As she prepares to revive the role of Ellen Terry, associate artist Jane Upton reflects on playing the queen of the Victorian theatre at Smallhythe Place last summer.

If you’ve never heard of Ellen Terry - and don’t worry, two years ago I’m not sure that I had - she was the most famous actress of the Victorian period. Best known for playing Shakespeare's leading ladies, she became recognised for her daring and natural acting style, while all else around her were sticking to the statuesque and the melodramatic.

My interest in Miss Terry - who we at 1623 have now fondly come to call ET - was first ignited during a visit to her beautiful little cottage in Tenterden, Kent. Smallhythe Place is a National Trust venue, where fellow associate Adam Buss and I were on a day trip two years ago when we fell in love with her story. As soon as we stepped through the crooked cottage door, we were fascinated by her life, her famous family and friends and all the evocative trinkets and souvenirs collected over a lifetime of acting and socialising with the great and the good of the Victorian era: Oscar Wilde, Henry Irving, Alfred Tennyson, Lewis Carroll, the list goes on.

Very much taken with the place, we spoke to the man in charge - property manager Paul Meredith - and suggested that 1623 could put on a Shakespeare play in the house or garden. “We can do better than that,” he said before showing us the Barn Theatre, the barn in Ellen's garden that her daughter Edith Craig had converted into a beautiful theatre after Ellen’s death. A bewitching space, the theatre is made up of wooden beams with the names of famous visitors scratched into them, and straw seats sponsored by an extraordinary list of 'who's who' in British theatre and music, including Sir Paul McCartney. Suffice it to say that we came away from the Barn Theatre thinking it a very special venue, one we were dying to perform in.

When we went back to 1623, we could hardly contain our enthusiasm for the Barn Theatre to artistic director Ben [Spiller], who contacted Paul at Smallhythe straightaway and suggested we put on something specific to ET and the venue. Paul agreed and fixed a date before Ben and I got to work learning more about our protagonist.

As we delved deeper into her life - her childhood full of rehearsals, elocution practice and performance, through her three marriages and two illegitimate children, to her heartbreaking memory loss in later life - we knew that we had some beautiful nuggets for a great memory play. Ben used his expert knowledge to pick out excerpts from Ellen’s Shakespearean roles that also mirrored key moments in her life, and we decided to blur the edges of life and art so that the two were intertwined in her memory.

But time was running short, so the brilliant Stuart [Lydon, 1623 associate artist] came on board to write the play. If you’ve ever seen the film Shakespeare in Love, what followed was akin to that. At each meeting we had, the playwright appeared with the next few pages of the script, and we would read through them with delight.

Stuart pulled together the words of Ellen, sprinkled them with his own wit and empathy, and created a wonderfully real, three dimensional picture of Ellen. He also created the simple and patient character of Tom Ladd, her gardener and confidant for the sake of our play.

We rehearsed as the play was written, Adam as Tom and me as Ellen. Ben directed while also buying and borrowing props from seemingly everywhere to create a history for Ellen; Christopher [Lydon, associate artist] added memorable music; Stuart continued to edit and rewrite; and, by the time we got to Kent on the day before the performance on Saturday 1 August 2009, we were all exhausted but very excited about performing our play in Ellen’s own home in front of an audience that loved her.

Arriving on the day of the performance, it was amazing to get into the Barn Theatre and to stand on the stage. But the most spine-tingling moment was going backstage to find ourselves surrounded by some of Ellen’s own possessions, posters and years’ worth of props and make-up. I must confess to being completely overwhelmed as I sat in that dressing room, dressed as Ellen, with a bust of her as Portia watching me as I rolled on my tights.

The play went by in a blur and we soon found ourselves backstage again, relieved to hear the applause. The audience loved it and we were even visited by one very special guest. 'Knock knock,' a deep and beautifully rich English accent called out as we were getting changed, 'are you decent?' I buttoned up my shirt quickly as the wonderful actor Sir Donald Sinden appeared in the room, gave Adam and me a hug and a kiss, told us how much he had enjoyed the performance, and then disappeared as though in a dream.

This year, we are resurrecting Ellen again. We will be at Smallhythe on Saturday 31 July, but the weekend before that we will be performing at the unique and forgotten Concert Hall above the Waterfall Bar and Café in Derby (1623's home city). Opposite the railway station, the Waterfall - formerly the Railway Institute - has used the Concert Hall as a dumping ground for nearly 20 years. But now, Lostboys Productions - with the help of 1623 and others - are clearing the room and trying to restore it to its former glory so it can once again become a venue for special theatrical events in Derby.

Although there is still a lot of work to do, the room as it is, with its peeling pillars and faded grandeur, is the perfect place for Ellen to come alive again. 

For more information on Ellen Terry: Shakespeare's Leading Lady at Smallhythe Place on Saturday 31 July, please take a look at www.1623theatre.co.uk/upcoming.