The Old Fitzroy Theatre is notoriously short on luxurious touches for actors. When not on the stage in this pub cellar venue, they’re usually huddling just a few feet away from it, behind the seating banks.

“The last time I worked here we had to squeeze in between boxes of wine,” recalls actor Sheridan Harbridge, who is returning to the Old Fitz stage for the first time since 2016 to play the role of Blanche Dubois in the theatre’s upcoming staging of the Tennessee Williams classic A Streetcar Named Desire.

One luxury actor Harbridge is enjoying, she tells Limelight, is the privilege of working with on a finished and fixed script.

“This is literally the first time I’ve acted with a script that already exists, that has a history,” says Harbridge. “Until now, I’ve only ever done new work. That’s been my whole acting career. I’m used to helping solve a play, work out the moments with the playwright. This time I have the luxury to be completely selfish. It’s just about me playing with 20 different ways of saying a line. It almost feels like I’m being lazy!”

Catherine Văn-Davies (left0...