by Brad Balfour
Portrait by Thomas Lau

Actress Fiona Show comes to this interview behaving less like a movie star and more like a manic ingenue. Her manner is charming and beguiling---at the same time, genuine and sincere. Shaw honed her craft through many theatrical productions but her cinematic experience is far more sparse. Yet, surrounded by several veteran filmatic/theatrical veterans such as Maggie Smith, the lanky, angular Shaw makes the transition smoothly. On the other hand Shaw's collaboration with first time film director Deborah Warner began in 1988 with Sophacles' Electra and includes highly acclaimed productions of Richard II, Samuel Beckett's Footfalls and TS Eliot's The Waste Land.

Shaw is one of those rare actresses who illuminates any production however mainstream or obscure with a certain presence and sharpness of performance. That is certainly true here. Based on Elizabeth Bowen's novel with screenplay by noted author John Banville, The Last September is set in Ireland during the '20s. This high-stepping Anglo-irish extended family headed by Lady Myra (Smith) and Sir Richard Naylor (Michael Gambon) lives on a spectacular- estate in Danielstown, Co. Cork, protected by the English army. This protection creates a sort of prison as well where their minds are shut away from the reality of coming change. The story details the impact a free Ireland has on this household which finds the transition from the landed gentry's life of ease to one where their station is becoming considerably diminished. The personal relationships outlined in this story of the Anglo-irish serves as a metaphor for the corming turmoil. The story highlights the conflicts between their illusions of society as it should be and as it is.

Although they consider themselves Irish, they act as snobbish aristocrats and thus garner the derision of the commonplace Irish folk from the nearby town who see them as outsiders. Their guests include their orphancd niece, 19-year old Lois Farquahr (Keeley Hawes) whose thirst for life, and love invigorates the production and 30-ish Marda Norton (Shaw) who is caught up in the throes of an affair before she settles down to a loveless marriage. As it outlines this end of an aristocracy, this subtle and carefully paced film gave the cast a chance to offers a unique insight into a vanishing era of history.

This movie illuminates a certain period of Irish history.

Irish people are educated not only about artistry but local history. That was an important period for us however, I want the viewers to know that they don't have to know the history to enjoy this film. it's an interesting period. The Anglo-irish did not know the history which is partly why they got themselves into trouble they didn't see that change was coming or that anything was going to happen to them because the Irish were so nice to them. And that's one of the most salutory things about the film and about the multiple Last Septembers that occurred all over Europe during the last century, even in the last decade, when neighbor rose against neighbor and people did not notice because they'd gotten on well. The getting on well is not that the Irish were lying but were subjugated for so long they had begun to accommodate this feudal system. All feudal systems were breaking down all over Europe and there were rumblings of a new world. I suppose the Anglo-irish should have been monitoring this but they just didn't see it coming. That's why it's such a sympathetic portrait because they didn't know what was coming!

Thefilm works on a personal and historical level. Your character, a former bohemian, and the husband-your former lover is now married to the character played by Jane Birkin--do you try to bring him back to your world?

What she is doing is joining the bourgeoisie-actually, the story is told very personally. These people represent things more than represent themselves and that's all for the good. Young Lois represents Anglo-ireland and the fact that she is wooed by both an Englishman and an Irishman who are equally unsuitable for her. I find it really interesting that there is neither a goodie nor a baddie - its that the blame is not resting with one country or another. Marda is from Cork but has relinquished her relationship to Cork, gone to live in London and is going to join the dominant system over there. She is going to marry into the great bourgeoisie of Surrey which will kill her spirit so she will not be able to survive it.

You represent someone trying to push the limit who expressed a kind of foretelling of what was to come in the century--of a changing social order, a dangerous sort. Will American audiences understand?

Oh yes. the type definitely exists in America, for example, Dorothy Parker. That every family is unhappy in its own special way is absolutely what this is about. It's a very strange family they have no children. Lady Myra and Sir Richard have a niece and nephew they take care of, Marda has no children and Lois is prevented from having any, so it is the end of everyone's era, The young girl has different alliances but ultimately knows her roots.

Have you worked with the other actors before?

Michael and I worked for the same company; I worked with Jonathan Slinger in Richard II, who plays the nephew. I knew some of the young Irish actors and of course I knew Jane Birkin and Maggie Smith socially. I didn't know young Lois at all but got to know her--she's lovely. We were brought together the week before by Deborah who shoved us all into this large country house where we lived as a group for a week. Every night there was Maggie and Michael at the head of the table. We did rehearsals, working on accents, dancing and the technical stuff. By the time it came to filming, it wasn't so much that we were bonded but that ranks had formed with Maggie and Michael in charge.

Given your classical training, did you find it an asset making a period piece?

It's a very modern piece but it has a very dense text, very complex sentences with convoluted language, and I believe our classical training made us more prepared for the density of language--to enable us to make it sound real.

What do you think of the Anglo-irish in this story?

They had a kind of joy that the Irish have. They are not snobbish in an obvious sense like regular aristocrats. They had softened because they had lived among the Irish for so long. They delighted in the local people and understood them because they had absorbed some of their Irishness. Hence this is why we produced this phenomenal array of Anglo-irish writers who wrote the language so well such as Yeats. Shawl Oscar Wilde, Beckett (who came from the same geographic area within the same 15 years). It's really unbelievable, isn't it?

There is a natural love of language and articulation in the Irish which is not as instinctual in other cultures.

They did a survey (boy, I'm full of surveys today) and people find that banality sounds so much nicer with an Irish accent. Something about the minor key which softens it.

There is something special about the Irish, their humor. No, the Irish are a dull people who have no wit! (Laughing) There's something about the Irish that is remarkable. To be honest I live among the English and have always found them to be very honest in their business dealings. They are noble, hard-working and anxious to do the right thing. But joy eludes them, they lack the joy that the Irish have. There once was a demographic survey done to determine if money was connected to happiness and Ireland was the only place where this did not turn out to be true. Even when they have nothing, the Irish emit a kind of happiness, a joy. It's a cultural thing and is a fantastic country for the craic (fun)!

What do you think of the American accent?

The Americans are very clear, and obsessed with nouns. They say, I want a CAR, MONEY, a PIZZA. whatever (laughing). They emphasize words. They love nouns.

Where do you live now?

London. But on the weekend I'm going to Ireland for three months and going to visit Mom and Dad in Cork and then I return to Kent for the summer.

What do you want to do in the future?

I am now playing Medea in the Abbey and after that it will be Virginia Woolf. I would love to write the story of my upbringing in Ireland. was brought up in Cork, with people who never ever appear in this film normal educated people who are very funny. The '70s were really honkers but no one writes about it, all they write about are the Irish with pigs in the parlor. Now I have begun to get interested in films and I just hope that people start becoming interested in me to do more films.

What movies or actors do you want to work with?

I haven't been in most movies because I was so focused on theatre but I would love to be part of a well-funded ensemble. Oh, you are talking about a particular name! Well, Meryl Streep, who has been such a big influence on people of my generation. it is marvelous. I would also like to work with American actors because they are all so brilliant; Kevin Kline, Robert DeNiro, all of these great actors, have a relaxed attitude in front of the camera that we, due to our Catholic neuroses, could never hope to have. However. it doesn't matter who you work with because in the end it all depends on the story and I would very much love to work with Neil Jordan again. I just hope he gets busy and asks me very soon! (Laughing).

Deborah Warner : Making the transition from theater to film

Warner may be a new to film-making but not to working with veteran actors such as Shaw. Throughout Europe, Warner is an acclaimed theater director with an extensive resume used to handling everything from stark two character productions to vast and complex operatic events. In fact the blonde, close-cropped vet is still focused on the live stage. Nine years after the award-winning Hedda Gabler at the National Theatre, Dublin's Abbey Theater Associate Director Warner and Shaw return to Creek Tragedy with Medea, by Euripides, the legendary tale of power and destruction. Shaw stars with Patrick O'Kane as Jason at the Abbey's main stage from June 6 to July 1.

You decided to begin at this time given that this is your first film; it's an interesting yet obscure subject.

Neil Jordan sent me the script and I discovered both a beautiful script and in turn, a staggering writer--Elizabeth Bowen. Her writing is cinematic in her attention to detail with an obsessive fascination of the minutiae of domestic life and the wider fascination of the natural world. She described light like no one else. She describes the light in Cork so beautifully with the eye of a watercolorist, which in fact she was trained as. She has an incredible visual eye and an incredible retentive ear. I don't think it's obscure, I think it is far reaching but it is about the loss of things--the story of our lives--although it is particular and dazzling because it is a story of the period that they most know. In the wider sense it is a far reaching story of the pass ing of things. like life, love, time, the last or loss of anything. She was an incredibly absurd woman. This does not need any political or historical preparation because it's an emotional story.

You are used to operas and theatre, was it difficult to adjust to film?

It was an interesting but compelling transition. All these forms of theatre are very similar and related, and if I had not been involved with them I would have been ill prepared for this film. Excitement and terror lie in this thing called the camera and the audience. I now know that it's a different movie depending what kind of audience is watching. A large audience laughs very hard which delights me because I believe there is a lot of humor in this movie. We went to Edinburgh where there was a very large audience but they didn't laugh at all. In Cork, people were falling in the aisles with laughter and I was very happy about that. I had to have authentic Cork people and they absolutely did recognize the Angle-Irish story.

Making a film is different and less immediate.

It's such a huge process and there's so many bits to it that it's hard to generalize. It's very immediate when you're shooting. Correlations between the theatre and movies is that what you are really doing in movies is shooting rehearsal until you are content with it, albeit fully made up, fully costumed, full sets, a bigger production than other disciplines and the finished performance is made much, much later because you are going to edit it together. Opera is a huge combustion of an entire score, a symphony, plus the drama and multiple sets. A lot of theatre I did very untraditionally. One time I used the city of Perth, Australia--on the Angel Project. It was a walk through the city for four-and-a-half hours to experience this event--it's a form of theater--you are interacting with the entire city as you walk along to go to the next venue. There is no film yet that is purely landscape. There is very little film that does not use actors, that does not exploit actors.

You were all in a house for a week to rehearse.

That was a first time director's panic response because I always have about 10 weeks rehearsal and here it was cut to one week. It was a very happy thing that I thought of all of us living in the house and we spent an entire week rehearsing-which actually turned out to be more like three weeks. There were scenes that needed to be excavated, situations between characters that had to be profoundly understood, events to be worked out. And then everyone is rehearsed every day very hard before they shot it so we did three weeks' rehearsal in one. Without that week I would have been in big trouble.

What's next besides Medea?

Great things happen in opera with singers who can really act and can direct and they're moving opera to a place it's never been before. I just opened The St. John Passion, the first staging ever of this in an opera house outside of a church. Have you heard about my Creek chorus idea? Oh, I am so proud. I've cast a Greek choms of eight girls in Medea, four of them are brilliantly bilingual.

Where are you living now?

I live in London but most of my time is spent in France and if hadn't been for that I don't know where my career would have gone. They are incredible supporters of the Arts which allowed me the freedom to experiment.

Would you like to live here?

I'd love to do the Angel Project here in New York. They are a perfect synthesis. However, it's very, very expensive--250,000 quid, a lot of money, but if you can find me someone to finance it. I'd love to do it, it would be absolutely brilliant!