West End performer Carrie Hope Fletcher tells Jane McGowan why she is looking forward to swapping Broadway for Brecht ahead of her arrival at the Rose Theatre, Kingston
Carrie Hope Fletcher has certainly packed a lot into her 29 years. Equally respected as a singer, actress, author and vlogger, it would be fair to say that the star, who is due to appear as Grusha in the Rose Theatre’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle this month, likes to keep herself busy.
“I don’t like sitting still for too long,” she admits. “I am currently writing my third children’s novel too so yes, I am constantly spinning plates. But I love it.”
The performer, sister of pop band McFly stalwart Tom Fletcher and sister-in-law of the equally ubiquitous author, actress and podcaster Giovanna Fletcher, started early - one of her first roles, aged just five years old, was alongside Frazier star Kelsey Grammar in a breakfast cereal commercial.
From there she progressed to the West End stage to star as Jemima Potts in the 2002 original production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang before landing the part of Jane Banks in Mary Poppins in 2004. A year later she made her debut in Les Miserables as Young Éponine - a show she would go on to star in a number of times as both the grown-up Éponine and the equally tragic Fantine.
With leading roles in Heathers, The Addams Family and Lord Andrew Lloyd’s Weber’s Cinderella, she has become the producer’s go-to girl if they are looking for a musical smash.
But now Carrie is stepping away from the sequins and sparkle to take on one of 20th-century theatre’s hardest-hitting dramatic roles.
“It is a really interesting and different thing for me to do,” admits Carrie. “This is my first taste of Brecht - I have never studied any Brecht, I have never even read any Brecht but luckily we went through it word for word and line by line, which was absolutely fine by me.”
Written in 1944, the Caucasian Chalk Circle is considered to be one of the finest examples of Bertolt Brecht’s ‘epic theatre’. Working at times as a play within a play, the plot features a doomed romance, a loveless marriage and a political uprising.
Originally set in the 14th century, its themes of social division, corruption and injustice are refrains that many people will recognise within today’s society.
“The best kind of stories are the ones that have a broader message that is why they become famous,” she says. “Stories such as Chalk Circle have a core message that just keeps repeating through history and people sometimes need to be reminded about what has gone before.”
Early on in the play, Carrie’s character Grusha becomes a mother, taking responsibility for someone else’s child. And while Carrie herself has yet to go down the path of motherhood, she has become almost as celebrated for her maternal instincts and caring nature as much as for her performance abilities.
Her YouTube channel has in excess of 650,000 young subscribers who often look to her for support and guidance and in 2015 she published All I Know, an honest, ‘self-help’ book designed to help youngsters negotiate teenagerdom and beyond.
Often described as ‘everyone’s favourite big sister’, Carrie says it’s a role she inhabits both in her professional and personal life.
“The closest I have ever come to playing a mother before is Fantine in Les Miserables, so that was an area of the Chalk Circle I wanted to explore. But yeah, that’s the kind of role in my friend group too. I am always the one checking whether everyone has everything they need, is everyone happy - has everyone been to the toilet, has everyone got a tissue? I get it from my Nan - she is very much that type of person.
“We used to make fun of her because she had a ‘just-in-case bag’ which was filled with everything that anyone could ever need, but never did. But it was there ‘just in case’. And that is very much who I have become. I have learnt from the best.”
Carrie was an early adopter of social media, embracing the platform as a means to connect not only with musical theatre fans but with people of a similar age who (at the time) may have been dealing with a range of issues, as well as feelings of loneliness and isolation.
She has shared her own mental health journey too, making no secret of the times when she has had to step away for a period to administer a little ‘self-care’. The cause, as she has discussed in the past, is her tendency to say ‘yes’ to everything. But it is a problem, she admits, that comes from liking what you do too much.
“The only reason I ever take on anything is because I enjoy it. I am so lucky to do a job that I enjoy so much that I want to do it even when I am meant to be sleeping, resting or watching something on Netflix.
“In a way, each part of my career is just one aspect of the same thing which is storytelling. Whether that’s me making videos - telling the stories of my life to let people know what I am up to - or a book in which I tell the stories of the characters and worlds I have made up or when I am on stage, telling someone else’s story.
“None of it feels too different from each other which is why I think I am constantly busy - it is because the lines between all of them are very blurred.”
The last few weeks have been a prime example as during the early rehearsal period for the Rose production, Carrie was also starring in Treason the Musical - a new take on the Gunpowder Plot in London’s Cadogan Hall.
“I was coming into rehearsals here at 9am until 5pm and then going straight to perform in the evening. I was absolutely knackered, but not once did I go, ‘I absolutely hate this’. I love every second of it. It is so creative and hands-on. For most people discussing every single line and word of a Brecht play might not be their idea of fun, but that is exactly what I love.”
Following the three-week run of The Caucasian Chalk Circle in Kingston, Carrie will start preparing for her role as evil fairy Carabosse opposite Strictly winner Ore Oduba in Sleeping Beauty in Canterbury. Interestingly, and with such a history in the industry, the show marks her first foray into a showbiz’ staple.
“This year has been a bit of a funny old year,” she says. “I started off in Cinderella and then we were closed for lockdown and then back on again and then it closed completely. I then started Treason where I was playing a very serious role as the wife of a traitor, then Brecht and then finishing with a panto.
“Yes, my life has been on a very strange journey over the past 12 months but I think it will be the most interesting year I have ever had too. I have definitely stretched my creativity,” she laughs. “To be honest after the pandemic no one knew what the industry would look like or whether it would come back at all. I think everyone who works in theatre is so grateful to be working. I am just thankful to be able to do what I do.”
The Caucasian Chalk Circle is the Rose Theatre, Kingston until October 22.
Check out our review of The Caucasian Chalk Circle and book your tickets here.
