Caymanian actor Rita Estevanovich has made her London stage debut.
Estevanovich, who recently appeared in the latest series of Black Mirror, played Peaches in a new production called On Demand, which ran for three weeks at Theatre at the Tabard in Chiswick.
The three-person play, written by Duncan Campbell, tells the story of an elderly man with dementia called Trevor who is approached by Matt and Peaches, two members of a mysterious organisation.
They take him on a picnic and over the course of the play it becomes clear (spoiler alert) that the organisation helps people to die, and Trevor (played by John Gorick) has at some point in his life paid them to euthanise him when his health has deteriorated to a certain point.
At first Peaches seems to be a somewhat cold individual, just there to do the job, but it’s later revealed she’s actually Trevor’s daughter, who he abandoned when she was a child.
She’s fooled her supposed co-worker Matt (Sam Hill) into believing she works for the organisation in order to confront her father before he dies.
Estevanovich described Peaches to Cayman Independent as someone “in a lot of pain” who has been “searching for answers for many years as to why her father left her”.
She said that while the character initially displays a lot of anger toward Trevor, as the play develops and she learns more about why her dad did what he did, she shows moments of compassion and forgiveness.
“She is able to accept that perhaps she didn’t have all of the information she needed at the beginning of her journey, and with this new information reflects upon her own life, which has been characterised by a lot of abusive relationships and bad decision-making, and thinks maybe she could have approached things differently.”
Asked how she prepared for the role, Estevanovich said she started by looking for “clues” in the text to find out who Peaches was.
“I looked at what she says about herself and what other people say about her.
“For example, she talks about growing up with an alcoholic mother, self-harming, having challenges with food and taking decisions to enter unhealthy relationships.
“I then researched around this and little by little I built up a character.
“We were also very lucky that we could talk to the playwright, and he would even let us tweak the dialogue when we felt it was needed to make it more in line with the characters we were developing. That was such a gift.”
Estevanovich also “scoured” through her own life, looking at the some of her decisions that “maybe weren’t the best”.
“I have to give myself grace, but also use my knowledge, my experience as tools to make this character real to me and to tell her story honestly and to not judge her but rather try to understand her.”
The actor said she found listening to music was a great way of getting both into and out of character.
“Some music really helped me get into the mindset of where I believed she would have to be to take such extreme decisions, while there was also music that brought me back to my own reality, to who I am.
“It helped me let go of some of the feelings that I had allowed myself feel, in order to play her properly.”
On Demand was directed by Nick Bromley, who Estevanovich describes as a “legend” on the London theatre scene, “who knows just about everyone” and is so “kind, gracious and warm”.
She said Bromley gave the cast a lot of freedom, which took her by surprise at first.
“I was expecting to be directed more, but he really allowed it to unfold and just stepped in when he felt that perhaps we weren’t going in the right direction, or we just needed a little adjustment.
“I think that was such a gift to me because it meant that I had to stand on my own two feet and really trust the process.”
Estevanovich said the response from both critics and audiences has been great.
“The reviews have been very complimentary (we got a mix of four and a half stars, four stars and three stars) and audiences responded very well, often coming up to us after wanting to talk to us about it, which was lovely.”
This is Estevanovich’s second play since moving to the UK in 2019, after playing Gina Miller in Bloody Difficult Women at the famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
“I’ve been doing mainly screen and voiceover work, but it felt great to be on stage again, especially in London.”
She said she’s proud to represent the Cayman Islands abroad and although she used a US accent for her latest role (Peaches is American), hopes future parts will allow her to use her Caymanian accent.
“I did get to use it in a BBC podcast – I played a New Yorker, a Jamaican and a Caymanian and I was over the moon to be able to do my Caymanian accent,” she added.
Earlier this year, Estevanovich told Cayman Independent more about her varied career, which has included working as a programmes manager at the Cayman National Cultural Foundation and a TV and radio journalist.
The interview is available here.
