Q&A with Margot Leicester and Andrew Woodall from Admissions at Trafalgar Studios
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Jade Ali
It’s not long before the UK premiere of Broadway's Admissions play starts ticking boxes. To help gear up for its highly anticipated run at Trafalgar Studios, we interviewed two of the show’s prominent actors: Andrew Woodall (AW) and Margot Leicester (ML).
Having recently starred in Solo: A Star Wars Story and appearing in such films as The Man Who Knew Too Little and The Count of Monte Cristo, Woodall is set to portray the role of Bill. Meanwhile, Margot Leicester, who is best known for her Olivier Award-winning role in Broken Glass and for appearing as Camilla in King Charles III for both the made-for-TV movie and the Almeida/Wyndham’s Theatre run, is set to portray Roberta.
This award-winning show, which dares to ask, ‘Do you really care about diversity?’ is set to open on Thursday, 28 February 2019 at Trafalgar Studios. Join the debate and read our Q&A with Margot Leicester and Andrew Woodall below.
Andrew Woodall and Margot Leicester from Admissions sat down with us recently.
Why are you excited about Admissions coming to the West End?
ML: Because it’s a play that clearly resonated with American audiences and connected with peoples’ worries, thoughts and feelings there, which at its best, theatre will do. It’ll connect people. It will help them share what their feelings are about the world they’re living in and I guess that culturally we’re so close to those audiences here in this country. What everyone must have thought is ‘let’s share the play with London audiences and nationally’ because we’re going on tour.
Do you think it will resonate with UK audiences in a similar way?
AW: I do, but not quite in the same way, as we have a slightly different culture here; but I think it’ll resonate because a good play is a good play. It’s a very good play, it’s very entertaining, it’s very thoughtful. It’s amusing, it’s witty and it’s serious, but it’s not too heavy.
ML: It’s also about families; about mums and dads and children, which means whatever the content of it, that form means we’ve all got a way in because even if we’re not a mummy or a daddy, we’ve all been a child and we all can connect up with it in that way.
AW: And even if we haven’t been to university or let alone an American university, we’ve all been through some form of education and we’ve all had these moments in our lives where we’ve had to think about this stuff.
Over in the US, the critics referred to the play as being ‘daring’ and ‘provocative’. Do you agree with these statements?
ML: It’s always provocative for the middle class when their views get challenged but it’s kind of normal really that the young son in it does challenge his parents about how you maybe want to be seen doing the right thing; but actually doing the right thing will cost us all a lot more than just a cosmetic manoeuvre and that’s quite provocative if you’re challenged about a certain strategy you’ve got that makes you feel like you’re living a good life; but perhaps it’s not going to be sufficient as there’s a lot more we’ve got to measure up to. That’s perhaps what the plays pushing at, that real change and being the change you want to see is going to be a lot harder than we all think at the minute. I feel that myself, and maybe that’s what they saw as provocative.
Admissions addresses white privilege at its forefront and is unapologetic in adding to this topical conversation. Why do you think this an important topic that needs to be discussed in 2019?
ML: Because fat old white men have been running the world for far too long and they won’t give up without a struggle.
Admissions is booking at the Trafalgar Studio from 28 February through 25 May.
Book Admissions tickets today from £30!