The darker side of Marion Tait

03 November 2010

'Marion's building quite a reputation for playing rather vicious women!' smiled Director David Bintley at this year's 20th anniversary galas, before remarking that the delightful devilment that she portrays on stage couldn't be further from the warmth and kindness of her real off-stage character.

As she creates yet another petrifying part for David's new production of Cinderella, here are the five Marion Tait characters that we wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of!

1. Carabosse
The Sleeping Beauty

It was Peter Wright, then Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, who suggested that Marion take on the role of the Wicked Fairy in his own production of The Sleeping Beauty.

Until that moment she had never considered the part, which sees her curse the young Princess in retaliation for being shunned from the birthday celebrations. However her indomitable performances have since won her legions of new fans and garnered her countless column inches from critics singing her praises. David Bintley describes her turn as the wicked fairy as 'evil personified'.

With every new season of the ballet, Marion continues to develop the role. 'When Carabosse first arrives on stage, in the opening scene at Aurora's Christening, she's obviously trying to contain her anger,' she explains. 'Then has these sudden outbursts.

'Over the years I've sort of peeled it down and down and hunted for more smouldering, still moments. If you're agitated all the time it's just a frenetic mad woman and she's not that at all.

She's building up inside until this pressure cooker goes off and she launches into the King and Queen saying "You forgot to invite me!"'

2. Grandmère
Beauty and the Beast

Right from the off, David Bintley was keen that the animal inhabitants of the beast's castle would act as a parallel to the oafish family that Belle had left behind – with the latter exhibiting the more 'beastly' behaviour.

As such, her father's house is filled with charlatans, harridans and fair-weather friends, the jewel in the crown being the cantankerous Grandmère.

'Everyone just forgives her bad behaviour because she's old!' smiles Marion. 'I think that must be one of the privileges of being old - you can do exactly as you like and no-one tells you off. Heaven knows what other bad habits she's got!'

Physically the role is the most demanding of the list. 'It makes me laugh because even though I'm small, I have to stoop further to make myself as short as possible. It's agony on my back!'

Beauty and the Beast can also prove agonizing for whoever has to play Belle's father. An altercation between him and Grandmère sees the tiny tyrant administer a sharp blow to her partner's shin with a walking stick.

'When we first created the piece it was actually Desmond [Kelly] playing the role and I gave him such a clonk!' laughs Marion. 'It was real stick on bone and he was in absolute agony. Desmond used to say "I'll be fine!" but he soon got wise to it. Since then whoever plays the father wears a shin pad which of course makes a wonderful noise!'

Click below to watch footage of David discussing Marion's tyrannical roles, including an excerpt of her performing the role of Grandmére in Beauty and the Beast

3. Wicked Stepmother
Cinderella

With David now creating a new full-length fairytale ballet, Cinderella, he has called on Marion for one of the piece's most pivotal roles. Marion reveals that the Stepmother will be a much more subtle creation than the others on this list.

'She's a very different character,' she says slowly. 'The thing that worries me is that she is the most evil of evil people - sinisterly evil.'

Marion becomes more animated again as we discuss the process of defining the role. 'Wicked characters are great, like any character role you just have to make sure that you inhabit that person and then hopefully everything comes out naturally and you behave as that person would genuinely behave.

'David [Bintley] has given me a pointer as to how he originally envisaged the Wicked Stepmother,' she reveals. 'He actually said he loves the restraint of the stepmother in the Disney version. I actually hadn't seen it, but he told me that she speaks very quietly, and she never raises her voice.' Marion beams with delight before adding: 'that immediately gives me shivers just thinking about it! It's very different from all these other characters that I've played.

'It's probably going to be an example of the Michael Caine school of acting - one eyebrow, and one move of the eyes rather than the whole head. Hopefully if you've got the audience gripped you'll draw them in and they will see every little movement. There won't be huge gestures or huge stamping, stomping, angry moments. It will be much more calm and sinister than that – at least to begin with!'

4. Lizzie Borden
Fall River Legend

Lizzie Borden was the infamous prime suspect at the centre of a murder trial in the late 1800s, following the grizzly murders of her father and stepmother with a hatchet. While she was eventually acquitted, nobody else was ever arrested or charged with the killings, and many believe Lizzie to be guilty of the violent crime, fuelled by speculation over her mental health.

'It's called Fall River Legend because it happened in Fall River,' Marion explains of the ballet based on the events. 'It was Agnes de Mille's choreography and Peter [Wright] knew it. Peter has this fantastic repository of repertoire that he knows. That's what being in theatre for so long does!'

In terms of the central character, Marion believes her motives were quite simple. 'Lizzie Borden was nutty!' she grins. 'She had gremlins inside her head. You can't equate her to all the others in this list because I guess she just had voices talking to her.'

'Another of the central figures is Lizzie's stepmother who's just so disturbing,' explains Marion. 'She creeps around and she has this one mannerism in particular: she keeps stroking her face with her fourth finger, like she's scratching an itch.'

Marion explains how it was this creepy mother figure who no doubt led Lizzie to turn out so strangely, exclaiming: 'Lizzie Borden is Cinderella but without the fairytale ending! I've just realised that!'

5. Marion Tait
Disciplinarian

Finally, as Ballet Mistress for Birmingham Royal Ballet, there are (admittedly very rare) occasions when Marion has to turn 'bad cop'. On stage as Carabosse she can unleash a stare that almost turns a King and Queen to stone, but as Ballet Mistress she finds rapping a dancer's knuckles significantly more difficult.

'I find it upsetting that it's necessary, but thankfully it's a very, very rare occasion when I have to properly tell someone off. Because I'm normally quite jovial, I think that the minute my serious face comes on, they know!'

'It'll normally be for just careless little things - somebody who's not giving their all at the back of a mime scene while one of their colleagues is giving their all right in front of them. It just sickens me to think that someone hasn't got the conscience to do their utmost for that performance.'

The ballet world is traditionally considered to be quite dog-eat-dog in nature, with dancers placed under immense pressure to perform at an optimum level. But if that were ever the case, Marion feels that things are very different now.

'It's changed a great deal for the better,' she says, 'specifically in the way that people are treated. Years ago, if you made a mistake, you would be shamed into never daring to do anything wrong ever again! But I believe we actually get better performances by taking a more nurturing approach, by being encouraging. All of our dancers want to give the best performance they possibly can, they just sometimes need guidance as to how that should happen.'

'I can remember when we used to perform in London the Ballet Staff would all stress to us that we would be dancing in front of the national critics; I didn't feel it was necessary to say that! The dancers know that - they're not going to do their worst ever performance on opening night in London are they?! They all want it to be a great show, and that's the same every night, wherever we are.'