Bronte Barbe goes a little green-eyed with Viv Hardwick about revealing the secrets of being an ogre

GETTING under the green skin of Bronte Barbe’s Princess Fiona in Shrek proves far more difficult that I’d imagined. In spite of company manager Neil White revealing that the award-winning touring show requires Barbe to turn into an ogre in around 50 seconds three times per show, complete with green “Fiona cleavages” plus latex plus hands and fingernails, Barbe is more bothered about on-stage magic than backstage banter.

“We have a big team, somebody doing my costume, another on make-up and on my wig, all in about a minute. The thing is they don’t like me to talk about it because it’s a big secret how it happens. It would ruin the magic otherwise,” says the performer who found fame in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s reality contest Over the Rainbow.

Originally, Barbe was cast as Little Red Riding Hood in the musical which plays Sunderland Empire for the week of Wednesday, November 25 to Sunday, December 6. Her co-star Dean Chisnall, has been a title namesake since the show left the West End and has found his green make-up a challenge at times. In Dublin Chisnall slipped over in his own puddle of sweat and disappeared into the wings, ending up beneath a drum kit.

“I knew what I was in for when I was offered the role of Fiona. It’s a wonderful show though and it’s worth it in the end. It is a shock what happens to me in terms of make-up because there are as many as eight people involved in quick change. So, basically, it’s staying in character for me that’s most important,” says Barbe.

She took over the role of Fiona in July and is contracted in Shrek for a Christmas run at Liverpool before completing its tour in Salford in February.

“That will be a sad day for me, but it’s not too far from home because I’m a Macclesfield girl. It’s a great part but it’s also good to try something new because I’ll have been in Shrek for nearly two years. I’ll be ready for a new challenge but I’ll miss this show because we’ve become like a big family,” she says.

Barbe is delighted to be playing venues in the North, having already taken part in a run at Newcastle Theatre Royal.

“I’m really looking forward to Sunderland because I had a really nice time in Newcastle,” she says.

The Shrek star also keeps her fans up-to-date with a Twitter account which describes Barbe as: Northern actor, tea drinker, vintage enthusiast, animal lover, expert suitcase packer and Princess Fiona in Shrek.

“Yeah, that’s the right order. No, it wasn’t planned like that or anything. It’s great when you get fab audiences and you’re doing such a great show. I do miss my family a lot, but I do get time to travel back and you get used to all the suitcase packing and it’s not something that everyone else gets to do.

“I do have a few suitcases, but I don’t drive so I tend to use trains to move around the country. The company take the bulk of my luggage which is moved on the convoy of trucks needed to take all the costumes and props,” she says.

Barbe reveals she had already got a place at drama school when the chance came to take part in Over the Rainbow in 2010.

“I didn’t have any funding and I knew that my family would never been able to afford to send me. It was £12,000 a year just for the fees alone. I’ve always been determined and very hard-working and I saw the advert for Dorothy and never thought anything about it, but I kept getting through the rounds. Then I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this could be something’. Reaching the final was a dream come true, and it definitely helped me along the way and I certainly wouldn’t be playing Fiona by now. I’ve only been out of drama school for two years,” says Barbe, who attended London’s Mountview College after being given a dance and drama scholarship and funding from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation.

“It was absolutely amazing and the result of me taking this huge gamble. I hadn’t got a clue how I was going to raise the money to go to college. I had planned to work and save the money, but I could never have imagined all this happening,” she says.

Many will have thought that the novels of a certain family would have inspired her Christian name, but Barbe reveals it’s was her mother’s choice after watching the film Green Card starring Andi McDowell and Gerard Depardieu in the 1980s.

“Andi McDowell is called Bronte and everyone thinks it’s from literature, but it’s not. I did actually visit the Bronte house recently, but I think my name stands out because my surname is French from my father and I’m lucky to have been born with an instant stage name,” she says.

Then Barbe is back on the road with Shrek’s cast of 23, who play 115 different characters, five wardrobe assistants, four wig assistants, the only show that’s ever toured with a make-up team of four; 11 Wearside dressers, six stage crew, five fly men, two full spot operators and 12 backstage techs. In all, there are 100 people involved in bringing Shrek to the stage, plus an orchestra of 13.

...and one whole room dedicated to green heads and hands.

...but don’t tell anyone.

  • Shrek the Musical, Sunderland Empire, November 25 to December 6. Box office: 0844-871-3022