before and after

About

My story

In the winter of 2020, I made a 15 minute video which went viral in Belarus. It was made in direct response to the rigged elections that have kept Lugashenko in power, the man who has allowed Putin to park nuclear weapons in his country, as well as providing him access to Ukraine through Belarus. I was asked a few months later by David Wybrow, of the Cockpit Theatre, to run a series of performed zoom plays during the lockdown of 2021 and started with Andrei Kureichik's play, Insulted, Belarus, written as violence exploded on the streets of his country.

In February 2022, after Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, the translator of Andrei's play, John Freedman, put out a request for theatres across the world to stage Ukrainian plays by way of protest. I was asked to take the role of the unnamed woman in Pussycat in Memory of Darkness, a one-woman show, which I've subsequently taken to Ukraine, the US and Germany.

An audience member at the Q&A following one of the performances in Ukraine in December, asked me "Why do you care?" I told her that my mother had been recruited by the Women's Section of the official resistance, Milorg, in Norway in 1940. Norway had been independent for only thirty years, after centuries of rule by first Denmark and then Sweden. The rage my mother felt then remained with her for the rest of her life. It left an enduring reminder with her children that tyranny must always be fought.

This is a very truncated list of the professional turning points in my career. I've been lucky enough to work with many remarkable people, from Alan Rickman who I met at drama school and who meant the world to me; to Christopher Hampton, the great playwright, now Oscar winner and Paul Marcus, the director and producer, who died too early. Those I've worked with have become friends and have enriched my life. I've been in many plays and productions, most of which I haven't mentioned. Dates elude me, but some of those plays and films have had a particular impact and these I've mentioned here.

DRAMA

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Royal Shakespeare Company, Ambassadors Theatre, London, Music Box, Broadway), with Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan.
DRAMA

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Latchmere Theatre, London). I bought the rights to PvK before leaving for the US. An American producer offered to produce it in London, where it was an amazing success. It was directed by John Clive. No one could have done a better job; no one could have brought a greater integrity to that play.
plays

The early 2000s

The Illustrious Corpse, directed by Iqbal Khan, who went on to direct the 2022 Commonwealth Games; The Women of Troy, translated by Don Taylor; The Snow Palace, with Kathryn Pogson; several European tours with Howard Brenton’s Wrestling School; many productions at the Finborough, run by the remarkable Neil McPherson, etc.
Kristin was a finalist in the Off West End Awards 2019 for playing Marcie in Halley Feiffer’s play A Funny Thing Happened
Later 2010s

Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos, in which he created a scene using his closest actress friends; A Fistful of Karma, directed in Italy by Terence Gross; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way…, directed by Bethany Pitts for the Finborough; Massacre at Paris at the Rose; Pussycat in Memory of Darkness, directed by Polly Creed (Finborough; ProEnglish and Les Korbas Theatres, Kyiv; Staatstheater, Wiesbaden; Push-Push Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia)

Photo gallery

Warsaw

Ukrainian friends in Warsaw

Shot through both temples, but Shevchenko, national poet of Ukraine, is still standing

Returning from Germany. Two unexpected US fans