 The Lotto Jackpot is an estimated 2.8 million euro. Play responsibly in store in app or at Lottery.ie. The National Lottery. It could be you. Broadcasting throughout the Northwest and across the world online. This is Highland Radio. And you're very welcome back and as promised joining me on Zoom now I've got young Finnish-owned actress Leanne Devlin who is about to stage her self-written play in London next month. And Leanne, you're very welcome. Thank you so much. So great indeed. Actress and playwright and your play now are going to be on the London stage which is fabulous. So where did your theatre career begin, Leanne? I suppose if you go back far enough. I did speech and drama with Emma Portler when I was really young, maybe like eight in Bunkrana. And then I did some musicals with Donald Henderson through Grace Pint Productions in the St Mary's Hall in Bunkrana. So I guess that was the start of it really. And then after school I went to drama school so I studied at the Gayley School of Acting and the Guilford School of Acting. And it just kind of after Covid took off from there. Fantastic. And I suppose everybody, well not everybody, there's a lot of people who are involved in amateur dramatics locally. And their dream is to hit the big time. And I'm sure you met a lot of challenges along your way. Oh yeah, definitely. I guess a part of the creative life that most people don't recognise is the amount of rejection that you get. And that goes the full way up to like A-listers. They'll be getting rejected from blockbuster movies, right, left and centre as well. So that's a massive part of the job. But it's just something that you have to be okay with. And most of the time when you get rejected from a job it's not because you're not good. It's because you weren't the right fit. And you just have to be okay with that. And it's vital for an actress like yourself to have a good agent that gets you auditions and gets you on the ladder if you like to success. Yes, 100%. I was very lucky last year to sign with an agency called Nova Artists, which are based in Northern Ireland. So they get me a lot of really cool auditions for RT and BBC and the likes of that. And obviously it's worked now because you've written this play. It's a one-woman show and it's going to be staged in London next month. And Slippery While Wet. Am I right? Slippery While Wet, yes. So I'm intrigued by the title of that. So tell us a little bit about the play. It's a one-woman show that follows the journey of an actor who was living in a big city and ran out of work and money. So she's had to move back to her hometown to her parents. And then for money she's got a job in a local supermarket as a cleaner. So when she's working in the supermarket she falls in love with a colleague. And then that forces her to face her complicated relationship with her hometown because when she moved home she initially wanted to get straight back out as soon as she can. It was like a means to an end. But now she's kind of debating whether to stay or whether to go. And I believe that you actually did work as a student in the supermarket. So is there personal experience in there or is it fictional or is it a mixture of both? I think this is the most common question that I get. The play is totally fictional. None of the events are based on real life. But it is definitely inspired by my time working as a cleaner in a super value current on it. So that was not actually when I was a student when I graduated in COVID hit. And there was no theater work happening is when I was working in super value. And it was just so much crack. Like it's such a lovely place to work and all the fun that was going on. I just thought some of this needs to be on a stage because it was comedic gold. And a one woman show that obviously brings this challenge is because you have no one to bounce off. You accept yourself and nowhere to hide. So I presume that you have got some techniques to keep you going. It's a 60 minute long show. So that's a long time to be on stage by yourself, Leanne. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's an hour long. But one of my favorite parts of live theater is the audience interaction and making it an enjoyable experience for the audience. So I'm really excited to use them. It's all direct address. So the whole story is told directly to the audience. It's the fourth walls broken. There's no barrier there. So I'm really excited to see their reactions and feed off their energy because they don't have the cast members to feed off instead. And you're the only actress on stage, but you have a partner in crime with the director Emma Porter. Is that right? That's right, isn't it? Emma Copeland is her name yet. She's a London based director. She's brilliant. So originally the show got accepted to Dublin Fringe Festival, and that was meant to be the premiere. And I asked Emma if she'd be interested in directing it and she read the script and she was on board straight away. And she's just been like a workhorse since she's doing amazing. And then she asked me if I'd be interested in doing London and I kind of, you know, didn't really think much of it. I was like, of course I'd be interested in doing it in London. And then I think it was like the next day she was like, OK, I've got a two week run in Barnes Court Theatre in London for us. And I was like, what? You know, I didn't actually think that was going to happen and for it to be premiering in London because that's happening before Dublin Fringe. It's kind of still sinking in. I never thought I'd be doing this so early in my career. So do you have to pinch yourself sometimes to say, is this really happening? Yeah, 100% at the minute, because we're in the middle of the producing work and we haven't started rehearsals yet. I don't think it's sunk in, but once I get on the flight to London and get into rehearsals, it'll be like, whoa. And I've just read some reviews of it. It's cheeky and a reference, gorgeously, rye sense of humour throughout and Leanne Devlin is a national treasure. Do you envisage the London audience having any problems with the Donegal accent or maybe the Donegal sense of humour? I hope not. This is a soft spot for me because through my training, my accent hasn't always been encouraged, but I think telling Donegal stories in a Donegal accent is really important. We've got so much humour in Donegal that is so niche that other parts of the world don't have. So no, I hope it's not an issue. I did do a show in London in April. It was a three-hander, a Belfast show called Two Fingers Up, and it went down a treat. The audience loved it, so I'm hoping that Slybrio and Watt can have the same reception over there. And to put a show on the road, I'm sure you must need funding. You're a young 24-year-old just starting out and you don't belong to any big theatre company, so was it difficult to get the funding to stage this? Yeah, definitely. That's something that we're still working on. So being an individual that's not from a company, it's really hard to get funding from the Arts Council for individuals. So we have applied, but at present we're a totally unfunded show. We've got little bits from, we did a fundraiser online and we got a lot of support on that. But in terms of the scale of budget that you actually need, we're miles off, so it's definitely going to be a challenge, but we're working on it. Fantastic. So the dates for the London production now are at the end of the month. Isn't that right? I've got them somewhere here. Yeah, to the 22nd of August. To the 2nd of September. And prospects of bringing it over to Ireland? Or are you going to bring it elsewhere? Yeah, so we're going to be in Dublin French Festival in September from the 9th to the 14th. And then I'm off for a bit doing another show. And then in November we're bringing Slippery On Wet to the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. So we're going to be in the Lyric from the 7th to 10th of November. And after Slippery On Wet wins, are you working on another play then or future plans down the road? Yeah, so in between the Dublin dates and Belfast dates, the show I mentioned before Two Fingers Up that I'm part of, we're actually touring to Australia. We're going to be doing the show in Sydney and Melbourne over the end of September, start of October. Wow, so as I think Heldon said in Coronation Street, the world is your lobster. At 24. Well, congratulations on your play. And it's been stated in London and your career and every success in the future. Leanne has been lovely talking to you this morning. Thank you so much. Thanks a million. Take care.