Kara's Victorian challenge in Aylesbury

It is safe to say that Kara Tointon really likes a challenge as she discusses her character in the drama Gaslight currently running at Aylesbury's Waterside Theatre.
Kara TointonKara Tointon
Kara Tointon

She plays Bella Manningham in the Victorian thriller Gaslight running from Monday January 16 to Saturday January 21.

While Jack Manningham is on the town each evening his wife Bella is home alone.

She can’t explain the disappearance of familiar objects, the mysterious footsteps overhead or the ghostly flickering of living room gaslight - is she losing her mind?

Kara said: “She’s an interesting character and we have been working really hard on the show. There are a number of different ways to play this, and even though it was a play written in the 30s set in the Victorian age, we’ve tried to make it feel very contemporary.

“The writer Patrick Hamilton was kind of writing himself when he created the character of Jack but he also writes women really well.

“I was sent a whole load of scripts and decided that this year, I really wanted to push myself with the projects that I choise and this was one of the reasons I went for it. It was totally unlike anything I have ever done before.”

And Kara wasn’t familiar with the show before she came on to it.

She added: “I have seen clips of the film but even then I have not seen it all the way through.But it is amazing that we get the term Gaslight from this show and I see it everywhere in the news now. There’s a big storyline about it in The Archers and even mentioning of Donald Trump gaslighting America.”

And given we know her for many television appearances, does she prefer the theatre.

Kara said: “I’m glad that I can do a bit of both. That’s why I was so happy to do The Sound of Music live show as it was a combination of both television and theatre acting which is a challenge.”