A woman who started reciting lines from comedy shows as a child is now on a quest to get more Scousers into acting.
Now aged 29, Rachel said: “Victoria Wood is the main reason I want to act because she inspired me to act so much. I never understood the jokes in Dinner Ladies, but I knew what she did made people laugh.” Rachel believes these difficulties are symbols of how working class people are consistently disenfranchised by the arts, a problem she claims has worsened further in recent years due to Government cuts. A 2016 study by the Sutton Trust argued that 73% of performers in British theatre and film are from middle-class backgrounds.
She said: “There's loads of actors I know that are really, really good. They're in their 40s and 50s and I think, how have they not been seen already? They’ve got plenty of life experience to draw on.” The play is based around a group of upper-class writers and actors who entered into an awards ceremony. When two of them fail to pick up any awards, they decide to drown their sorrows by inviting the two others to an after-party, creating a night of drama and comedy.