The Friel-good factor

Anna Friel: She "made mincemeat of Clive Anderson"

Anna Friel's involvement has made Lulu one of the hottest tickets in London. Writer Nicholas Wright discusses the production with BBC News' Neil Smith.

Brookside's celebrated alumna Anna Friel is currently portraying Lulu in one of the capital's seediest locales. But those anticipating a play about the diminutive Scottish singing sensation should steer well clear.

That's because Lulu - directed by Jonathan Kent - tells the provocative tale of a young woman whose passage through Berlin and Parisian society comes to a brutal end when she is killed in London by Jack the Ripper.

The task of condensing Frank Wedekind's German classic fell to Nicholas Wright, who first saw the project as an ideal vehicle for Oscar-nominated actress Juliette Binoche.

Anna Friel in Lulu (photo by Ivan Kyncl)

"Jonathan and I worked with Juliette on Naked a couple of years ago, and we loved it so much we thought we'd revive Lulu for her," Wright told BBC News Online.

"But Juliette felt she was too old to play this girl, so we put the project on the back burner for a while."

The central role - which Wright describes as "a female Hamlet" - was a difficult one to cast, but the director ultimately got inspiration from an unlikely source.

"Jonathan saw Anna Friel on the Clive Anderson show and she made mincemeat of him - she really ran rings around him. We saw it and thought: 'This is Lulu!'"

'Sleazy'

Staging Lulu in a disused coach depot in King's Cross might not seem ideal, but for Wright it serves as an excellent complement to the play.

"It's an extremely sleazy part of town surrounded by crack houses and prostitutes - and since Lulu is the story of a girl who rises to the heights of society but ends up becoming a prostitute in London, it's the perfect place to put it," the writer remarks.

The original play has been extensively rewritten, although Wright has taken pains to retain its distinctive tone.

"What I've tried to get is the vivacity, directness and brutality of the original - the language is very violent and heightened, so I've tried to find an English equivalent."

One element remains unchanged, however. "The sex is no more explicit than it was originally. The play is amazingly frank and I've been faithful to it."