How to be a spy (Preview: We’ll Meet Again)

Next week’s Corpus mainshow, We’ll Meet Again, follows super-spy, Cara Satin, through various points in her life.

The Tab sat down with Daisy Jones, Megan Lea, and Isobel Gooder, who play Cara at different points in her life, to discuss the complexities of evolving the character over the course of the show. 

Tab: What’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’ about?

IG: (adult Cara): We’ll Meet Again is a new student-written spy thriller that spans most of the 20th century.

DJ: (child Cara): It tracks a spy, Cara Satin, through a series of very distinct periods of her life. We see her as a child in Sunday school, at a party as a teenager and then finally as an agent working for the British government. The character of Cara changes quite a lot, and in rehearsals we’ve been playing with how we can show that.

ML: (Teenage Cara): The story is all told from the perspective of Max, an old man who’s looking back at his past, and his relationship with Cara.

IG: He’s looking back on his youth. Cara always seems to appear at the most unexpected moments, and always makes a big impact on his life.

Tab: So who is Cara Satin?

DJ: So she becomes a spy, but I play her when she’s a very young girl. She’s got all of these amazing qualities in her, but she hasn’t yet worked out what she wants to do.

ML: I play her when she’s a teenager and she still isn’t a spy, but she’s developing this superiority thing, and she’s really cool. Though she sort of thinks she’s above everyone else…

IG: But she ends up being genuinely really cool.

Head down to Corpus to see this time-travelling, spy show.

Tab: How does Cara change over time?

IG: She definitely grows out of her cheeky child stage, out of her feisty teenage stage, and she learns to defend herself against the world. She’s had a pretty tough childhood, and so she’s learnt how to rely on herself.

DJ: She develops better ways of coping- as a child she likes being the centre of attention, but as she gets older she doesn’t need that attention any more.

Tab: Daisy, what’s it like playing a character so much younger than yourself?

DJ: It’s quite challenging, but I think that because Cara is so mature for her years already, she can have the confidence that normal 11 year olds don’t have, which makes playing her a lot of fun.

Tab: Megan and Isobel, how do the ways you play Cara evolve from how Daisy plays her as a child?

ML: I play her when she’s 18, so there’s quite a big age gap, and she’s changed a lot. Also, most of her teenage scenes are set at a party, so she’s in a very different atmosphere to when Daisy plays her. She’s really sure of herself, she tries to own the situation, wherever she is- she always stands up straight, has really good posture and is very careful and deliberate with her words. However, there’s also an insecurity that comes with adolescence.

IG: I think when she was a younger she was really trying hard to be confident, but by the time she’s grown up it comes more naturally.

DJ: She lost her parents as a child, so she’s built up this image of an ideal spy, kind of as a coping mechanism- her smile, her voice, the way she walks- these are going to be really important to her.

IG: She’s crafted this amazing character that she wants to be.

Tab: Do you feel a personal connection to the character?

IG: I’ve been finding it quite difficult, because a lot of the time I do feel very Cara, but then a lot of the time I don’t feel as elegant as her. I’ve got a lot of teenager left in me, and I play Cara when she’s 28. So I’ve been working on my inner Greta Garbo.

DJ: It’s kind of the opposite with playing Cara as a child. It’s more about regaining that energy I had when I was younger – being energetic and enthusiastic about everything.

ML: I think Cara is maybe the person I want to be, rather than the person I am. She’s never awkward. She always says the right thing.

‘We’ll Meet Again’ opens on Tuesday, and runs from the 3rd – 7th March, at 7pm at the Corpus Playroom. Tickets are available online.