Viv Hardwick catches up with Teessider Esme Appleton, who is returning to the region with the award-winning play Golem which satirises our tech-obsessed world

MIDDLESBROUGH-BORN Esme Appleton has been awake until 5.30am when we chat about the 1927 theatre company’s revival of Golem, which tours to Harrogate next week... the lack of sleep being down to last Thursday’s General Election results excitement.

The first question gets Appleton laughing because it’s the mention of her career taking her from Middlesbrough to Moscow (the Mxat School of theatre). “That sounds like a potential book title,” says the associate director and designer.

Her journey into theatre began with a decision to switch from Teesside High and take A-level drama at Teesside Tertiary. “I ended up at Bretton Hall (near Leeds) which doesn’t exist any more, sadly, and I met Suzanne Andrade, who wrote and directed Golem, on my first day. We were put in the same accommodation...so, everything just seems to have happened by chance,” says Appleton.

Her parents, Barbara and David, still live in Linthorpe and the family’s love of stagecraft was partly inspired by nearby Middlesbrough Theatre. “The main reason was my two amazing tutors at Teesside Tertiary. Gordon Duffy McGee told me about Bretton Hall and said I'd like it. There was also Rob Bullard, who was equally inspirational. It's amazing the influence teachers can have on your life. They opened my eyes to Brecht, Kafka and Beckett. It certainly opened my eyes after studying The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at school.

“I met Maimie Mary McCoy there too. She was also taking drama and we used to nip out for a jacket potato and butter on a lunch time. I ended up working at the Tontine, which her parents used to own. They now run the Crathorne Arms. I loved working there, the music, the people and Mary's mum and Dad have so much style,” says 37-year-old Appleton.

“I’ll always remember that one of the teachers at Teesside High said that Esme should go into acting because it’s the only thing she can do. So that was a back-handed compliment.”

Her long-time collaboration with Andrade – who set up the 1927 company with film, animation and design creator Paul Barritt - has gained a string of awards since starting in 2005.

Golem, based on the novel by Gustav Meyrink, updates the tale of a monster created in 1914 to a man finding himself at the mercy of ever-cleverer robots.

“To be honest, I suspect about half the audience may turn up thinking the play has something to do with The Lord of the Rings. I’m not sure if people are happy or sad when they see that Golem is a six-foot clay figure rather than a tiny, little weird thing talking about precious things. The biggest problem is that most people struggle to pronounce the name. We say Go-lem, but we’re still not quite sure.

“The original myth is about a rabbi who builds a clay man, brings him to life and then, one day, forgets to put him back to sleep. The clay being goes on the rampage. So, it’s about man losing his sense of control. Our version involves today’s technology, like the way you can’t stop checking your phone every five minutes when there’s unexpected General Election results,” Appleton jokes.

She can’t believe that today’s technology now involves people taking pictures of avocado on toast and posting it on Facebook. “It’s madness. You see people in restaurants and they’re not talking to friends, they are taking photos. You see people who look a bit bored and then bring out their phone and take a photo looking all-smiley and then go back to being straight-faced,” Appleton adds.

Now London-based, with Golem heading on a European tour after its Harrogate visit, she says that several of her North-East-born friends have recently moved back to the region.

“I go back to see my mum and dad and my sister and one of my friends is about to give birth and I’ll be back to see her. Since my parents retired, they have really gone into acting as well and they seem to getting more work than me thanks to photo-shoots and adverts. It’s hilarious,” she says.

Another reason for returning home is that Appleton’s sister runs a Stockton cake-making company, Bluebird Cakes (Stockton). “Who wouldn’t want to come back to Teesside for cake,” she jokes.

Appleton actually started work on Golem back in 2013, where much of the early planning involves the stop-motion filming by Barritt. “We have a lovely rehearsal process where everything is organic. Then we go away, have an argument, and then go back into rehearsal, not showing any of that side to the rest of the team and the actors. I was originally in the cast when Golem ran at The Young Vic, but stepped out for a year-and-a-half. Now we’ve recast the whole show,” she says.

Philippa Hambly is in the main role of Robert Robertson, who makes the mistake of putting his trust in a robotic helper. Genevieve Dunne, Nathan Lane, Rowena Lennon and Felicity Sparks are the rest of the cast with Ben Whithead providing the voice of Golem and Andrade supplying additional voiceover for the screen sections of the play.

“Philippa is the second woman to play the role. We auditioned lots of blokes, but we got a cheeky email from Sharmira Turner saying she’d like to try out. She was amazing and it happened again this time.

“It can take hours to put a piece of film on screen and then someone might say, ‘I’m not sure about that five minutes we’ve just created’, which could be several days worth of work. Reacting to what is on screen can be challenging because you can’t actually see what’s happening. You’re cheating by looking at it. You can if you turn your head, but then you lose the audience,” she says.