In this Film Ireland podcast, Gemma Creagh talks to Phyllidia Lloyd, about directing the powerful Irish film Herself.
Lloyd was born in Nempnett Thrubwell in Somerset, she studied drama at Birmingham University. After graduating, she worked for BBC Television Drama, followed by associate director posts at the Wolsey Theatre Ipswich, the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham and the Bristol Old Vic. She became more widely known for directing the 1992 UK premiere of John Guare’s play Six Degrees of Separation for London’s Royal Court Theatre, followed by a successful West End transfer. She became one of the most prolific directors of her generation, working chiefly at the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Opera House and moving between classical repertoire and contemporary works. Her 2008 revival of Schiller’s Mary Stuart, a drama imagining a meeting between rival cousins Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, was a West End hit, earning multiple Tony nominations on its 2009 Broadway transfer. She is best known for directing the original 1999 London production of ABBA karaoke musical Mamma Mia. A box office juggernaut, she was followed by a successful 2008 film adaptation starring Meryl Streep. In the 2010s, she directed acclaimed all-female productions of Shakespeare‘s Julius Caesar, Henry IV and The Tempest in London and New York, hailed by critics as “one of the most important theatrical events of the last twenty years”. She directed Streep again in the 2011 Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady, winning Streep an Oscar. Lloyd’s most recent film Herself was released in 2020.
Herself
This film follows the story of Sandra (Clare Dunne), who on the surface of it, is a young Mum struggling to provide her two young daughters with a warm, safe, happy home to grow up in. Beneath the surface, Sandra has a steely determination to change their lives for the better and when it becomes clear that there are no other options left to her, she decides to build it herself from scratch, drawing together a community of friends to support her. Supporting cast includes Harriet Walter (Succession), Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones) and Cathy Belton (Philomena).
Herself is in cinemas from 10th September 2021.
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