Full casting has been announced for the highly anticipated UK premiere of The Wanderers, written by revered U.S. playwright Anna Ziegler and directed by Igor Golyak, following a sold-out, critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run in New York. Inspired by real events, the show will run at the Marylebone Theatre from 17 October until 29 November, with a national press night on 22 October. We sat down with Katerina to talk about how she thinks of this play and her character, Esther.
1. The Wanderers is such a fascinating piece – where reality and fiction collide. What first drew you to the role of Esther, and what excites you most about bringing her to life?
When this project was sent to me, I hadn’t been aware of Anna Ziegler’s work previously- I sat down to read the script and didn’t move once until I had finished. I was completely taken with how wholly familiar these characters were to me, not because I have any particular parallels in my life, but more so because Anna has this ability to capture the essence of desire, heartbreak and the power of choice within a life. Qualities that span culture, time and difference.
Esther as a character is so powerful. As referenced in the script “a recklessly brave woman”. I fell in love with her playfulness, and her hunger for a big life. Within her storyline we see a woman with a lust for experience, someone that has a strong voice with little ability to use it in the ways she might want. Any choices she makes that end up harming her are in the name of love for her children and a step in the direction of a world she wants to inhabit.
I feel honored to be able to step into Esther’s story- heartbreakingly relatable, I feel connected to this experience of being a person brimming with dreams and desire, met by a world that’s very structure is in place to make it impossibly difficult to keep those dreams alive.
2. The play blurs memory and imagination – what do you think that says about how we tell our own stories?
In the experience of sharing our life stories with those around us, I see it more as sharing the Myth that we have built of ourselves. Many snippets of our lives melting down and shifting to take shape into this repeatable and ever changing epic that can be altered depending on our audience. This script has many moments of almost dreamlike shifting between memory and imagined scenarios, but I feel that it is quite representative of what actually happens as life unfolds, time passes, and and we start to have perspective on which moments of our lives are these key moments of choice and change.
3. Anna Ziegler’s writing has been described as both intimate and expansive. As an actor, how does her dialogue feel to perform?
A dream. Honestly. As an actor, I have the experience that if a text is easy to memorize there is something happening there- that the text can live freely in your mind and in your mouth is a true indicator that the writer has written a real person. I feel very strongly that way about this piece.
4. You’ve worked in TV and film. What feels different about returning to live theatre, especially for London audiences?
I grew up in the theater, I did my first professional show when I was 9. But as life took its course TV and Film took a front seat so its been 10 years since I’ve been on stage! Being back in this process and getting back into the rhythm of the theater feels like a homecoming, its the best feeling in the world. I am thrilled to be invited to play in London, what an honor to get back on stage in a city that so openly celebrates this world.
5. If audiences walk away with just one feeling or question after seeing The Wanderers, what do you hope it is?
I don’t have a specific hope for a takeaway so to speak, but I do believe that there is so much room for empathy in this story. A reminder that everyone is worthy of a full life, and that we all deserve some grace. Being a person is hard and love carries us through.
Tickets and Listing can be found here.