A STUDLEY actress is continuing to draw on the success of winning a UK Theatre Award by making her stage debut as a playwright.
Polly Lister, originally of New Road, took home the Best Performance in a Play accolade for her role as Beverly in Abigail’s Party, a Theatre by the Lake production, in October.
And now the 41-year-old, who first found fame treading the boards at Redditch’s very own Palace Theatre, has penned her own personal journey of the comic highs and painful lows of the most difficult part she has ever played – a wife.
‘I Was A Wife’, due to premier at Lancaster’s The Dukes theatre from January 28 to February 6, is Polly’s first play and a result of a Dukes initiative – Kick Start – which allows audiences to offer feedback on the development of a new play.
“It’s the first time I’ve written a play and first time I’ve done a one-woman show so it’s a real baptism of fire,” Polly said.
The show tells the highlights of the marriage proposal, the wedding itself and the lows of being asked for a divorce just months later without being told why.
“Not every divorce is the same,” Polly added. “But this is for anyone who has felt injustice because they’re not wanted any more – professionally or personally.”
The budding playwright got her first taste of the theatre at the town’s Alcester Street playhouse in 1981 where she saw The Fire Dragon as a treat for her seventh birthday. And just a year later she took to the stage as Marta in a production of the Sound of Music.
At 15, Polly became one of the youngest people to be accepted into the National Youth Theatre and went on to graduate from Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre – making her professional debut in Macbeth which opened at the Palace in February 9, 2000.
Speaking at the time, Polly said: “I’d always wanted to act professionally at the Palace, it was a big ambition to come home to where I first fell in love with the theatre.”
This year sees Polly’s 20th anniversary as a professional actress and a career which has seen her on stage, screen, radio and touring the world.
To book for ‘I Was A Wife’, age guidance 12+, visit www.dukes-lancaster.org or call The Dukes box office on 01524 598500.
