Arts: Star-crossed lover with her feet on the ground.
Byline: Philip KeyWHEN she was much younger, Shereen Ibrahim had vague ideas about going into medicine. After all, her father was a family doctor and her sisters had trained for the profession.
Even so, it must have been ironic that the first of her first professional jobs had medical themes - Shereen is an actress.
``But acting was something I always wanted to do,'' explains the Dublin-born 23-year-old who left the Royal Academy for Dramatic Art only three months ago.
She has already landed the one big role all young actresses crave, that of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.
It is her first professional stage role and it's thanks to the Liverpool Playhouse which is staging a new production of Shakespeare's tragedy from October 3.
Shereen can't believe her luck. ``There are a few productions of Romeo and Juliet around but I had been turned down for another one,'' she admits. ``I wasn't right for their style.''
Director Josie Rourke, who is directing the Playhouse show, considered her ideal for her production, however.
The daughter of an Indian-born father and an Irish mother, Shereen had first become involved in theatre in Dublin where she studied drama at the Public Institute of Technology.
``But I wanted to take it further and applied for a drama school in Britain and I was very happy to get into RADA.
``It's a three year course and fantastic. It was hard, particularly in the first year because I was quite home sick.''
But she got some fine roles including Widow Quin in J M Synge's The Playboy of the Western World (''I didn't think I was going to be right for it but it worked out very well'') and Miranda in Shakespeare's The Tempest.
She also found love with a fellow student - she declines to name him - and they remain very happy together.
The big moment professionally came when Shereen and her colleagues had to attend a showcase to show off their talents to agents. Finding an agent is an important part of an actor's life.
Given just two minutes to prove herself , she selected a Molly Bloom monologue from James Joyce's Ulysses. ``I had to cut and cut to get it down to the required time,'' she explains.
It did the trick and she found her agent - in fact a two-person agency team.
Television has already come calling. She had a small role in a new Richard Griffiths TV drama TLC set in a hospital - ``It was just one line but I did get to play a doctor!''
And then came Doctors, a larger role in which she played the friend of a patient in the daytime drama series. Her episode is due out on October 28.
The Playhouse job created a drama of its own.
``I was going to Ireland for a week so I told my agents I would be away and not available to see anyone in that time. I had gone over to meet a couple of theatre directors.''
As bad luck would have it, she got the call in Ireland on the Tuesday about the Playhouse audition and they needed to see her the next day.
A fan of cut-price airline Ryanair - she had flown to Dublin for pounds 30 before then - she tried her best to get a budget flight. Alas, the supercheap fares were not available and it was going to cost her pounds 200 to fly back for the audition. She decided to invest.
``Of course I didn't know if I would get the part but I had a feeling about it,'' she says. ``I was pleased to find a female director - Josie Rourke-- and a female casting director.''
The first meeting went well and she was recalled to work alongside Christian Coulson - shortly to appear in the new Harry Potter film - who will be playing a Romeo.
There followed an agonising day waiting to learn if she had got the part. She waited until 4pm with no call from her agents so she went out to buy a video and chocolates to comfort herself. With no call by 5pm, she was certain she had lost the part - ``I thought, 5pm, my agent will have closed up and gone home now!''
The call eventually came shortly after 6pm. ``I was so thrilled and excited I went mad,'' she says.
Director Josie Rourke has decided to set her version in 1950s Italy so Shereen has been immersing herself in the era by watching old movies, Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and La Dolce Vita among them. ``I love the clothes,'' she declares. ``It was a good period to choose as it was long enough after the war for that not to be an issue and it wasn't quite the 1960s.''
But her biggest challenge has been the love-struck Juliet herself.
``Of course, she is 14 and I am 23,'' explains Shereen. ``And I do look my age so I won't be trying to look like a 14-year-old. It's really a matter of attitude and acting. Perhaps I may take a little faster as enthusiastiuc teenagers do.
``But it's a difficult role emotionally, moving rapidly from the enthusiastic girl in love to someone who has to cope with the deaths of her loved ones.
``But for me it is ideal - the perfect first stage job.''
She doesn't have any great theatrical heroes although she was mightily impressed recently when he saw Michael Gambon in The Caretaker. And to make things even more perfect, she was selected to accept an award on behalf RADA from the Queen - and Gambon made the introductions.
The company has been rehearsing in London but this week arrived in Liverpool to continue at the Playhouse Theatre. And Shereen has become a fan of the city.
``It's such a change from London,'' she says. ``Everyone is so friendly. I have been into Marks and Spencer twice and got involved in a conversation at the pay-out each time. Once it was because someone liked the sound of my name.
``The curious thing is that because I'm from Dublin people think Shereen is an Irish name!''
L Romeo and Juliet is at the Liverpool Playhouse from October 3 - 26.
CAPTION(S):
SHEREEN IBRAHIM: Professional debut in the most coveted role for young actresses, Shakespeare's Juliet
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| Title Annotation: | Features |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Daily Post (Liverpool, England) |
| Date: | Sep 27, 2002 |
| Words: | 1048 |
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