Sigourney Weaver makes West End debut in 'The Tempest'

Oscar-nominated Hollywood star Sigourney Weaver debuted West End as the magician Prospero in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. She said she was glad she had taken on the role.

The 75-year-old actor, known for films including the Alien series and the Avatar franchise, admitted she had experienced "moments of terror because the theatre is so much bigger than any place I've ever worked."

She and other cast and production members spoke to reporters after Thursday's press night at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

British director Jamie Lloyd, who grew up watching Weaver on the big screen, said of Weaver that he "never dreamed she'd say yes."

"Something about this project, this building, this play, this role - instantly attracted Sigourney to the project," said Lloyd, whose recent credits with his theatre company, The Jamie Lloyd Company, include "Sunset Boulevard" and "Romeo and Juliet."

The play centers around a female Prospero, who, after being exiled by her brother, is now a sorcerer living on a magical island with her daughter Miranda (Mara Huf), enslaved islander Caliban (Forbes Masson), and a spirit called Ariel (Mason Alexander Park).

While a male actor often plays Prospero, sometimes the character is portrayed as a woman, and Weaver felt that a woman taking on the role made much more sense.

"In the old days, they would… rip this woman away from her position and her life and put her on this island," she said.

"It's so powerful," she said, adding so many women today have "much to express about what isn't fair."

American/German actor Mara Huf, also making her West End debut, said she enjoyed creating a new, stricter version of her character Miranda. "I think she's played so often as very innocent and naive to the world. But I think there's so much ... more to her than that."

After Prospero whips up a storm, the story mixes romance, revenge, and forgiveness.

"There's something kind of like amazingly, boundlessly hopeful about this idea that from a shipwreck… from… chaos and confusion can come great sanity… clarity… and hope for the future as opposed to kind of dwelling on the problems of the past," Lloyd said.

"The Tempest" plays at Theatre Royal Drury Lane until February 1.