Character Breakdown: THE COTTAGE Cast Unpacks Their Roles

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Talk about who you're going to play and what you love about him. What can you tell us

I mean, I grew up with Monty Python living in Canada. As soon as I read the first four pages

it was like, this guy's John Cleese. And that's very much what I love about him

He's very stiff upper lip. He's from a time when it was a man's world

and it was manners, you could take what you wanted. And in this play, he systematically learns

that the world is changing around him. I play Sylvia, and Sylvia, like I said

goes through transformation, so there's versions of her. She starts out sort of light and wistful

thinking of all the possibilities and in love, and then with some news and information

things change, and she kind of gets a little dark, and then she kind of finds herself

So, yeah, so you get to see these sort of different versions of her, but overall

she's still sort of a person who believes in the possibility of things

Okay, now you're just discovering Marjorie. Who is she? Oh, Marjorie is a salty baroness

She's very judgmental. I mean, you know, who isn't? But she also loves to gossip

Talk about who you play and what you love about him already. I play a fellow by the name of Clark

He's sort of a, you know, bit of a high society Bon Vivant

You know, so it felt right up my alley. I have a character whose name you'll love

His name is Richard. I think he's named after you. It's a very audience interactive show

But Richard is a mystery, and you'll have to come see the show

to find out who Richard is. Richard is a man of mystery and intrigue

and yes, he's a fun character. Who do you play and what do you love about her already

Yes, so I play Deirdre. I would say she's sort of the young, optimist

hopeless romantic who leads with her heart and not so much her head

And that is always fun to play, somebody who truly believes in everything she's saying

but it's probably incorrect. And misguided. I mean, you've got the best of the best

working with you on this. What's it like being in the room with them and keeping them, like, not breaking up every two seconds

Well, it's okay to break up every two seconds. It's, they're amazing

and they're amazing for so many reasons. First of all, they, that they exist

because what we needed for each of these characters was, there were so many boxes that had to be checked

that we thought, we're never gonna find this. And we did, and they're all perfect

And then the way this gets put together is a little different from other shows

where it's a play and you go, we'll just walk around and feel it

and we'll talk about the backstories. This one you go, okay, we have to choreograph this like a dance

and we need to do that quickly, so let's do that. And then we'll reverse engineer all the rest

Well, you need actors that are willing to go, okay, let's go, let's go

Where do you want me to go? Over here, and I'm doing A, B, C, D. I'll find a way to do that, and, you know

they are instant collaborators because everybody needs to find it at the same moment

It's so strange