Eastbourne : How the mum role became the Meryl Streep role in Mamma Mia

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Playing the mother – Donna – is Sara Poyzer on a tour which started at the end of January: “But we did actually do a short stint last summer at Harewood House outdoors and it was the first time that it had been done outdoors. They erected a big concert stage and we were there for six weeks, I think, and it did rain twice. We were all covered on stage but you know what the British public alike! They are just fantastic. They just sat there and watched and they loved it but yes it is nice to be back inside the confines of a theatre!

“And I do think that people are really in the mood to go out and just to have a great time.

“I have been involved with the show for eight or nine years now and obviously I know the show inside out, but I do think that it does feel different now. It feels like there is a bigger appreciation of it, not just from the cast but also from the audiences. It really feels like Mamma Mia is the one to see.

“I have always been Donna and when I started it was always known as the mum role and then the film came out and for everyone it was then known as the Meryl Streep role. It really did feel like it changed or at least the expectations changed but also as I’ve grown older I do think my interpretation has changed. The directors are always trying to push me to see different things in it every time. If I didn’t, that’s the way that madness would lie. They encourage me to look at it in different ways and that certainly makes it interesting. I’m talking about the way she deals with the stresses of the situation and also the painful events from the past, the varying degrees of distress and deceit and guilt and so on. You have to make a choice about these things but it is also instinctive in some ways. One day you might make her more vulnerable and less angry, but also I am eight or nine years older now and I am different. Sometimes it’s choice but I think the two important things are how I am feeling on the day and also who I am now. And that just keeps it all fresh. The stage version is the original and therefore it’s the one that I go by. I prefer it on stage. The film cast a huge net in terms of the audience and the great thing was that I do think it broadened the audience. Before it was a girls’ night out type show or weekend show. It changed the dynamic and it’s now very much a family show for children as well. You get all the generations coming along so yes, certainly the film changed demographic because who wouldn’t want to see Meryl Streep!”

So how does Sara deal with those Meryl Streep expectations that understandably quite a few people might come along to the theatre with?: “I do sort of look like Meryl Streep. I’m cut from the same cloth in a way and Judi Dench once said a lovely thing, that if you see something as an actor that you like, then steal it! And I have done. Meryl is the master. You watch and some of the choices that she makes are just so sublime that you’ve got to learn.”

Whether there will one day be a Mama Mia 2 on stage, Sara doesn’t know: “But you would never say never. I think it would be tricky because of the two timelines going back and forth but who knows it could happen one day.”

But in the meantime, enjoy Mamma Mia 1: “I was lucky enough to be out in Croatia when they were filming the second one and the vibe around the film was very much like the vibe but that we have on tour.

There is just something that is so lovely, a really feel good gorgeous atmosphere around the whole thing all the time.”

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