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Tonys Talk: Fionnula Flanagan on How She Got Closer to Aunt Maggie Far Away
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Oct 31, 2022
It's been over five decades since the first time that 2019 Tony nominee Fionnula Flanagan first graced a Broadway stage. The star of The Ferryman (nominated for nine Tony Awards) made her debut in 1968's Lovers. Now she's back on the stage eight times a week at the the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, where she is giving the performance of a lifetime as Aunt Maggie Far Away.
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Welcome to Backstage with Richard Ridge. I'm sitting in the Tony Awards suite at the Sofitel
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NYC, which is the official hotel of the 2019 Tony Awards, and I'm sitting with Fiannuala Flanagan
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who was nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her gripping performance of Aunt Maggie
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Far Away in Jez Butterworth's The Ferryman. thank you so much for sitting with me today pleasure i remember that first day at sardis
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that first meet and greet when the ferryman was coming over i mean what has this whole experience
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been like for you with working on this glorious play well it is a fabulous play so that's for
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starters it's always easier to work on fabulous material than on material that stinks
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so it hasn't stunk so far and so that's great and it was different for me because I joined
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it, I joined the cast the original cast for the Broadway run and then
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of course it changed again and the American cast came in and I'm still working with them
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because the actress who was to replace me had to withdraw for medical reasons and so
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I'm sort of like an indentured actress at this point take me back to the beginning because you joined it for the broadway
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run and of course most the entire cast had already done it yes in london except for the
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kids right that's right except for the kids they they uh they had they'd been doing it for almost
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two years and um on and off with various extensions and so that was pretty terrifying
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i'm joining a cast that knows it inside out already and so on the very first day when i
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I try to ask questions like, well, what does this mean here
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They already knew all of that, so I felt like an idiot. But I mean, you took this because you wanted to work with your director
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Yes, I did. Tell everybody who the director is. The director is Sam Mendez, quite wonderful, knows the material very well
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and also has just a wonderful gift with actors. He loves actors
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And he was just terrifically supportive to me, really supportive, and has a great sense of humor and knows so much about life
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And that's always helpful. Yeah. Did you audition for him? I did
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They sent me the script and they asked me to put down something on tape
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because I was in California, which I hate to do. You know, all actors hate that
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But I did put down part of Maggie Faraway's long speech. And I did put that down and I sent it and then they called immediately and said, would I come in and meet him
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So I did come in and meet him and then almost immediately they made the offer
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What was it like that meeting with Sam? Well, I was very nervous and they were putting it on tape also
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everything goes on tape these days I tell you Richard Nixon started something
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didn't he so but it was lovely I mean it was just wonderful to meet him
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and I've been such an admirer of his work for ages and he said
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at one point because we were in a very large room and we were sitting quite not
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too far away from one another and so I read it and
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And then he said to me, would you have any concerns about your voice not being loud enough
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And I said, oh, I don't think there'll be a problem about that. He's like, you're hired
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That's right, exactly. So that was, I think, his main concern. It is a huge role to learn, huge
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She on stage longer than anybody else but of course and she talks a lot when she talks and it all non and it not dialogue really
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I mean, I have a few exchanges with the children, but it's mostly just her telling a lengthy story
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So when you first learned the script, do you learn very fast
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I do, actually, but I was struggling with this a lot, And the children to whom I'm telling the story, who are sitting there on the stage, and they're wonderful, they said to me, oh, don't worry about if you forget a line
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We thought we'd write your lines on our hands and just hold them up to you like that
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Did they actually do that? No, but it didn't come to that
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But I thought that was such a sweet idea. No, because I love that they offer that to you, because we're going to get into the American cast now
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But when Brian Darcy James, I sat with him and he said, I said, Richie, it took me a while to sort of learn the dialogue
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And the kids like, come on, Brian, you know, all the roles in this show. Get it together. You know, I was like, what
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So, you know, they were more generous to you. Yes, they were indeed. They were
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So when you first read the play, I mean, it's such, you know, the play is three hours long, but it flies by
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It's so lyrical. and it's like you just, it's a blink of an eye
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the first act is over, you blink again, the show is over. The only people who really feel it as three hours is the cast
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and the backstage people, but the audience just zooms by for them
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But that's because it's moving all the time. I mean, it's endless energy goes into that
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And with Caitlin, I mean, Holly Fane, who's playing Caitlin, and previously Laura Donnelly
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they just keep moving, they're moving around the stage all the time
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physically moving and then the plot just zooms along Now I want to talk about that, so you opened with the London cast here and you ran
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for how long with them? We ran, we opened on October 21st and we ran until February 17th
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And then your incredible producers along with Sonia Friedman brought in a whole new American company and rehearsed them for a very long
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time? Was it six weeks? Yes, I think it was about five or six weeks they were rehearsing
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yes. And they're fabulous. They're really wonderful, you know. And I had doubts. I
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thought, oh, it's going to be different. It'll be, you know, they'll never get it. It's not
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in the DNA. But in fact, it's extraordinary. They're extraordinarily gifted actors, and
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they got it, and they deliver it every night. And Brian Darcy James in the lead. He's just marvelous
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So what are two show days like for you? How exhausting is that
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for you? Two show days are a nightmare. Well, I get to the
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theater at noon and then I do go outside on the break
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at half past four to walk my dog because she comes to the theater
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with me and also to get something to eat and then I go back
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into the theater and I have a sleep for an hour on the floor. Oh, you can actually sleep
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Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I could sleep standing up against a wall. No, because I always wondered with people's energy and all
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but I'm sure by the end of the day you're spent, but it must be so rewarding at the same time
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Oh, very much so. You know, you feel I survived two shows of this, you know
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and, yeah, it's rewarding, but at the same time it is exhausting. Yeah
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Totally exhausting. on Wednesday nights and Saturday nights. Those are not the nights when I go out to play
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Definitely not. I'm sure you sleep on your day off. I do
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I sleep and I do my laundry, and sometimes I skip the laundry and just buy new underwear
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That's the easiest thing to do, right? I've got all these shows to do
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and I have a double day coming up really soon on Wednesday. That's right, and people say to me
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Oh New York is such an exciting city What do you do on your day off I say I sleep and do my laundry But very few New Yorkers do what you do Well that true Yeah that true Now how many people are in the company
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Well, overall, if you count everybody, the hairstylists, the people who look after the costumes
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all the backstage people, it's a company of over 60 people. You have 60 people at the Jacobs Theatre
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I can only imagine what is the backstage area like. Because for people who have not seen the ferryman yet, you have children
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Yes. You have rabbits. We have babies. You have babies. You have geese
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Geese, yes. So where do they all live backstage? Well, the way that Jacobs is made, on either side of the stage, there's what they call the towers
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There's a tower, and you go up a series of steps, 30 steps or something
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and then you, that's where the first room you meet is the baby's room
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where there are cribs for them to sleep and then you go further up and then there are the children and the understudies
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and on the far side of the stage then, which is where we are
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you go up and the women's dressing rooms are on the first floor, the second floor the men and the third floor the men and understudies
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grown up understudies and also the hair room is up there where they tend to the wigs and tend to the laundry and all of that
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and tend to the costumes. So it's quite – and then downstairs, of course, backstage
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we have the electricians and the carpenters. And where's the menagerie of animals
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Oh, they're down in the basement. They call it the green room, but it's actually the basement
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And they have a little dressing room all of their own with a little bed in it for the geese
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And there are two geese. The goose has an understudy. Well, of course
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Who everybody thought was a male and then it laid an egg. And so we had to change our minds about that
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And the rabbits are in there too in their little hutches. And the rabbit has an understudy also
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Well, this is Broadway, so they have to, right? Absolutely. I'm sure it's a contract. I'm sure it's an equity contract
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Yes. With a pink follow spot, yes. But do you ever know who's going with the babies
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I call the woman who deals with the babies like the baby whisperer
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maybe but their mommies and daddies are there with them walking up and down with them and cuddling them throughout downstairs
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and then we can talk to them and we do and play with them
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and everything and they're adorable, they're wonderful one of the babies, he was the littlest one, his name was Sean
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and Sean very quickly learned to applaud so he would lie on the stage and applaud himself
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so no one else I'm also to myself right because I met
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Sean opening night yes I think Sean was your opening night baby wasn't he
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he was there with the family so now he does he hears people clap out there
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so before he learns to speak he'll learn to applaud but then there was one of the babies
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who was a little girl actually and although she's played as a little boy
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and she on her first time out on stage she quickly learned
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how to roll over and began to crawl towards the first row of the audience
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So people keep, you can't keep your eye on her, but I'm sure other people do, right
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No, I don't, yeah, but yes, I can't keep, I can't watch her. Yeah
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So this is your second Tony nomination. Yes, it is. So the first one was when
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The first one was in 1974 for Ulysses in Nighttown, where I played Molly Bloom and a few other roles as well
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Where I saw you at the Winter Garden Theater. That's right, yes. With Zero Mostel
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I'll never forget that. But I remember you telling me a story that Burgess Meredith, of course, was your director
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Yes, he was. And would you just tell the story like when you'd walk down Broadway and people would recognize him
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Well, they would recognize him. And instead of saying, oh, here's the great Burgess Meredith, they'd say, oh, here's the penguin
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Because, you know, that's what he had. From the television series Batman which we were watching in syndication That right yes And he would do his little yeah yeah He would do He knew how to do that and he would turn people on amazing He was totally charming when he wanted to be
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and then he could just turn like a dragon and, you know, rip your head off
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But he was wonderful, wonderful. He's one of the few directors I ever met who really knew how to stage Joyce
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Yeah. What are you enjoying the most this time around? I love your pin
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And I always look at your pin on there. But I'm sure it's totally different than the first time around
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I love my pin. Yeah. I don't remember there being a pin the first time around. Yeah
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Was there? That I don't know. But we're looking at the prices back then
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Like in 1969, it only cost $35 to sit in the orchestra and $25 to go to the supper bowl
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And you could buy as many tickets as you wanted. But it must be so great for you just to be back in the city
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Because did you live at the Camelot? Were you on 45th Street when you were here? I got an apartment at the Camelot thanks to Jim Downey
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Do you remember Downey's on 8th Avenue? Oh, yes. Well, Jim was a friend of mine, and he said
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oh, don't count live in sublets. You've got to get an apartment
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And he it was who arranged that. So I lived at the Camelot, which in 1968
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I'm going back to 68, 69, when I came with Lovers, and we were playing at the music box at the time
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and the Camelot housed me and an awful lot of ladies of the evening
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And the whole of 8th Avenue was all porn shops at the time
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And so I would meet them in the elevator and I was sort of like a country mouse, you know
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in my plaid skirt. And they were always, they were like exotic birds
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you know, beautifully, wonderful makeup and a lot of lace and well actually not a lot of lace but enough lace and they would say to me
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where are you going honey and i would say i'm going to work and they would say oh we are too
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and then i'd see them out on 8th avenue plying their trade and they were just always very nice
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to me really yeah super nice if you could sum up the best part of the experience of working on the
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Ferryman, what is it for you? I think it's the fact that I've actually mastered the role
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you know. I was supposed to leave way back in April, as you know, and then didn't. And
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I'm glad I got the opportunity to stay on. It was hard luck on the actress who was to take over
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But I'm glad I had that chance to stay on because, you know, as you go forward with a role
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it gets deeper and deeper and there's more to learn about it and and and i'm glad i had that
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opportunity really you would have missed everybody i know you would have oh god yes i would have i
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don't know how i'm going to do without them throughout july and august so i remember when
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you were first announced to leave i was like she can't leave i said you can leave and now you're
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staying in this but but i just love what is the last thing you do before the curtain goes up at
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The Ferryman. The last thing I do is high-five the ASM. Oh, no, that's not the last thing
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The last thing I do is I put a cough drop in my mouth because that's how I stay awake during the first act
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because I'm on stage for 40 minutes before I speak. And I know that if I swallow the cough drop
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I'll choke and I'll be dead, and then I won't be around for the second act
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So I'd better not swallow it. I just let it dissolve on my tongue
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Well, I'll tell you, you were phenomenal to watch make magic in this show
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and I think I told you that. Thank you. When I came to that meet and greet at Sardis
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I knew this was a big show coming over from London, but I was just so thrilled to see you that day
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because it brought me back to the Winter Garden Theater when I first saw you give that incredible performance on stage
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It is thrilling to have you back, and thank you for dropping by today. Thank you so much. It's always a joy to meet you
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