Calendar Girls prepare to bare all

Bermuda is about to get an eye-popping theatrical treat as six women prepare to “drop everything for a good cause”.

The upcoming production of Calendar Girls tells the story of a Women’s Institute group in Yorkshire, England, whose members pose naked, covering only the essentials, to raise money for a memorial. The memorial is for the husband of a WI Member who died of Leukemia. All they want is a sofa in his memory for the family room at the hospital but they get a little more than they bargained for. Their creative idea attracts  international media attention and tests friendships along the way.

Nicola Flood, vice president for BMDS found out that the amateur rights to the play by Tim Firth, based on the Miramax motion picture, were up for grabs. Scores of companies are currently staging the show around the world. It is hoped that the play will reach the Guinness Book of Records for most productions of one play.

Money raised from Bermuda’s production, directed by Janice Howell, will go towards PALS, Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre, Friends of Hospice (Agape House) and a small percentage to the BMDS Charitable Trust. What’s more, Alan Brooks, who plays the dying husband, is shaving his hair to help raise even more money for the causes.

The Bermuda Sun caught up with Nicola Flood who plays Chris, the instigator of the calendar, and Carol Birch who plays Jessie, a dry-humoured school teacher with a bunch of witty one-liners.

Have you done any naked run throughs before the show or will you go in cold, so to speak?

NF: Well, I’ve lost my bra a couple of times! (laughs) But other than that we’ve not run through it naked yet — apart from doing the calendar itself when we were running around in Santa hats and high heels, pearls and not a lot else!

CB: We are using props and robes and it takes a lot of blocking to get it right.

NF: Initially we will do it in bathing suits until we have really got it down in rehearsal. We have people stationed around the audience saying “no, no I can see a bit here or there, and move over there a bit.”

Have you had to psychologically prepare yourself for being naked on stage?

CB: I’ve done it in a bathing suit twice now. Once you have done it a couple of times and you are sure of yourself, it’s okay — you just have to be confident of yourself and whatever
happens, happens.

NF: Personally I think I need to embrace the fact that I am naked in order to emulate the character properly. I am Chris — I am doing a calendar to raise money for my best friend’s husband who died suddenly, so therefore I’ve got to lead the pack. I just get into character when I do it.

CB: You have to check yourself at the door as you do with any character and only the character goes out on stage — they are seeing Jessie not Carol.

How have your friends and family reacted to you appearing in this show?

CB: I’ve got two boys in their 30s so I did ask them and they just said “whatever mum”. They are so used to me doing stuff here. We had the photos from the calendar photo shoot and I said do you want to see the photos? And they said “no thank you. We’ll wait for the calendar!”

NF: My husband, I’m sure if he was asked and he was speaking from the heart, he would prefer that I wasn’t doing it but I think he knew from 18 months ago, ever since I’ve been harping on about it, that it wouldn’t matter what he said anyway! My mother on the other hand is extremely proud and now thinks that I am joined at the hip with Helen Mirren (the actress who played her character in the film) — I wish!

The Women’s Institute motto in the play is ‘enlightenment, fun and friendship’. Have you enjoyed this off-stage?

NF: All of us were great friends beforehand so the camaraderie was already there. A few of us have been friends for donkey’s years but now we are all knitted together.

CB: You could almost take that motto and put it on to BMDS because that is basically our motto too.

It is a fun play but there are some serious themes —not least cancer.

CB: We have all been touched by cancer in some way.

NF: I have a very dear friend who is coming through a cancer battle and when I do my big speech at the WI, I am doing it for her from the heart. (She wipes her eyes). I’m crying now thinking about it. I had lunch with her yesterday and she is a very dear friend of mine and she is going to keep on fighting.

CB: My brother he is battling cancer and he has been so funny about it, he has such a dry sense of humour. He’s been keeping our spirits up.

NF: You talk about laughing in the face of it — my friend is so full of it — she’s lost her hair and wears a scraft on her head. Someone asked her if she was a Muslim and she emailed me straight away laughing about it.

CB: It is written in a way that there are poignant moments and you are there and it is gritty, and then suddenly there is a zinger of a line and all of a sudden you are laughing — the play is beautifully written.

Do you have any favourite parts in your roles?

NF: I really do like my big WI speech for lots of reasons — one because of my friend, but also because it is so powerful. And I want to deliver that to the best of my ability.

CB: I’ve got great throw away lines. When I agree to do the calendar I say: “it’s fine but no front bottoms — I reserve that sight for only one man in my life”.

When Annie’s character asks: “Well does your husband mind?” I say “good god love, it was my
husband!”

“It’s just a corker!"