Interview with Susie Blake

Susie Blake plays Kathleen in The Crossing by Arthur Ellison. A lovely, caring person, Kathleen befriends 10-year-old Megan but her inability to read and write prompts her to distance herself from the little girl leaving Megan feeling lost and bewildered.

Susie is a well-known face on television having appeared in Coronation Street, BBC series A Prince Among Men and ITV’s Wild at Heart. She also has a string of theatre credits to her name.

Susie says of her character Kathleen: “She’s bright. She’s very caring and she lives on her own, her mum has just died and her sister lives in Canada. She has quite a sheltered life really but she’s very good with kids.

“I love variety, I love theatre, I love television - I love to play a variety of characters and I have never played anybody like her. I’m usually asked to do comedy, especially on telly so it was interesting to me that I had been asked to play a serious part. I was also interested to work with Reece Dinsdale who directed it. It’s lovely being directed by an actor and he was brilliant, he was very caring and gave me an enormous amount of help.”

“I think Kathleen has a simpler and quieter life than I have but I hope that I’m as compassionate as she certainly is. She notices others. She’s a better listener than I am, she notices what’s going on in other people’s lives, she’s very observant. She’s a very good example for me. I learnt a lot from her, she’s very gentle, she lets other people speak, she’s a good listener and I hope that, ultimately, I can be a lot more like her!”

Susie says that playing Kathleen has given her an insight into the problems people face when they have difficulties reading and writing. “Well, that really was an eye opener to me, how many doors were shut to her. She doesn’t want to go and see her sister and when you begin to imagine, getting a ticket, going to an airport looking at where you ought to be - it's all words. Filling in forms, when something arrives through the post – it's going to take you a long time to fathom out the details of it. To travel would be terrifying because you'd be frightened all the time that you were missing the most important information on your journey, so it has shut an awful lot of doors to her.”

Susie says she could empathise with Kathleen. “ I can identify with her in the way that I'm rubbish with computers. My son is an electronic engineer and finally he bought me a computer- a little laptop and I can just about do emails now. But if I couldn’t read there would be no way that I could to what I have to do - you always have to follow the directions. I was horrified to think of the things that she couldn't do. She's a good talker and a good listener and a people person - she has to be because she can't sit and read a book or find out about things in newspapers. So much is lost to her and of course in the show you see that she's asked to be a part of a little production because she can mimic and do wonderful voices, but she can't read the script so she loses the trust of the girl that she's befriended because she can’t do the little play with her.

“Like most I just thought it was crowded schools and that they don't have time but you forget the other reasons why people might not have been able to go through the process. Kathleen was looking after her mother for instance and she's become a very good avoider. She's very good at avoiding situations where she will be tested and she will have to show that she can’t read. It's the secrecy, but you must get help and that's the thing that should be screamed across - if you've got a problem of any sort, you are not the only one with the problem. She is the perfect example- don't keep quiet.”