Christopher Hansford talks to Harriet Walter who comes to Bath Literature Festival to appear in the drama Hanged for Love
If you haven't seen Shakespearean actress Harriet Walter at the Theatre Royal Bath in any one of half a dozen productions staged in recent years, you will probably have seen her in the nation's favourite upper crust TV drama, Downton Abbey last year.
She had a cameo role in the last series and will be back again in the new one which, she says, she understands is due to be shown later this year. She says: "I was delighted to be asked to take part but it was a bit like being invited to join an established family where everyone knew each other. It was also very odd though going to rehearsals and seeing them all in modern dress."
In the meantime though Harriet is returning to Bath for the annual Literature Festival next month following her appearance there last year. The courtroom scene from To Kill a Mockingbird was so successful that an extra performance had to be held to keep pace with demand for tickets.
This year she returns to take part in another courtroom drama Hanged for Love the real life story of a pair of lovers hanged for a London murder in the 1920s.
Hanged for Love, like the previous year's offering is directed by Marilyn Imrie, wife of former festival director James Runcie and will be held in the atmospheric setting of the council chamber at the Guildhall.
Hanged for Love: the Trial of Edith Thompson and Freddie Bywaters is the extraordinary love story revealed as the lovers' letters are read out in court as part of the evidence. As well as Harriet the new work stars actors from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School with music by Sally Davies and Martina Schwarz and their duo Bow and Bellows.
The play is set on January 9 1923 when Thompson and her lover Frederick Bywaters were hanged in London having been found guilty of her husband's murder.
Edith Thompson, who was born on Christmas Day in 1893, and Frederick Bywaters were executed for the murder of Thompson's husband, Percy. Their case became a bit of a cause célèbre with almost one million people signing a petition against the imposed death sentences.
On October 3 1922 the Thompsons attended a performance at the Criterion Theatre in London's Piccadilly Circus and were returning home, when a man jumped out from behind some bushes near their home, and attacked Percy. After a violent struggle, during which Edith Thompson was also knocked to the ground, Percy was stabbed. Mortally wounded, he died before Edith could summon help. At the police station she appeared distressed and confided to police that she knew who the killer was, and named Freddy Bywaters. Believing herself to be a witness, rather than an accomplice, Thompson provided them with details of her association with Bywaters.
As police investigated further they arrested Bywaters, and upon discovering a series of more than 60 love letters from Edith Thompson to Bywaters, arrested her, too. The letters were the only tangible evidence linking Edith Thompson to the murder, and allowed for the consideration of what's called common purpose, namely that if two people want to achieve the death of a third, and one of these people acts on the expressed intentions of both, both are equally guilty by law. They were each charged with murder and later hanged. As the guilty verdict was announced Thompson became hysterical and started screaming in the court, while Bywaters loudly protested Thompson's innocence. If you visit Madame Tussaud's you will probably see Thompson's and Bywaters' likenesses preserved in wax.
Harriet is enthusiastic about the production which she explains is very different from performing either on stage or on a TV or film set.
"As we discovered last year, the audience is even more part of the performance than when the play is on stage and each member gets involved in a very personal way as though they were actually there at the time the events took place.
"And last year that was the same for the actors. Sometime it was actually very hard to speak because it was so moving.
"There are obviously difficulties with this kind of production because for afternoon performances you are appearing in broad daylight."
Harriet says that she had vaguely heard about the murderers but has been horrified to find how the horrific treatment of criminals like Edith Thompson was actually such a short time ago. Not only was Thompson hanged but the procedure itself went badly wrong.
"Again the actors and the audience will feel so close to the events of all those years ago," she says.
Harriet, who was made a dame in the 2011 New Year's Honours, is one of Britain's most accomplished actors. If you Google her there are long lists for her performances on stage, in film and on TV. She has played at the Theatre Royal Bath no fewer than six times over the years, the most recent visit being when she appeared in a revival of Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea.
Harriet's recent film credits include The Young Victoria, Atonement, Bright Young Things, Sense and Sensibility and Louis Malle's Milou et Mai.
In Downton Abbey she plays Lady Shackleton a friend of the Dowager Countess played Dame Maggie Smith who in the last series invited her to lunch with the ulterior motive of persuading her to employ the valet Alfred Moseley as her butler. "One of the great delights of working on Downton was spending the day with Maggie Smith," says Harriet.
Meanwhile she has a new film Suite Francaise coming out later this year and when she comes to Bath will have just finished shooting Man Up a romantic comedy starring Lake Bell and Simon Pegg.
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