Griff Rhys Jones and Janie Dee share the stage in Brighton and Eastbourne

Griff Rhys Jones and Janie Dee share the stage in a drama which will take us right into the heart of their characters’ marriage.
AN HOUR AND A HALF LATE Griff Rhys Jones (Peter) and Janie Dee (Laura) © Marc BrennerAN HOUR AND A HALF LATE Griff Rhys Jones (Peter) and Janie Dee (Laura) © Marc Brenner
AN HOUR AND A HALF LATE Griff Rhys Jones (Peter) and Janie Dee (Laura) © Marc Brenner

An Hour and a Half Late by Gerald Sibleyras with Jean Dell has been adapted and directed by Belinda Lang.

Playing Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne from March 7-12 and Theatre Royal Brighton from March 21-26, it comes promised as a “devastatingly funny” portrait of a couple whose five minutes of candid conversation launches an outpouring of emotions, home truths, wine, nibbles and anarchy. Life seems good for Peter and Linda Travers. Home is a luxury riverside apartment. Their third child has finally moved out and they have more money than they know what to do with. They are just about to leave and meet friends to celebrate a lucrative business deal when Linda drops a bombshell – she’s not going...

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Janie explains: “The piece is a two-hander and I have done a couple of two-handers in my time. I think it’s a very precious thing when you have got just two people and you’re moving through the play. In this case it is a pretty intimate piece. You get to see people at home and I mean really at home. It’s like being a fly on the wall. And in the play this couple are at a point in their marriage where they have fallen into a pattern which is acceptable to him but it is different for her. The piece is about marriage but it is also about the power of words, the power of interaction and the power of being with another person. And I find myself thinking about its potential and I do think it will be sparking something in people. If some people just come and have a good laugh and then go home, then that’s great. That is enough but I do think it is a bit more than that and I like this writer. He is definitely looking for more than a laugh. But the great thing about working with Griff is that I’m working with somebody that literally makes me want to wet myself laughing all the time. He is so funny but he is also so very generous. He is very experienced at doing two-handers obviously. He worked with Mel Smith for so long and I think that’s part of what makes Griff so unafraid. He is so ridiculously brave. He inspires me and he electrifies me.”

It comes as we all emerge from difficult times: “I looked at lockdown as a chance to be with my dad,” Janie says. “I was with him so much more than I would have been otherwise and I was with him when he died. I felt that he had a triumphant time. He lived through it all and he made the most of his last three years and then when he got really really unwell, he said to my niece ‘I think I will be off now.’ He said ‘I think I’ve had enough’ and he just went to sleep. He just handled the whole thing so wonderfully and I had that time with him. He was so brave and I was able to say a lot of things to him, a lot of thank yous. It was not that straightforward but it was really nice and all I could think of was all the good that he had done. It was good to be able to say thank you and it brought us all together. We four sisters were closer than we have ever been in our lives and that alone was a beautiful thing.”

Another positive was the way we started to change towards the environment: “I just don’t want us to go back to the way it was and I find just personally I appreciate everything all the more now. I really love every second of my day, my chats with people, my meetings with people and just be rehearsing again, to be in the same room again as people and be eating with people. We slowed down and I don’t want to ever go that fast again. I want to be able to stop when I want to and to be able to say that’s enough.”

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Just before the start of the first lockdown she was trying to do so much that it was just exhausting: “I was doing three things and I just remember going into a room and closing my eyes just so that I could have five minutes, just a little moment to myself. Then when the plug was pulled it was fantastic for about six weeks.” Janie was delighted to take to the stage for two shows – including Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike – when it was possible to return to the stage, so certainly she didn’t stop working but the whole experience made her appreciate the value of balance in life: “If you are just working and pushing and pushing yourself and not thinking about your environment or your health, you are not going to be in a good state if you do catch Covid or something. We do need to look after ourselves, don’t we. But I do feel confident now. We are starting to see the decreasing power of the virus. But I do think I’ve been changed by the experience.”

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