Donna Dent is dressed from head to toe in black, wreathed in Marlboro smoke and talking nineteen to the dozen. She looks every inch the young actress; it takes more of a leap of imagination to imagine her as Catherine Sloper, the heroine of The Heiress, an adaptation of Henry James's novel, Washington Square, which opens at the Gate Theatre tonight. The only sign is a slight American twang that slips out when she gets enthusiastic.
It's easy to understand the lapse, as Donna is in the midst of last minute rehearsals under director Michael Rudman, and has been getting into character. "When I first started thinking about Catherine, I found it very difficult to be her because I just felt so sorry for her. I wanted to take her home and tell her that she never had to see any of those horrible people again. But then I realised that they're not dreadful at all; none of them are black and white, and we've really tried to paint them as people, not just characters in a play.
"Catherine is rather dull and plain and not expressive at all when we meet her first. There is no coyness, no cunning in her, but she finds it so hard to be in company - and I've certainly been there." She laughs, realising that such a statement might be hard to believe coming from someone so vibrant and talkative. Her conversation is punctuated with anecdotes, silly voices and quick caricatures, all executed with a kind of self-mockery that is refreshingly unusual in her profession.
"I was always bubbly and outgoing, and people do tend to think that if you talk a lot you're not shy or insecure, which a lot of the time I was. I think Joe [Gallagher]really took me out of that and showed me a part of myself that I hadn't the confidence to see."
Joe Gallagher, a fellow actor, is her husband whom she met over nine years ago in drama college - she cites him as one of the best things to come out of her time there. Although Donna had always had yearnings towards the stage, having a whale of a time playing Captain von Trapp in the school play, she came to it in rather an indirect way.
Working in a food company in Inchicore, she thought about joining an amateur group but lacked the confidence, and instead joined the now-defunct Brendan Smith School on Georges Street "because there was no audition". From there, she moved on to the drama course at the College of Music, only giving up the day job after second year, when she won a confidence-boosting scholarship. She was still at college when she got her first professional job, as Frigid Brigid in A Slice of Saturday Night at the Andrew's Lane Theatre.
That role is one of the few contemporary roles she has played. Without intending it to be so, Donna has made a speciality of playing period roles, including Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Kart Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer, both at the Gate, and Mrs Allonby in A Woman of No Importance at the Abbey.
"Two weeks ago, Tom Murphy said to me that I would probably die wearing period dress," she giggles. "Don't get me wrong; I don't feel put-upon playing all these wonderful classical roles, but I would like to wear jeans on stage some time. I played a part in The Bill recently and it was the first Irish role I had played in two-and-a-half years. "I'd love to be the kind of person that plans my career - but it always goes disastrously wrong when I try. All I really want are good parts in good theatres with great directors - the same as most actors. Oh, and I want to do film and television and - well - I want to do it all. I just want to work."
There have been dry patches and black periods; Donna wryly remembers a time four years ago when she and Joe were rooting down the back of the sofa for the price of 10 cigarettes. "You do begin to wonder if it's all worth it, particularly when you feel that you'll never work again and that you should never work again because you were so bad in something. It's worth it because I do have a dream. I don't care if that sounds corny, because the moments of bliss that I get from my work, you couldn't put a price on. People can be so cool about acting, but I just can't. I'm still like a kid in a candy shop."
