I had the pleasure of having a very interesting conversation with actor Harmony Rose-Bremner who is currently starring in The Years at the Harold Pinter Theatre.
The Years spans multiple decades, with five actors, including yourself, playing the same character. How did you and the cast work together to maintain a consistent through line for the protagonist across the different stages of life?
I initially thought we would all have to adopt the same characteristics, but in Eline’s vision, and rightly so, a human being goes through stages in life and is never exactly the same person they were ten years ago. It’s embracing the different people that we can be and the different selves that we accumulate over time, from our initial essence to when we get older. Rather than trying to be the same person, we embraced our differences and focussed on understanding who Annie was as a real person.
How did you prepare for the role?
It’s always different. I have a toolbox of things that can be useful to get into a character’s mindset, whether by really analysing the text or working from the outside in, including physicality. But with every project, I’m always surprised by how I need a different tool from the time before. This time, there was a lot of research. The time period was important because I’ve obviously never experienced the 1950s. It actually became a little less important than I thought it was going to be. The main thing was understand as much as I could about Annie and the way her brain works. It was surprisingly easy, because there’s so many of her books out there that are autobiographical. All I had to do is just read them, which was a joy. I just really wanted to get to know Annie.
What is it that you love most about the version of your character that you played?
There’s just something really nice about going back to a child’s mindset, and being on the precipice of the possibilities of what life can hold. It’s a very exciting and inspiring place to be. It’s very uplifting to play Annie 1, because you don’t know about all of the difficulties of life yet, and it’s all unknown and exciting. Also there’s a lot of scenes where I get to be in a family setting. And there’s something really nice about getting to sit in just a big family dinner. Every night really is a joy.
How was it to go through that process of forgetting what happens later on in the characters life and what do you think this first version of the character imagines, expects or predicts about her own future?
It’s a nice acting challenge each night to have to forget everything I know and rediscover it all over again. In life, when something bad happens, you can either sit in it or start afresh with a hopeful mindset. Even in Annie’s books, she seems older than her years. Though it’s not deeply explored in the play, some of the difficulties of her upbringing lend themselves to a more adult mind. I think she has big expectations for her life. She wants to rise above herself again and again, but at this stage, I don’t think she knows what shape that will take.
Working with director Eline Arbo, how did their vision of the piece influence your performance?
Eline is one of the smartest and most compassionate people I’ve met, let alone worked with. Since she had directed the play before, she knew exactly what she wanted, but what came across was a real lack of ego and a real consideration and interest in what each actor brings to their part. Instead of telling you how to do it, she has this amazing way of drip feeding you suggestions and to blow you in the direction of the end goal. She’s full of freedom.
Live music is integral to the piece and you played a key role in this with your singing and drumming. What was this part of the process like?
It was great because Thijs, the musical director, and Eline worked so closely. There’s such a respect for the blending of these disciplines when storytelling. And Thijs is very musically gifted, sees the musician inside of everyone and knows how to eke it out naturally. I had never played the drums before I started this process. So when I knew I was going to be having to play the drums and sing this really extreme song- I was terrified. I really thought it’s going to take a lot of hours of really strict, intense, disciplined music practice with a drum teacher. But Thijs told me, ‘You got it. You know the rhythm. You feel it.’ He let the music naturally flow through him and through me and suddenly I was playing the drums. It was a very inspiring way to work. I had to see using the drums as another element of the storytelling, as a conductor of emotion and feelings. There’s a part in the play where Gina’s Annie is surrendering to a kind of freedom. Instead of thinking, I need to hit the beats, I understood that these drums are also breaking free and my voice in this moment is also breaking free. Thinking about it like that made things a lot easier.
The Years explores the female experience over the last century. Why do you think telling these stories is particularly important today?
People have a lot of intense reactions to the play and especially at a moment where there’s a part of a female experience that is portrayed very honestly and unfiltered. The whole play is not subject to a female experience through the male gaze. The industry is changing and there are more female stories being told not to be palatable or desirable or to appease to the male gaze, but with a real honesty in the way that female stories are told. I think it’s just a testament to the strength of all of the women involved in making this piece that it’s telling the female experience but also telling the human experience. And there’s not one man on the stage that it needs to be there to tell that story. Not that we don’t need any men in the world. Obviously we do. But here it feels like a real expansion of the full spectrum of femaleness and humanness that we are allowed to embody, which feels a privilege but also shouldn’t be so rare.
Speaking of that humanity, were there any moments of the play that feel especially resonant or powerful to perform? Or any of the play’s themes that you connected with?
There are many which I unexpectedly connect with especially when the others really tell their story. They always hit me differently each night. Something that connects them all and resonates with me is the way in which no matter the difficult thing that has happened, the world keeps moving and you don’t really get a moment to sit in your suffering or process what’s going on. The world is just moving and each time each Annie has the strength to have to just pick themselves up and just be resilient.
Beyond the protagonist, you and the ensemble multi-role other characters throughout the play. Did you have a favourite character to play and why?
I do love playing one of Annie’s sons. He’s just a lot of fun to play because you really get to inhabit that teenage stage of life where you’re kind of pissed off by everything and you don’t have to show the regular level of respect that an adult does. It’s sometimes really freeing to indulge in that disrespectfulness. And also the aerobics instructor. I love playing her!
What draws you to a project?
I love projects that explore complex relationships between people. In this play there isn’t a lot of relationships between actual characters but theres a relationship from self to self. That always intrigues me, the way in which people operate around each other and what they are really thinking. Also projects which seek to uncover a side of society that we usually shy away from or we are more shameful of. I love plays that pull the veil from the things that society trains us not to talk about.
Do you have a dream role or character you would like to play?
It’s always the writing that is the kicker. The character could be whatever but if they are written as a full, complex and human character, it doesn’t matter who they are and what situation they are in as they will be very enriching to play. I love Annie Baker’s work and now seeing that she’s moving into other mediums of telling stories, it would be a real dream to work with her. As well as Andrea Arnold. For me its more about the brain that is creating the character.
What do you love most about working in theatre compared to film or television?
They are different but similar. I love film because you have to distill your performance into something more internal and condensed but that can still penetrate through a screen. It’s scary but nice to only have a couple of times to really get it to camera which is very different to theatre. One of the things that I love is that you get to do it every night, it gets to be different and you get to live in many different versions of character. For an over-thinker like me, like when you leave a conversation thinking the different ways it could have gone, in theatre you do get to come back to the conversation every single night and explore in that moment what your character might feel and discover things that keep it fresh and alive. This play really feels like that – so invigorating and exciting to do each night!
Finally, what advice would you give to emerging actors?
Believe in yourself. I spent a lot of time in the beginning stages of acting and my career, looking for the bits of my craft that were wrong and didn’t fit into what I saw in the industry. I could be quite critical. Its good to have a critical eye but sometimes its not very useful to listen to the voice thats telling you everything that you’re getting it wrong because it doesn’t allow you to be in the moment and it dampens your real essence from coming out which is what people want to see- that authenticity. The only way to letting that fly free is to believe in yourself. Belief is half the battle of acting. If you don’t believe in your self then how is anyone else watching you going to believe you.
You can catch Harmony in ‘The Years’ at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 19th April 2025