About_Sophie_Gatacre
Photos of Sophie Gatacre by Paul Soso 2011
Greedy bankers and saucy banter
times.series@archant.co.uk
10 September 2009
SAUCY MPS and greedy bankers can still be seen spending their ill-gotten gains in a witty new satire written and performed by an actress who is determined to reinvent herself.
Sophie Gatacre, who lives in Westbourne Park, recounts her playful comedic take on the excesses of modern life and the fall from grace of a 'Chelsea lady' whose husband has left the family home.
In Sophie's creation, Samantha's Hotline: A One Woman Comedy Show, she plays a raunchy alter ego who, as the recession bites, entertains stray men callers with her lewd telephonic services.
Sophie, who is quick to point out she bears little real life resemblance to the character, illuminates: "I am a local actress, but I play a well-to-do Chelsea lady - a Sloane ranger. I play the role as though my husband has left me. She's a posh Chelsea lady, the sort that goes to Ascot and the Chelsea flower show. She would have a second home in the South of France and a country home.
"Her husband would probably be a banker who went to Eton, but he's not a very nice person and is quite boring. He has left me for a younger woman. So she's an abandoned mum with no money and she has to find the funds to look after her son."
The character transforms herself into a cowgirl, a teacher and a virgin among other male fantasies and indulges men in saucy and salacious conversations on the telephone.
Sophie adds: "I just got the idea and I thought it was amusing. I wanted to combine doing different roles and being saucy and sexy without finding another actor which would turn into a full play.
"The phone is a dangerous device. Sometimes I find that people are a lot nicer on the phone than in real life. It's a sort of power thing as well. You can get a phone call from someone and it can destroy your day.
"It is a weapon of heartbreak or an instrument of total joy, of love or satisfaction in human interaction.
"We all need sex. Maybe it's an over weight lorry driver who couldn't get a lady if he tried, so he just gets sex on the telephone. The woman makes him feel like a million dollars or like he is a cowboy like John Wayne. But it could be a film star who is just getting his rocks off."
For tickets at Metropolitan, Westbourne Park, Sunday September 20 visit fanatix.org.uk/sophie/ for more information.
Sophie has just returned from Edinburgh where she performed during the fringe festival.
Andy McCorkell
News Editir - Arts Leisure
North West London Newspapers
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