Susannah Fielding

Age: 21. “I’ll be 22 on 10 June, so I’m a Gemini.”

Currently: Making her professional debut in The Rose Tattoo, playing Rosa, daughter to the grieving Serafina (Zoë Wanamaker) whose husband has just been killed in a road accident. Serafina finds new love in the course of the play, while Rosa discovers the joys of first love. “It’s not necessarily a typical Tennessee Williams”, notes Fielding, “it has a happy ending. I loved this play the first moment I read it, and I felt a real affinity with the character as well. It was not that long ago that I was a teenager myself, stomping around and pushing out all the barriers.”

Hometown: Fielding grew up in Hampshire in southeast England, “[It's] a place called Havant, which is just outside Chichester”, she says. But home is now London. “I’m very much based here and love being here,” she beams. Fielding moved to London after she left boarding school in Horsham and took a gap year while applying for drama school, eventually deciding on Guildhall. “I just knew, the moment I walked into the building, that it was the right place for me,” she recalls. And the Barbican, where Guildhall is based, has also been her home for the last two years. “I’m sharing with two guys who are still at Guildhall at the moment. It was very, very handy. It was two minutes walk to school, so I was able to roll out of bed five minutes before I had to be in.”

Old Head on Young Shoulders: Fielding joined a local youth theatre when she was 13 and carried on acting at school. “That’s when I decided that this is what I was going to do. I played the old wife in George Peele’s The Old Wives and the Artful Dodger in Oliver! I tended always to play the old women and the young boys—I don’t know why—I’m versatile, I hope. And now I’m playing young a lover at last, which is nice.”

Playing the Fool at Stratford: The Guildhall student production of The Tempest in which she played Trinculo went to Stratford-upon-Avon last year as part of the RSC’s Complete Works Festival. “It was a great experience to get a little bit of a taste of Stratford," she says. "We did one public performance in the Swan and then performed it for schools. It was a very good experience to play to such different audiences.”

Susannah Fielding and Andrew Langtree in The Rose Tattoo

Pimlott’s Parvenu: Things have moved fast for Fielding since then. She should, in fact, still be at drama school—her course doesn’t end till July. But she got an agent last December, who immediately sent her to meet the head of casting at the National. “I was going to Thailand with my boyfriend for three weeks over Christmas, and they were due to cast The Rose Tattoo during that time, so I thought, oh well, never mind, I was going to miss it. But when I came back they still hadn’t cast it, so they called and asked me to come in.” She auditioned for director Steven Pimlott, and says, “I immediately took to him as soon as I walked into the room. He was such a kind, gentle, lovely, lovely man. We worked together for 40 minutes or so, and I thought, oh well, that was a great experience, but I’m so young, there’s no way I’ll get it. But then I got a call the following day saying they’d really like me to take the part.” Guildhall released her from her studies. “It was just such a fantastic opportunity that they were very supportive and said I could go with their blessing”. It was the luckiest of breaks, and she says now, “It was really about being in the right place at the right time. In the long term, it won’t always be this simple, I know, but I’m prepared for the long haul.”

A Baptism and a Funeral: Was turning up for her first day of professional work at the National Theatre a daunting experience? “I was incredibly nervous and didn’t sleep a wink the night before,” admits Fielding. “And I think the read-through has got to be the scariest part of any rehearsal period for most actors. But luckily I’d met Zoë [Wanamaker] briefly via our dialect coach, as we both started working on our accents before the rehearsal period started. And I’d met Andrew [Langtree, who plays her love interest] as well, at the audition when we read together.” Then, just a week and a half after rehearsals began, director Pimlott had to suddenly withdraw, and died soon after from cancer. “We became very close as a company very quickly, I think partly because of Steven’s death," Fielding says. "He wasn’t well but still had a real vitality and passion to him when he worked with us. He will be missed—he was a wonderful man. A lot of people in the cast were very close to him and good friends with him, so it must have been a big shock for them.” The National’s Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner stepped into the breach. “He’s been a joy to work with as well. He came in with such energy and enthusiasm and swept us along with him, and I think Steven would be proud of this production.”

[AD]Emotional Heights: Dealing with grief is one of the subjects of the play. “Zoë and I went on that journey together," Fielding says. “She’s been such a great person to work with. I felt very comfortable with her from the off. She reaches those emotional heights, so hopefully we work off each other, and that’s what acting is about—it’s to do with giving to each other and that’s why I think the relationship is something that works well between us.” The Olivier has lots of physical height and width to deal with, too. It’s a famously difficult space to play. “But I guess that is why I want to be an actor, because you never stop learning, and every stage you go on and every theatre you play and every night is different. You learn something new each time.”

Intensive Training: Fielding soon realised she would need to be fighting fit to face the demands of the Olivier. “They have an amazing voice department at the National, but the kind of intensive training they give you at Guildhall doesn’t exist anywhere else, so I started going back for lessons almost immediately to get myself fit and ready to work in the Olivier. I’m still a student there, theoretically, and they’ve been so supportive and welcomed me back whenever I like.”

Starting at the Top: “I remember thinking when I was drama school that if I ever, ever get to go on the Olivier stage, even just once, I will have made it. That was my dream. So to have that as my first job has been a dream come true.” But starting at the top can be a problem. “Somebody said, it can only go down from here. But I hope that’s not the case. I’d love to carry on working here for as long as I can—it’s the most incredible place. You have everything you could ever possibly need here. You walk in on the first day and they’ve thought of everything. I’m used to scraping around and going to a charity shop to get my costumes, but here everybody is there supporting you and giving you the best possible chance to make it a good show”. She’s now hoping to make a good show of two more jobs at the National. She is working on Gorky’s Philistines for director Howard Davies in the Lyttelton. "I play a young servant in the house who falls in love with the family’s foster son, who has been lined up for the daughter of the family, who tries to commit suicide. It’s a big emotional journey again.” She’s then playing Hero in Much Ado About Nothing, with Nicholas Hytner directing, and Simon Russell Beale starring as Benedick and her current co-star, Zoë Wanamaker, as Beatrice. “I’m really looking forward to that,” she says. “I really want to do more Shakespeare.”