Black is back

11:36am Thursday 31st January 2008

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FOR Denise Black, her latest stage role is, she believes, tailor made for her.

Roots by Arnold Wesker is set at the tail end of the 1950s, the year in which she was born in fact, and the play belongs to a theatrical genre she simply can't get enough of - it's a kitchen sink drama.

Denise is playing the role of mum and home maker Mrs Bryant and she even says her stage daughter Beattie, the archetypal teenage rebel, reminds her of herself when she was growing up.

"She Beattie wants to change absolutely everything and finds great fault with her parents and how they live. It's the new world versus the old world. Beattie comes back home with all these arty and political ideas and by the end of the play she works out who she is, what she thinks and she finds her own voice," she says, adding that audiences who know and remember Shelagh Delaney's masterpiece A Taste of Honey will feel right at home with this play.

The part also requires the former Coronation Street star to cook a full meal on stage - complete with beans, potatoes, lamb chops and Yorkshire puddings. It's a task that fills her with dread. Is she a good cook in real life?

"Meat and two veg - a roast I'm not bad at," she laughs.

Roots opens at the Royal Exchange Theatre later this month and for Denise, the production sees her return to Manchester's famous theatre in the round for the first time in five years. But what's it like acting at this intimate venue? I've walked across a small section of the stage in the past to either reach my seat or to reach one of the exits, and even those brief journeys were intimidating. You become instantly aware that there really is nowhere to hide.

"When you first realise that everybody's close to you and you can't turn away and not see them for a minute you have to really concentrate. I think that makes you perform better than you would anywhere else. At the same time I think a kind of energy comes from the fact they're so close," she says. Rick Bowen * The Royal Exchange Theatre presents Roots by Arnold Wesker from January 30 to March 1 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available from 0161 833 9833. For the full interview, see March Lifestyle magazine.