Cast

As the cast of Proper Clever prepared to leave the rehearsal room and step on to the Playhouse stage for the first time, we caught up with the actors to find out a bit of behind the scenes goss from Frank Cottrell Boyce’s new show…

RHIAN JAYNE BULL - RACHEL

wants to be friends with everyone

My name is Rhian Jayne Bull and I play Rachel. Rachel is fifteen and in Year Ten. She has a good group of four really good friends but is quite young in her thinking and gets really excitable! She likes rules and order, and likes people to be happy. She knows her place in so much as she is never going to be one of the popular girls - as much as she likes the glitz and the glamour she knows it’s not quite for her but she’s fine with it. She is very loyal, really nice. She really likes Patrick a lot although she doesn’t fully understand what that is yet because she’s a bit naïve and doesn’t really understand her feelings - maybe they’ll come to light in the end! We’ve had a great time in rehearsals and I’ve loved being in Liverpool and at the Playhouse. Can’t wait to get on stage now and see the set to help finish off the show!

SAMANTHA ROBINSON – BEX

doesn’t know who she is yet and wants to inhabit both worlds of the play: Riley and Claire

My name’s Samantha and I’m playing Bex. Bex is at a point in her life where she’s trying to make a big decision - “who am I going to be when I grow up?”. She’s torn between her intelligent book-reading, educated side and her pretty, exciting, party-going side. She’s got to choose which direction she wants to and she’s very, very confused about that. With us all playing teenagers rehearsals have been mental, absolutely mad! There’s been a lot of throwing balls around and jumping on bean bags, just playing about a lot!

ELLENA STACEY – RILEY

‘it’ girl everyone wants to be… a Heat or Closer cover girl; slightly dangerous (J’Mai in Summer Heights High)

My name is Ellena Stacey and I’m playing Riley who is incredibly fun to play because you just get to be completely self-centred, self-obsessed and have a license to just be as vain as you want! She’s the most popular girl at school and everyone wants to be her. She’s very into her fashion, her celebrity magazines and her make-up. And boys as well – anything except school or academia! It’s been really fun to play her! My favourite thing about Riley has gotta be the Mary Poppins style bag that things endlessly come out of. It’s fantastic - it does look kinda big but it’s just like a bright pink tardis! At school I was probably more like Riley than any of the other characters but not to that extreme. I was in a girls school so there wasn’t so much of the boys element but I was definitely more into the other stuff. I was academic as well but I think I was closer to Riley than any of the other characters.

ADAM GILLEN – MATTHEW

genius. No one understands him.

I’m Adam Gillen and I play Matthew. He’s a kind of a slightly precocious very intelligent young man who enjoys dressing like a woman. He enjoys good fun and wants to be older than he is so he can really enjoy nightlife and having real relationships and things like that. I’ve had to get in touch my feminine side for this which I don’t think I needed that much help for! Dressing like a woman makes a nice change too! I’m really looking forward to getting on to the Playhouse stage as I’ve never worked in one of those old music hall style spaces. It’s really beautiful and I’m eager to see what it’ll be like to be on the stage and look out and see what people a hundred years ago saw in the music hall. The whole play’s been great fun to do. This is the first time I’ve been in a play with lots of people around my own age and yeah, it’s been a bit like being back at school actually with Sarah as the naughty girl – she’s trouble!

SARAH OZEKE – CLAIRE

earnest, serious, bookish; although she thinks she’s independent and free spirited

My name is Sarah Ozeke and I play the part of Claire. Claire is a book nerd. She is very intelligent and she wants Becky and the other characters to be her friend and she wants to be the leader of the group. I’ve been at the Playhouse before for Our Country’s Good but the seating was different then and we had the audience behind us so I’m excited to get out there but a little bit nervous too as its different now! Rehearsals have been all about getting in touch with our inner child and we have done a lot of skipping and a lot of Double Dutch. We had to connect with the child within us so I think the cheeky side of us all came out – I definitely wasn’t the naughtiest! At school I think I was more a Riley than a Claire. I was really into boys and things. It is hard to relate to being in your bedroom and just reading books. I was definitely more a Riley than a Claire.

ADETOMIWA EDUN - PATRICK

doesn’t speak for most of the play – uses emoticons and animations will reveal him

My name is Adetomiwa Edun and I play the part of Patrick. Patrick decides he needs to clear his mind so he stops talking for a while. He has a slightly different perspective on life and he decides to tape everything he sees and becomes a watcher rather than a talker. I think he would like to think he was slightly mysterious, a little bit enigmatic. When you’re a teenager you try to make statements which you think are a bit different and unusual, and Patrick definitely fits that. There was definitely a point when I thought ‘right what is the meaning of it all? What is the purpose of life?’ I thought I was getting quite deep and it turns out everyone thinks it.