Anne-Marie Duff

I was in my happy place work-wise and off travelling the world.

Well, there used to still be, as you will very well remember, the British Council tours.

And we went off and we toured all of India and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with one of the shows and, you know...

We did a performance.

It was an adaptation of The Mill on the Floss.

It was a very beautiful adaptation of The Mill on the Floss that Shared Experience did a long time ago.

It was adored.

It was such a lovely show.

And we went to... By the time we got to Sri Lanka, we were performing in quite a small theatre just outside of Colombo.

And it was the beginning of monsoon.

And we started the performance.

And then about half an hour into the show, there was a power cut because of the monsoon.

So we then had to do the rest of the show with candles.

which was unbelievable.

But also, during the interval of that show, I went outside to get some air, because it was so hot, of course, and I was with one of the stage managers, and he was having a ciggy, and we were stood, and as we looked at the tree opposite, it got struck by lightning and chopped in half.

It was the most extraordinary night.

Can you imagine?

I've had one attack of terrifying stage fright, which I've talked about actually when I was doing A Doll's House, I was doing Sam Ibsen.

And it was still at the point in my artistic growth where I immersed myself a little too much in the character.

I didn't quite know how to separate.