Corinna Brown, broadly recognised for her function as Tara Jones in Netflix’s Heartstopper, takes centre stage this summer time as Sephy in Noughts & Crosses at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
Tailored by Dominic Cooke and directed by Tinuke Craig, this reimagining of Malorie Blackman’s iconic novel revisits a deeply divided world via the lens of a younger couple’s forbidden love. Set towards the backdrop of systemic injustice and social upheaval, Brown’s portrayal guarantees each tenderness and hearth on this daring new staging.
We caught up with Brown forward of opening night time to debate entering into certainly one of literature’s most enduring characters.
Please introduce your self …
Heyyyyy! I’m Corinna Brown. I’m an actress and performer from East London and I’m a Capricorn.
Describe your life proper now in a phrase or a sentence.
Superbly full-on.
Why are we right here?
We’re right here to inform a narrative that must be heard. Noughts & Crosses isn’t only a love story; it’s a mirror. It asks us to take a look at the world we stay in and query how energy, privilege and prejudice form our lives. And in a manner, we’re right here to maintain that dialog alive via theatre.
What drew you to the function of Sephy, and the way did it really feel entering into a personality that’s so beloved and politically important?
Sephy is layered. She’s complicated, irritating, hopeful, courageous and rising. What drew me in was her journey from innocence to consciousness, and the strain she holds between love and justice. Moving into her footwear felt like an enormous duty, but additionally an honour. I understand how a lot Malorie Blackman’s work has meant to individuals, particularly younger Black readers like myself. I wished to do her justice.
How does performing Noughts & Crosses within the open air change how the story feels or the way you play the function?
There’s one thing about open-air theatre that makes all the pieces extra uncooked and alive. The world doesn’t cease for us, planes fly overhead, the wind picks up, and it forces us to be current; absolutely within the second. That fits Sephy’s story. Her world is continually shifting and chaotic. It retains you in your toes and brings the viewers proper into that turbulence with us.
The story of Sephy and Callum echoes Romeo & Juliet. How do you method the romantic and tragic components of their relationship?
With care and honesty. What Sephy and Callum really feel is actual, however it’s crushed by techniques greater than them. You’ll be able to’t play it as simply doomed love, you need to root it in actual hope, in any other case the tragedy doesn’t land. And that every one turns into simple to do when working with somebody nearly as good as Noah.
Malorie Blackman’s novel has had a robust cultural affect. What duty, if any, did you’re feeling in bringing this story to the stage?
Big duty. This story formed how a era talked about race and injustice. I keep in mind studying it as a youngster and feeling seen and shaken. So to be a part of telling it now, on this time, with this tremendous proficient solid, I felt like I needed to deliver all of myself.
You’re greatest identified for enjoying Tara in Heartstopper. How totally different was the preparation course of for a stage function in comparison with a display function?
Very totally different. Display screen work is intimate you are able to do a lot with a glance, a whisper. Stage calls for that you just fill the house along with your entire physique and voice. With Sephy, I needed to dig deeper into physicality, pacing and stamina. And since it’s stay, it lives and breathes in another way each night time. There’s no ‘reduce and take a look at once more‘. It’s exhilarating.
Sephy’s journey is formed by the strain between her privileged upbringing and her rising consciousness of injustice. How did you navigate and embody that interior battle? What points of her transformation resonated with you personally?
It was truly fairly a wrestle for me. Sephy begins off sheltered and type of wilfully blind, which I feel is kind of frequent once you profit from sure techniques. I haven’t come from that type of privilege so for a very long time I couldn’t grasp her naivety. Her evolution is painful however lovely. I approached it by specializing in her coronary heart. She desires to do proper, even when she fumbles.
Discuss working with Tinuke Craig as director and being a part of a narrative informed via a Black feminine lens?
Unbelievable. Tinuke brings such readability, compassion and energy to her path. Working below a Black feminine director meant I might deliver my full self into the room, with out translating or justifying. It created house for fact.
What’s a scene or a second that greatest captures what the venture meant to you?
I really like the tip. It captures the price of resistance, the loneliness of grief but additionally the power in persevering with to hope.
Trying forward, what sort of roles or tales are you most excited to discover subsequent in your profession?
I’m excited by tales that genuinely centre Black feminine voices, however not simply via trauma tales, the place we get to be messy, joyful, magical and even foolish. I’d like to do extra display work, perhaps discover interval drama or fantasy, but additionally come again to stage once more. I’m drawn to work that asks huge questions and offers individuals house to really feel.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU …
If not this, then what? Working with younger individuals.
What’s made you unhappy, mad, and glad this week? Unhappy and mad, starvation. Glad, the solar’s out.
What are you watching? Eastenders. All the time.
What are you studying? Don’t Make Ourselves Smaller Right here by Megan Jayne Crabbe.
The final movie you watched? Sinners.
The final play you noticed? Miss Myrtle’s Backyard.
The final stay music occasion you attended? Beyoncé Cowboy Carter Tour.
What’s at the moment in your music playlist? Sampha, Bashy, Wretch 32.
Which music are you listening to on repeat in the meanwhile? Just Positive by Mary J Blige.
Which podcast(s) are you at the moment listening to? Body of Thoughts Podcast.
What’s in your bucket checklist? Journey the world and expertise as a lot of life as I can.
The place’s your comfortable place? A white sand, blue sea seashore.
Have a good time another person… JFR Productions, Nadine Mills, Ronke Adekoluejo, Serlome Adonu, Francis Lovehall, Hamzaa, Kali Claire, DOMINIQUE (music artist )… I might go on.
Have a good time your self… My power. And the way I’ve been defending it extra this 12 months.
What’s subsequent? Who is aware of …
The place can we discover you? Instagram: @itzz_cori
The place can we see or hear your work? Noughts & Crosses at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre till twenty sixth July.
Heartstopper – Netflix and preserve your eyes peeled there’s extra coming.