The Daily Express: Keeley Hawes is set for the stage

Keeley Hawes may be a familiar face on our television screens, but it’s in the theatre that she could be about to make her mark.

At 35, Keeley Hawes, who has established herself as a leading actress in British dramas such as Spooks, Upstairs Downstairs and Ashes to Ashes, could be forgiven for demanding a leading role in a big stage production.

However, it is with a small part in Rocket to the Moon at the National Theatre, that we see her make her professional stage debut.

She tells us: “I consciously went into it, and didn’t want a big part in a production I might not have been able to cope with or enjoyed.”

“I think it was a very sensible idea to go in as part of an ensemble piece, very quietly, and give it a go.”

“That way I didn’t feel that I was letting anyone down, and that hasn’t been the case at all, it has been lovely.”

Set in a dental surgery in Lower Manhattan, Clifford Odets’ 1938 play Rocket to the Moon is a slippery beast.

Joseph Millson and Keeley Hawes, are henpecked dentist Ben Stark and his shrewish wife, Belle.

Hawes is outstanding in a very unsympathetic role with Millson good as the forlorn dentist.

She added: “I have loved doing the play. Hopefully I will do another one.”

“I’d be happy to go a bit further next time, now that I have a bit of confidence with it and I know that I enjoyed it.”

By Mauro Galluzzo for The Daily Express.

(Source: express.co.uk)