the script, thought about it carefully, and realised that it was a challenge: one that was definitely not going to pass her by. It's not every day that someone thinks that you are capable of holding the stage single handedly for an evening's performance. And this was certainly not every day. And so it was that she took on the part of Anne Hathaway in Shakespeare's Will, initially for Rain or Shine Theatre Company.
Playing a one person part presents enormous challenges for an actor Sally explains, and not one that many actors get a chance to do. She says: when on stage, you get to the end of a dramatic monologue, and then the brain thinks: oh, there's my cue, so that will be me then. Oh yes, and there's my cue again, so that will be me again. Wait a minute, says left hand brain, you just said that phrase in the wrong order. Never mind, says right hand brain, you need to carry on. Meanwhile, mouth is carrying on as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened, and thankfully the audience is blissfully unaware of anything other than a play being performed. At the end of each performance, you almost feel as if you have run a marathon, but unfortunately, the pounds don't seem to fall off in the same way as they would do when running a marathon. Sally has certainly risen to the challenge in hand however, and loves playing Anne Hathaway for each and every performance.
Sally previously acted for Rain or Shine Theatre Compnay as Mrs Otis in their 2010 production of Canterville Ghost. and she was delighted when she was first given the opportunity to return to Rain or Shine to play Anne Hathaway in Shakespeare's Will. Recently Sally has acted for See Learning corporate films, as a stern dance examiner, and for Wireless Theatre Company, in one of their live recordings, as Margaret in Crooker's Kingdom. Other roles include; Angela in "Reproduction Les Pauls, in the Everyman Studio Theatre, Maria in "Snowbound Treasure" for Daylight Theatre Company; and Carrie in "Chancers" for The Fabulous Gloucester Old Spot Theatre Company. Sally is a regular medical role player for Bristol and Oxford Universities and Fluellen Theatre Company. As a voice over artist she has in the past provided voices for BT, The Discovery Channel/ Lion TV in Versailles Uncovered, Balance Learning for their customer service programme, and as an audio book narrator. Sally jointly set up and ran Pippin Alley Theatre Company in Northern Ireland, a theatre for young audiences company and toured primary schools throughout Northern Ireland from 1995 to 1999.
Sally trained at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and currently lives in Birmingham with her family.