Playing Matilda's mum - "She really, really doesn’t have any redeeming features"
She really, really doesn’t have any redeeming features, says Rebecca Thornhill perfectly happily.
In fact, Mrs Wormwood doesn’t even go on a journey during the show: “She learns absolutely nothing!”
The show is, of course, Matilda the Musical, and it is at The Mayflower Theatre, Southampton from April 29-May 17 with Rebecca firmly in villain territory as poor Matilda’s mother.
“We have been going since October and the houses are packed,” Rebecca says. “I think first of all it's because the young adults are so amazing. Children love coming to see children on stage and seeing what they do but also I think the show is so popular because it makes you laugh and it makes you cry and it makes you think.”
And also it has a lovely message about fighting the bullies.
In the midst of it all is Mrs Wormwood: “She's horribly self-centred. She's the only character that does not really have any journey. She really does learn nothing by the end of it. Her life is just doing what she wants to do. She's ignorant. She loves her dancing and she loves the way she looks. She is all about that and her children just get in the way. Matilda ruins her chances of going into competitions.”
And there is no point pondering her back story: “She is just the way she is. We haven't really gone into the depths of her. Sometimes creating something like that can be very useful for your character but I think it would just be confusing with this. You don't need it. That's all there is to her.
“And it's just lovely to get to play the baddies. I love her costumes. I love that part of it and the fact that she is so self-centred. She has no taste whatsoever. She is flambuoyant and loud and she thinks to get anywhere in life you have to be loud.
“She really does have no redeeming features. She likes her son, which is something, I suppose. She tolerates him but then again he just sits and watches TV so he doesn't get in the way. Really she is just a terrible, terrible mother.”
The tour goes through until February 2027: “But it just goes so fast. We've got a great company, and we do lots of things together. We have got a coffee club and a cribbage club and a running club and a football club. We have a great time together and I just love going for a run.”
Inevitably touring can be tiring: “You have to make sure that you look after yourself. I caught a bug and was off and I'm so pleased I'm back tonight. But you go to the gym and you take your vitamins and you eat properly.
“When we started, 18 months seemed a long time but as I say it really goes so fast. I kept telling everybody at the start that 18 months will be fine. I just said that you should think of it three venues at a time and you get through because we're going to some really great places, some really lovely places.”