Notts actress Aisling Loftus talks about her one-woman play Girls and Boys currently at Nottingham Playhouse

So, what attracted you to Girls and Boys?

I couldn't really believe it when it came into my email inbox, because I knew of the play. I remember when it was on. It was directed by Lyndsey Turner, who I've worked with a few times, and who I think is incredible, and she's got really good taste. I was so excited to read it. And when I read it, I thought, how could I not take the opportunity? Like, it was a very easy, in big capital letters, YES.

What do you feel it says about relationships today?

They say history doesn't repeat itself, it rhymes. So, I think we have these ideas about culture, about society, about men and about women, like we keep having these conversations, but there's always going to be more fat to chew on in terms of those conversations. The play doesn't offer any kind of solutions, but it has a really good rummage around in what it is to be human.

It's a one-woman ninety-minute play. Is that not physically exhausting? Is there anything you do to keep yourself going during the performance?

I'm sure there are probably things that I'll need to have in my back pocket, but the writing is so good. It's like you're on a roller coaster, you know, like you get onto the ride, and you're locked in and you don't want to be anywhere else. Well, I don't want to be anywhere else. It just feels such incredible good luck, that I don’t have any hesitation about it.

You've worked in radio, film, TV. How does theatre compare to those other mediums? 

It's my favourite. If it were possible, I'd always be doing theatre. The relationship with the audience is incredible. This very immediate relationship. That we're all in this agreement with each other, that we're going to share this space and these ideas, and we're all locked in this place, a bit outside of reality. But what's happening is actually happening in front of you. This play is incredibly powerful in that respect. In this journey that the woman and the audience go on together, it's a very intense relationship between them. I absolutely love it. It’s something that we can't AI, like there are lots of things that will be, but not this. Not theatre as an experience.

You were a child actor, with your first TV performance when you were aged ten. Did you enjoy that? And would you encourage your daughters to follow your example?

Oh, I mean, I loved it from day one. But would I encourage my daughters? I think the fact of the workshop was quite an anomalous thing that, so far as I'm aware, at the Junior Television Workshop you didn't get funnelled through. Parents weren't like, my kid's going to be a star. It was a drama group, not a youth club, a drama group. We were learning our craft as it were, but it was just a happy accident of the group that we would get work like that. You know, you might do something in the summer holidays or the Easter holidays or whatever else. It wasn't like a child actor factory and I certainly wouldn’t want that for my girls.

I want my girls to find something that they feel as passionate about as I did that, because it was very nourishing for me. It was the best thing about my week, every week, going to the workshop. But in terms of trying to get them to be actors, I just want them to do something that they want to do. That they get up in the morning full of vim and vigour for.

So, as an old girl of the Television Workshop, did that help your career? What was the most important thing you learned there?

I suppose it's hard to boil it down to a single thing. But I wouldn't have a career at all if I hadn't gone there. It was just incredible, good luck to be born in Nottingham, to go to the Workshop. I had incredible teaching from Ian Smith and Alison Rashley. 

I'd say, the biggest thing was connecting to or telling the truth. In that, yes it was make believe, but it wasn't pretending. You had to really mean it. I remember from the first play that I did with Alison. There was a scene in the play where one of the kids has gone missing, and my character is really upset about it. So, I go off stage, whip myself up into crying, and I came on stage crying, as the character was, and some of the kids were like, Alison, she's crying. And Alison said, she's being Jenny, the character. I remember thinking: whoa, that's it, isn't it? I'm not sad, Jenny's sad. How cool is that? I can feel this kind of emotion. Make believe in earnest. The stakes were satisfyingly high in these games we were playing.

What advice would you give anyone wanting to break into acting today. Especially if they cannot access something like the Television Workshop? 

It's hard to know, because that's the way that I came up. I know of quite a few very good drama groups in Nottingham. So, there's a lot of opportunity in being part of that community. I would say that you need to be a student of what you want to do. For example, watch lots of things. Think about, right, what did I like about that? What worked for me? What appealed to me? And be part of the short film community, because there's a lot of brilliant people at the beginnings of their careers in the short film community. And you can do some really great work and learn an awful lot.

I'd say that there isn't one route, but I sometimes wish I had gone from school. There's a huge amount that I wish I had in my back pocket that I'd pretty much gathered on the job. You get to work with brilliant people. I had a session yesterday with voice coach Joel Trill, and he's bloody amazing. And I was like, oh, my god, is this what everyone else just knows? Yeah, sometimes I think, gosh, I wish I had that kind of education.

I think, if you're really passionate about it, the truth is that you'll find a way. 

You've performed at the Playhouse before. Is this like a homecoming? 

I feel very privileged to do this at the Playhouse, because there's a lot of really great Notts actresses as well. There's a lot of brilliant people that have come through Nottingham. So to be someone that gets to do this is very cool. I think what Adam Penford is doing with the Playhouse, is really exciting. The thing that jumps out to me is the play Punch. He's really reinvigorated the theatre scene in Notts. It makes me think back to when I was a kid when it felt like you had to go to London to see things.

Not anymore. Like the Home Theatre in Manchester is another fantastic regional theatre and then there’s The Crucible in Sheffield. There's brilliant stuff that isn't London centric. And I think that Adam's part of that movement, you know?

So, yeah, obviously the pressure's on somewhat, because there's more people that I know coming to see it. And also people that are part of the Notts creative scene, and I want to be worthy of their time. And all of the audience that comes, obviously, you want it to be special, because it's a special play. So, yes, the pressure's on.

What's next for you? 

Well, both myself and my husband are actors, so we have to do this kind of imperfect dance of, like, one does one and the and the other one. Yeah, it's more about what he's doing next, really. So is it like, yeah, one goes out and the other one spends time with the kids. Literally, looking after them. I've got a seven-month-old, and four and a half years. So, it’s school, and it's milk and it's everything else.

Was there anything else you'd like to add? 

And do you know there was something on the thing that that it's there are performances that are going to have a BSL person, and audio description. And, just that it runs from the eighth of February to the first of March. 

Girls and Boys runs at the Nottingham Playhouse from February 8 to March 1 2025. Tickets are available from the Nottingham Playhouse website.

@nottmplayhouse