A story of bitter, twisted dementia

Norma Desmond was once a great movie star, her silent presence seen, but not heard, on cinema screens across the world. Then came sound, and Norma was done for, her voice considered unsuitable for talking pictures. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Sunset Boulevard takes up the story in the 1950s, when long-forgotten Norma invites a young and handsome scriptwriter into her Hollywood mansion. Together they plan her comeback.

All this seems a very long way from the idyllic rural surroundings of the Watermill Theatre. But the Watermill is mounting its own version of Sunset Boulevard, directed by Craig Revel Horwood, now famous - or infamous - for his acerbic TV appearances as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing.

As we sat in the Watermill gardens, with the birds singing, and not even the faintest sound of an American cop car screaming by, I suggested to Craig that recreating Hollywood on the Oxfordshire/Berkshire border seems quite a challenge. "It does, when one thinks of palm trees, the Hollywood Hills, and the madness of all the people that live there. But I think that Sunset Boulevard is going to fit very snugly into the small Watermill space. It really is: I'm ready for my close-up', you can actually see the close-up here. You can see beyond what the actors are saying, and into their eyes."

But how does Craig plan to recreate Norma's Hollywood mansion, for instance?

"The story is about faded, jaded splendour. It's a story of bitter, twisted dementia. So you are meeting a suicidal woman. It's only on reflection, through her butler - who she was once married to - that you discover that there was a lot more to her than met the eye. So I've picked up the play from that suicidal, manic point in her life.

"I saw her as living not in a mansion, but in this abandoned Paramount studio. So that's where we've set it. It's full of bits of old scenery that are no longer used, it's a place where she is never going to get any work again.

"We don't have the opulence of a massive staircase, we don't have the enormous house flying in, and the doors opening on to an Olympic-sized swimming pool. But you can see very clearly that she did once live in a wonderful mansion, although that's now a bygone era. She finds a new toy-boy love who gives her promise, and her life back.

"But, sadly, it's all based on deception. It's based on the falseness of Hollywood, and how people's dreams can be shattered in an instant. It's the whole air-kissing thing, all the things that happen on an opening night in the West End, if you like. So many people say: Oh darling, you've done a marvellous job,' then say: It's a piece of s**t' under their breath."

Inevitably, the subject of the phenomenally successful Strictly Come Dancing comes up. Craig in the flesh comes over as much less frightening, and distinctly more humorous, than his on-screen persona suggests. But what about actors coming to him for audition? Do they fear the full blast of his displeasure?

"It's something I question myself. I notice that people are very, very nervous of me when they come for audition, that I'm going to turn round and say: that was an absolute pile of cack, darling, good bye'." Craig laughs as he continues: "But actually I don't behave like that. It's my job as a director to embrace and nurture the artists I have employed. Yes, they do receive some criticism, but it's never done as abruptly as I have to do it on Strictly Come Dancing, because in an audition or rehearsal I have more than ten seconds to speak. On television, it's a fast and furious thing - you have to get to the point very, very quickly. And I don't think you can throw chairs at actors to make them act better!

"In the case of Sunset Boulevard, because the actors are all musicians as well, they have a tough time of it. They have to learn the entire score, as well as the dance routines, the vocals, and the acting. It's a big ask. It's a great big headache when you're casting too, because you think: No, I don't want Norma to come down the stairs with a trumpet in her hand, she's more of a violin character'. You have to try and match the character with the instrument."

Musical adaptation is in the highly experienced hands of Sarah Travis, who won a Tony Award for her work on the Broadway transfer of the Watermill's Sweeney Todd.

But there is something unique about this production of Sunset Boulevard: Andrew Lloyd Webber has a country home only a few miles from the Watermill. Does Craig feel that the composer is almost looking over the garden fence, sitting in judgement as Craig himself does in Strictly Come Dancing?

"I think everyone in the UK is sensing Andrew Lloyd Webber, because of his notorious appearances on TV," Craig laughed. "Da, da-da dum, the Phantom thing. It is quite funny, but of course you do have to protect what he has written. There's a lot of music in the show written to cover massive scene changes, which we don't have: we have a spiral staircase which revolves, but that's it. So we've cut the score down, but we've had to be very careful how we do it.

"Changing keys is another big issue, because Andrew is a big key-ist - he writes in certain keys to say certain things. If something is not working, however, it's our job to make it work, no matter how much we have to change it."

Sunset Boulevard runs at the Watermill, Bagnor, Newbury, until August 30. Tickets: 01635 46044 or online at www.watermill.org.uk