Downton Abbey’s dowdy Lady Edith set to light up the West End
DOWNTON Abbey’s Laura Carmichael is set to dazzle audiences in her West End theatre debut tomorrow.
The actress best known for playing the pitiful and dowdy Lady Edith in the hit TV drama “blew away” producer Kim Poster with her fiery portrayal of Sonya in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.
He said: “She is emotionally powerful, and poignant — no easy feat.”
But 26-year-old Laura, whose TV character suffered a string of heartbreaks including being jilted at the altar is heading for more romantic disappointment in her latest role.
She plays a plain-faced provincial girl who dedicates her life to working on the family estate and is cruelly upstaged
by the glamorous and dutiful Yelena from St Petersburg.
Laura insisted she loved to get into the psyche of these vulnerable heroines.
She is emotionally powerful, and poignant — no easy feat
She said: “I’m not seeking out hopeless girls to play. Sonya is so much more than that, but of course she is another girl, full of longing and naive to the way of the world.”