Doña Croll: ‘I was the only black actress in the West End who wasn’t in a musical’

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Doña Croll has spent five decades performing on stage and screen, but her latest job – Michael Oakley’s production of April De Angelis’ Playhouse Creatures at Richmond’s Orange Tree Theatre – is only the second time she has been in an all-female ensemble.

“I did a production of Richard II at the Globe a few years ago with Adjoa Andoh, which had a cast that was entirely women of colour,” Croll says. “There is something so wonderful about being in a room like that. You don’t have to think about your behaviour. If there is a man around, your behaviour changes. It is as if there is a camera around.”

Croll, who was born in rural Jamaica in 1953 and moved to Britain as a child, says she has seen casting evolve a lot over the course of her career. She remembers a friend pointing out, for example, that she was the only black actress performing in a play in the West End when she appeared in Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money at Wyndham’s Theatre.

“I thought: ‘Jesus, that’s true, I am,’” Croll says. “I was the only black actress in the West End who wasn’t singing and dancing in a musical. But now, every play has at least one actor of colour in it, if not two. We are starting to see a lot of plays about the black experience in the West End as well: Shifters, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy, Red Pitch, Retrograde.”

Croll has been at the forefront of that evolution for five decades, with her credits spanning everything from stints in soap operas to Royal Shakespeare Company shows to West End hits such as Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Elmina’s Kitchen in 2003. Perhaps most famously, she is believed to be Britain’s first black Cleopatra, performing with Talawa Theatre Company in 1991. “Well, that’s what they say, anyway,” Croll adds. “We don’t know that for sure.”

Today, Croll lives in Brixton – “I sold my house, got some money from doing television, and bought a little flat near the tube,” she says – and only takes on jobs that interest her. “There’s very little that is exciting for a woman of my age in television, to be honest,” she says. “The last television I did was Whitstable Pearl. I drove a Maserati and had a gun. That was great. I did The Score with Brian Cox in Bath recently, too, and I could have done the West End transfer, but the part wasn’t really enough to get me going, so I turned it down. A West End run is hard if there is not enough in a character to feed you.”
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What production made you fall in love with theatre?

It was putting on A Midsummer Night’s Dream at my girls’ school when I was 16. I played Bottom because I was a bit of a class clown. I did impressions of teachers. The headteacher told me I must go to drama school. I had no idea that I could, because I had never seen a black actor. Years later, when I was at the Royal Shakespeare Company for the first time, that headteacher came to see me in my dressing room.

What are you finding inspiring at the moment?

I like shows that are really well thought out. I like Robert Icke’s work. He’s very clever.

I wish our theatre had more of that European sensibility that regards actors as artists

What role do you really want to play?

I always wanted to play the role of Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I used to write to theatres and say: “I’m a young, black actress and I’d love to play Titania.” I remember getting a letter back saying: “Sorry, we’re doing the production straight.” That seems extraordinary now, but it wasn’t at the time. I’ve still got that letter and I’d still love to play Titania, but I’m probably too old now.

What do you wish you could change about the performing arts industry?

I wish our theatre had more of that European sensibility that regards actors as artists rather than artisans. It is a difficult life being an actor in this country. We don’t get paid enough and we have to sleep in spare rooms. I’m too old for that kind of thing.

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