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Claire Cox on playing Alice
Actor Claire Cox, who plays Alice Maitland, talks about playing a Barker heroine.
Questions and principles
Coming in to The Voysey Inheritance is certainly a contrast from playing roles such as Portia in Julius Caesar or those I had in the Spanish Golden Age season at the RSC. But it's a fascinating play: the characters are so alive, the issues so real. I think that's why it touches every generation that sees it.
When I first read it, the situation of these upper-middle class people seemed rather privileged, their dilemmas somewhat special. But then I became fascinated by all the questions it raises about status and power: how people acquire them through money, how corrupt people can become, how they can just opt for a comfortable life. All this has a great resonance.
You also realise that people's dilemmas are the same, whether they have money or not. Yet Barker doesn't hit you over the head with these questions, he draws them out piece by piece. And because the play is about a family, everyone can get involved. They see it's dysfunctional like most families, but it has these wonderful characters, who just draw you in. During the original run apparently some of the audience wanted to jump up on stage and join in, the family feeling was so well created.
Although my character Alice is not a Voysey, she feels part of the family, which is perhaps why as a newcomer to the company I've found it so easy to fit in. I feel completely welcomed. And playing with Dominic West is very easy, because he has a natural confidence and is a very generous actor . He doesn't have neuroses, he's very easy with himself, and he wants to share ideas a lot.
Alice is a very appealing character, who's obviously been well brought up. She has a private income, which she enjoys, but she was taught how to look after it herself. So in a very modern way she has ownership of both her money and her life. This gives her confidence and self-possession. She's a good woman, but she thinks Edward has too many principles. She doesn't have any guilt about her money; she tends to live from moment to moment, doing what she wants. She questions life: when to marry, who to marry, is it necessary to marry? But she doesn't need to marry for money. That pertains very much to now.
Her idea of marriage is no longer romantic. She's searching for something to take her to the next level of her life. There's a frustration within her, a need to do something more altruistic, and she's looking for a partner to make that happen. When this challenge comes up for Edward, she suddenly sees a chance to make her life more meaningful. He now seems more of a man, and she realises they could grow together.
But she won't take him when he's not in trouble. She says, 'I don't want you to make me the little woman, I won't become domesticated.' I think there's something wonderfully modern about that.