Actress Lydia White spoke to David Hennessy about the new UK revival of Dublin musical Once with the same creative team that made it a Broadway/ West End hit.
The Dublin musical Once is returning to the UK stage at Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Scotland.
Set in Dublin, Once follows a couple that we only get to know as Guy and Girl.
Guy is a disillusioned street musician ready to leave his songs behind while Girl is a spirited Czech immigrant who challenges him to believe in his talent.
Written by Enda Walsh with music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, Once is based on John Carney’s 2007 film, which featured the Oscar-winning song Falling Slowly.
Premiering on Broadway in 2012, Once went on to win eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical and subsequently ran in the West End from 2013-2015 where it won two Olivier awards.
Once is the only musical to have received an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Olivier Award, and a Tony Award.
The new production will bring together the original creative team from the award-winning Broadway and West End shows and marks the opening production of Alan Cumming’s inaugural season as Artistic Director at the theatre.
Lydia White plays Girl while Dylan Wood takes the role of Guy.
Lydia, who was born in East London and grew up in Essex, was a finalist in the 2015 Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year competition.
She went on to earn an Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation scholarship to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating in 2018 with a BA in Musical Theatre.
White made her professional stage debut in 2019 as Bella in the UK premiere of Rags at the Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester.
She went on to star as Jo March in the UK premiere of Little Women at the Park Theatre, London, before appearing in Whistle Down the Wind at the Watermill Theatre and A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic in 2022.
In 2023, she joined the West End cast of Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre as Miss Honey.
More recent credits also include Girl from the North Country at the Old Vic.
Lydia took time out of rehearsals to chat to The Irish World.
What drew you to the role? I’m sure you were already familiar with the show..
“Yeah, I saw Once when it was in the West End many years ago.
“I was a teenager at the time actually and I fell in love with it then and I was like, ‘I would love to play this role at some stage in my life’.
“I also have Czech ancestry.
“Girl is a Czech immigrant.
“My grandma was Czech and she came over to the UK on the Kindertransport so she was one of 669 Jewish children that were put on the Kindertransport to be saved during World War II.
“I saw the show years ago, always wanted to play the role, have Czech ancestry and also have played the piano for a very long time.
“When I saw that Pitlochry were doing the Scottish premiere of Once, I just thought to myself, ‘I think this is the right time. I think I’m the right age now to be able to play this role’ so I made it quite intentional.
“I emailed my agents and emailed Stuart Burt, who’s an amazing, amazing casting director who cast this production, and just said, ‘Look, I think that I’m right for this now and I’d love to be part of it’.
“And obviously John Tiffany’s directing it so it’s the original West End team basically bringing it to life again in Scotland.
“I’m so grateful and so happy to be here.
“It’s such a magical process already and means a lot to me and always has really.”
Could you have believed all those years ago when you were sitting in the audience that you would one day be part of it yourself?
“I know, and that’s the magic of this job that we do and this career.
“You never know where it’s going to take you and more often than not, I find that synchronicity has a big part to play and the things that I feel are right for me do tend to find me.
“I could never have imagined that this would be happening now.
“It just feels really right actually.”
There’s a lot of depth in the connection between Guy and Girl. That must be great to get into in rehearsals..
“Yeah, definitely.
“It’s magical and we speak about Girl almost being this angel type character who saves him.
“She says a line quite early on where she says, ‘We are saviours, you and me’.
“And at the start it kind of alludes to her intervening in his dilapidation.
“He’s like, ‘I’m done. I’m giving up. I’m leaving my guitar on the ground’.
“And she swoops in and she basically says, ‘No, you’re not, you’re not going to do that’.
“And then as the story goes on, the way that he saves her also becomes apparent.
“It’s just that beautiful and heartbreaking connection and story that we see where they are so drawn to each other and have such strong feelings for each other but they help each other move on to the next part of their journey even though they have to be apart for that.
“I think it’s a really beautiful and very relevant and relatable relationship and dynamic.”
I don’t want to give any spoilers but, as you say, they can’t be together so there is no fairytale ending..
“Definitely and also sometimes we do meet people in life where, for one reason or another, it doesn’t have that ending.
“It doesn’t work and I think this play shows that lots of things can exist at once.
“They can fall for each other but also know that that’s not feasible and it’s not going to happen, they also have responsibilities and they also have other relationships.
“The connection through music is so important and I think that that’s what will always tether them together.”
The power of music is such a big thing in the story. Guy has written songs for his former girlfriend and tells him he has to play them for her, that she thinks they will win her back..
“Yeah, that’s very true.
“I think Girl recognises that depth and that pain and hurt within him and how he’s presenting these songs.
“He’s not actually performing them to anyone, they’re very much for himself in those moments especially at the start of the show where she comes in and she’s very, very moved.
“Girl is extremely moved by his voice and the lyrics and the songs themselves.
“The power of music is huge in this and it just shows that it can because, without giving any spoilers away about what happens at the end, it can connect and reconnect people and relationships and I think you can see these songs through different lenses as well.
“He’s singing them for a lost love and then they transform into something slightly different as he starts to fall for Girl.
“And again, everything can exist.
“Just because he’s fallen for Girl throughout the show and then the songs take on a different meaning, different persona, doesn’t mean that he’s lost what he had before and the sentiment that these songs had before with his ex-girlfriend.
“Everything’s existent.
“Everything’s held within those songs so it can be quite nuanced and complex as well.
“And I think that’s definitely the case for Girl’s songs.
“I’m still in the process of working out what she means when she’s writing songs and in the creative process that we see Girl inhabit throughout the show.
“I’m still trying to work out the layers of this and the poetry of her songs.
“They’re way less direct and clear than Guy’s songs in my opinion.
“They’re more transient and complex and can mean a variety of different things.”
Are both characters burdened? Is that something Guy and Girl have in common?
“They definitely share that.
“I think she’s a lot more evasive throughout the show.
“We can all relate to that when we’re going through something, the easiest thing to do in those moments is to help someone else or kind of become an all- encompassing feeling in someone else’s life or issues, and I think that’s where she starts.
“She definitely needs something as well.
“She kind of comes into focus and we see her story and her depth and her burdens as the play unfolds.
“I think that’s a really beautiful thing because they’re not both standing there going, ‘This is who I am. These are my issues’.
“It starts to unfold in a really natural and beautiful way and you just see flaws and burdens and difficulties and ultimately what makes them human.”
Another thing the story shows is that someone can be in someone else’s life for a fleeting time but have the deepest of effects.
“Yeah, it’s like their souls connect.
“There’s a line that Girl’s friend Reza says which is along the lines of, ‘You have the same soul’ and I think that’s a really profound connection that you can’t manufacture.
“In my opinion they just straight away could see each other’s souls and they only know each other for a few days really, they only spend a few days with each other but there’s a profound and lasting impact on both of them.”
As we said John Tiffany, who directed the original West End run, is directing. What is it like to work with the original team?
“Oh, it’s so exciting.
“I’ve been a massive fan of this team ever since I saw the show and to work with John is just such a dream.
“He is so open and generous and kind.
“The whole team are really honing in on the fact that this is our production.
“It’s the same team, it’s the same script but it’s a whole new production because it’s new actors involved so it feels very fresh.
“It feels very like we can really own it as actors which is such a gift.
“Sometimes you don’t get that when you’re doing a revival and it’s labelled as a revival or you’re slotting into a run of a show that’s been running for ten years.
“You often don’t get that autonomy and you often don’t get the encouragement to make it your own.
“It’s such a gift to be working with a team that encourage that and want you to really inhabit everything yourself.
“The cast are incredible and the team are amazing.
“I think I said to him (John Tiffany) yesterday, I really wouldn’t want anything else in this process.
“This process just reminds me exactly why I wanted to be an actor which is so rare.
“In some jobs it can be really difficult and this just feels magical and there’s something about it being in Pitlochry in Scotland that it exaggerates the magic around it.
“It feels really right.”
You spoke about your Czech heritage, is there any Irish blood in there as well?
“I wish there was.
“My best friend is from Dublin.
“I lived with her for ten years and I went to her family’s home a lot.
“They’re actually all coming over from Dublin to see the show which is amazing, and pressure.
“(But) I don’t have to do an Irish accent.
“I’ve been to Howth where it’s set on the cliffs so it’s really nice that when there are scenes where we’re looking down at Dublin from the cliffs of Howth, I can see it. I’ve been there and I’m like, ‘Okay, I can see it all and I know how they feel when they’re looking down at the city’.
“It just feels like it links to me in lots of different ways because living with her and being her best friend for so long, and then also my Czech ancestry and playing piano, it’s just lots of different facets of my life coming in.
“But no, I wish I had Irish ancestry.
“I wish I could say I did.”
But you can say you have worked with one of the greatest Irish dramatists of all time when you were directed by Conor McPherson in Girl From the North Country..
“Yes, that was an amazing process as well.
“That was incredible.
“What an amazing person.
“He wrote Girl From The North Country and directed us and getting to work with him for that process was insane.
“I learned so much from him but also how humble and how grounded he is.
“I learned a lot from him just kind of saying, ‘Yeah, I don’t really know what we want to do with this. Try something…’
“And it was that freedom that was instilled in us again and he was very generous in that.
“Even though Girl From The North Country has been on quite a few times he was like, ‘Go, do your thing with it’ and I appreciated that a lot.
“He’s an absolute force of a person and so brilliant.”
Did you always know you wanted to be an actor?
“Yeah, I remember, when I was maybe about six, I had a tiny little diary and I wrote, ‘I want to be in an actor’.
“And I was like, ‘Where did that come from? Why did I come up with that when I was about six?’
“And I think that’s just remained with me this whole time.
“I think I just knew from a really young age.
“I started playing piano when I was maybe around seven.
“Music and the arts and acting and singing have always been part of my life from a really young age.”
What’s been the highlight of your career so far?
“I’ve been lucky enough to just have such amazing experiences and brilliant roles as well.
“Miss Honey was magical.
“To be part of that show and part of the legacy of that production is insane.
“It was amazing.
““I loved working with the children.
“There’s nothing else like it.
“Your scene partner is a 10-year-old girl so the trust that you develop between you is magical.
“That was an amazing experience.
“I loved Girl from the North Country.
“I’ve loved every job that I’ve done for different reasons.
“I also did a job which was a play called In Other Words, written by Matthew Seager and that was an amazing, profound experience.
“It was two hander and it was about music and dementia.
“It was about music and dementia and again it ties to the power of music.
“We toured around and it was just after Matilda.
“Matilda is quite a big commercial job, I did that for a year and this couldn’t be more different.
“We were kind of touring around the UK and then went to the Arcola in London.
“To hear people’s stories and experiences with dementia and how music can re-establish a connection to the self in dementia patients, you see that music can remind them who they are and is a way into that memory.
“Speaking to audiences and communities that have had experience with either caring for someone with dementia or being a partner of someone with dementia was so moving.
“That was another job that reminded me why I wanted to do this because it was community driven. You got to interact with the people that you were performing for and you got to speak to people and hear their stories and I think that’s why I do this: It’s to have that connection with people as a collective, as a whole but also on an individual basis and really hear the whole plethora and scope of what it means to be human.
“I think that’s why music is very important because it really kind of bypasses the conscious part of your brain and really speaks to the soul of someone.”
Once runs at Pitlochry Festival Theatre 23 May- 27 June. For more information and to book, click here.
