Feline Fright

“I'm going to preface everything that I say with the fact that I had a really bad migraine last night – it was bizarre! So if I sound a bit vague that's why,” Jacqueline McKenzie apologises over the phone from Belvoir, where she has snatched a few minutes before rehearsal. “I feel like I've been hit over the head with a brick – not my husband Brick by the way, he's adorable, I feel like bottling Ewen Leslie!”

This quick turn of phrase in the aftermath of a migraine is testament to how thoroughly 'in' the world of Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof she is. The Simon Stone-directed production marks McKenzie's second foray into the character of Maggie – a rags to riches Southern belle trying to save face, a marriage (with the aforementioned Brick) and stake her claim to a dying father-in-law's fortune – though she's feeling significantly more prepared this time around.

The first time McKenzie was Maggie was at the very start of her acting career, when she plucked a monologue from Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play to audition for the National Institute of Dramatic Art.

“It was very dreadful! I did a dreadful job, and they didn't want to hear it again after the first time, but they made me do Irina from The Three Sisters about 30 times and that's when I got in” McKenzie jokingly recalls between a few stifled giggles. “I don't really remember reading it thoroughly for that audition which is why it pretty much sucked, I think I might have read the crib notes. It wasn't until I got to NIDA that I learned the importance of given circumstances and researching around a role, I didn't realise how wonderful it was to do that at that point.”

Now on her second bite of the cherry, McKenzie is relishing the opportunity to delve deeper than just the crib notes and talks with fascination about Williams and the world he has put to page.

“I've done loads of reading around the play, and watched lots of interviews with Tennessee Williams, there's one called Wounded Genius on YouTube that has been amazing. It's quite extraordinary to be doing a play where you can hear the playwright, hear about his own life and what motivated him; it wasn't ego, he was first and foremost a poet and this is such an exquisitely written piece.”

YouTube, says McKenzie, has redefined her research methods. Gone are the days when she'd enlist a friend to sneak her into Sydney University library in order to photocopy chapters from rows of books, hunting down research and character.

“We're very lucky to have YouTube and things nowadays,” says McKenzie, “If we're in rehearsal and there's something someone doesn't understand someone gets out the iPad and we have an answer immediately! And when I met Tennessee, so to speak, meeting him via YouTube, I just thought, 'What a man, I'd do anything to realise this play for him'.”

So with far more than crib notes under her belt, how does McKenzie see Maggie now?

“She's a very dynamic character; she does not stop too many times in conversation. She's a bit like a train,” McKenzie offers, “A cat-shaped train, she's just roaring on down that line, she isn't going to stop.”