Fox treads the boards

Wellington actress Kerry Fox stars in the Andrew Bovell play Speaking in Tongues on at Duke of York’s Theatre in London. Fox plays Jane, who witnesses a possible crime and struggles with her decision to report it; and Sarah, who is seeing a therapist about relationship problems. In every role, her wide-set eyes and wolfish mouth seem to shift, and a brand new character appears on screen. Fox’s other new work is the film Bright Star, a biopic of John Keats and his love Fanny Brawne, whose mother Fox plays. The project reunites her with Jane Campion, director of An Angel At My Table, in which Fox hiked, rotten-toothed and bubble-haired, across the hills of New Zealand. In Campion’s new film, she strolls, strong but crumpled, through the bleached skies and brilliant green grass of London’s Hampstead Heath. I wonder whether Fox and Campion, both from New Zealand, share a sensibility. “There is this idea that New Zealand women come from pioneer stock,” Fox says. “And that obviously produced a certain type of people, in the middle of nowhere, creating their families and culture from scratch. So, yes, I think there’s an openness to the world, a fundamental interest in what makes people tick.” Speaking in Tongues runs until December 12.