Tales From The Dressing Room: Alice Barclay

For the latest in our Tales from the Dressing Room series, we caught up with Alice Barclay, who plays the formidable Hermione in The Winter’s Tale. Alice shares her thoughts on rehearsals, her approach to Shakespeare’s text, and why she considers the Tobacco Factory Theatres space a gift.

Tell us about your character/s:

I spend most of my time playing Hermione, who is my absolute heroine. She is enormously loving, honourable to her core, and unbreakable in the face of extraordinary cruelty. She’s a mother, a wife, a queen, and a friend. She has a vibrant wit, loves a party, and has beautiful relationships with so many of the other characters.

In Act IV, I play Mopsa, a shepherdess who also loves a party. She’s very keen on ballads, has a celebrity crush on Autolycus, and is just possibly in a three-way relationship with Dorcas and the Clown!

Tell us about rehearsals:

Rehearsals were a very happy time. We explored things in a super-playful way and made lots of discoveries together. I enjoyed letting both Hermione and Mopsa’s characters emerge. Both of them are much more confident and brave than I am as a person, so it’s empowering to borrow those characteristics from them for a while.

Career reflections:

Hermione is famous for her speeches in the trial scene in Act III, which are incredible. But in the earlier scenes, I’m struck by how much she resembles some of Shakespeare’s other women in terms of her wit, her swiftness of thought, and her brilliance with language. She reminds me of Rosalind and Beatrice especially, who are both characters that I know well.

I’m incredibly grateful for the time I’ve spent with voice and text specialists in the past, who have helped me connect with Shakespeare’s words. The text is so physical and muscular, and all my time working on ensemble and physical theatre has been hugely helpful. I’m also a yoga teacher, and when I’m not acting, I spend much of my time practicing and teaching yoga. There’s nothing quite like that for preparing you to do anything!

Performing Shakespeare:

It’s a rollercoaster! I’m excited for the audience because once the play starts, it has such energy, and the story is incredible. Thoughts, feelings, and connections between people transcend time. The only thing you have to do for a modern audience is be true to them all and allow the words to do the work—without worrying about the fact that they were written a few hundred years ago.

Performing in the round at Tobacco Factory Theatres:

The performance space at Tobacco Factory Theatres is a gift. We all experience this story together. We all acknowledge the fact that this is a story, a play, at the same time as allowing our imaginations to connect with it and take us to faraway places.

Tales from the Dressing Room will continue throughout the run of The Winter’s Tale, so keep an eye out for more behind-the-scenes insights from our cast!

🎟️ Book your tickets here.