Process Conversations
   Director Lucy Smith Conroy
   Lettice and Lovage's Lettice Douffet, Patricia Hodges
by Ben Calvert, Production Dramaturg

Royal Departures
by Ben Calvert, Production Dramaturg

Peter Shaffer
A biography of the Lettice and Lovage playwright

A Recipe for Potato and Lovage Soup

A Glossary of Key Architectural Terms

Process Conversations
by Ben Calvert, Production Dramaturg
Production Dramaturg Ben Calvert sat down with Lettice and Lovage
Director Lucy Smith Conroy on a break at Court’s rehearsal hall in Hyde Park.

Ben Calvert It’s great to see you again. It’s been about two seasons since you were last at Court directing Fräulein Else?

Lucy Smith Conroy Yes, I think so.

BC Lettice and Lovage is just a little different than Fräulein Else, isn’t it?

LSC In so many ways. I have to say it’s very refreshing to work on a play that’s about two people sitting in a living room talking to each other.

BC Two people hanging out… talking about history... What was it that attracted you to this play? When did you get hooked?

LSC About a year and a half ago, Charlie [Artistic Director Charles Newell] called me and said, “I have a play you must direct.” Of course, I was intrigued, so I went out and bought the play and read it immediately. Initially, I thought, “Okay, it’s a great, big, fun comedy. I’d enjoy working on one of those, for a change.” But I wasn’t quite sure why Charlie was so passionate about me directing the piece.

BC But then you read it again ...

LSC Yes, and I realized that this play is not about history, it’s not about architecture— it’s about the theater. To paraphrase, it’s about sitting on the ground around a campfire, and telling stories about the deaths of kings. That experience can change our lives. Suddenly, someone stands up, takes on a role, and theater is born.

BC That is so you. It’s how we’re all getting into the play as we’re working on it.

LSC Exactly. And to me, what hooked me was Act III. I love Act I and Act II [the parts before
intermission], because that’s where we meet these two wonderful women and watch them forge a relationship. But Act III is where it all comes together for Lettice and Lotte.

BC And it’s where we begin to understand how that sense of play and need for language and trying on different roles can really bring people out of their solitary lives. Where else is that happening but in a theatre?

LSC Whatever form the stage may take.

BC Exactly. Act III is all about the drama unfolding in “real life” for these ladies.

LSC Yes. There are really high stakes, misunderstandings, and a set of circumstances which will seem totally bizarre to most people. But that’s what makes this play both moving and hilarious.

BC And in today’s world, when are we shown people as large as Lettice Douffet?

LSC At the theatre!

Back to top

Ben Calvert caught up with Patricia Hodges, who plays Lettice Douffet in Court’s production, walking back to her apartment after a day of rehearsal.

Ben Calvert So, Ms. Hodges… The first day of rehearsal you said you were hurtling towards this play. You just came from St. Louis where you played Flora Humble in Humble Boy, you literally closed the show and a day later you were up here ready to work.

Patricia Hodges It’s lucky, of course, to have work like this… I had a little break between doing Humble Boy at Pioneer Theatre Company in Utah and then doing a different production in the same role at St. Louis Repertory.

BC You had the lines already down but you had to work your way into a new production? How was that?

PH Wild. Absolutely wild. But you find your way into the rhythms of a new cast and a totally different playing space and come up with something else that’s also right.

BC And now you’re here as Lettice Douffet, a woman who hurtles herself at the present by embracing the past.

PH And that leads into understanding Lettice. We get a taste of that at the beginning with the tours she’s enlightening and embellishing the past with a little romatic fire. And then together Lettice and Lotte find a way to hurtle themselves at the present, which for them is the real adventure.

BC Like Lucy was saying, it’s a simpler thing about sharing and talking and being in a room with someone as opposed to being off alone by yourself.

PH I used to perform to old recordings of Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Little Red Riding Hood for my mother, which certainly is there in the play. Coming from growing up on a chicken farm in Washington state, you’re surrounded by nature, and riding horses. But when you’re in a city, when I moved to New York, there’s so much drama! Walking down the street each block is a different event!

BC That’s fantastic! You sort of have to embrace everything around you when you’re thinking about performing Lettice Douffet.

PH You must embrace it! You know, when I found out I was doing this role, I was sitting in a meadow and this group of girls came around and started playing Lacrosse. And all of a sudden it was so French countryside performing history plays with, you know, that group of “Gallic girls when their dander is really up!” You can’t walk away from that, man, you just have to go with it.

BC So how does embracing the present as Patricia help Lettice recreate the past, which she holds so dear to her?

PH It’s not just about recreating the past, it’s about gaining strength from the past and using that to live in the Present and Future with the people around you. Certainly understanding the people Lettice and Lotte re-create can’t not effect me as an actor, and it’s been fun thinking about, you know, Mary Queen of Scots in her final moments. Facing the executioner with this regal glow and at the same time comforting her handmaids. It’s absolutely fantastic stuff.

BC And then she gets her head chopped off.

PH Whack! But after you understand these larger than life historical figures, you know, walking around in their shoes for a time, you have to put that work into practice in the way you live the Present. And the Future. Which is hopefully what we’ve got at the end of the play if we’ve earned it.

BC So for the Future…. What are you going to do after this show?

PH After this show I’m going to have to lie down for a little bit.

Back to top