Interview with Canterbury Tarot Actor Carolyn Woodville
Part of the Life and the Performing Arts set of interviews with artists series
- Hi Carolyn. So you’re playing Judgment, the Hierophant, the Devil, and Temperance in B3 Theater’s production of The Canterbury Tarot. That’s quite a bit of character work! What are each of these characters like, and how do they differ?
Judgment is very broken and angry. He’s bitter and hates everyone for multiple reasons. Because he sees the worst that people do to each other as part of his job, and also because hating everyone and refusing to see the good in them helps him to perform that job. He couldn’t hand out the suffering he does if he can see all sides to people. The Hierophant is the opposite in that he doesn’t really care what happens to the people around him, he’s just following orders. The beard dictates who lives or dies and the Hierophant has no stake in that. Most of my characters are very rigid, with the exception of the Devil, who is very fluid and sing-songy. She’s very slick. I find her to be a very interesting character because she’s clearly meant to be the villain but she’s actually liberating Lover 2. It’s interesting what that says about society to me. That being free means giving up a relationship and that realizing that makes you bad or wrong somehow. The Devil feels like a very feminist character to me in some ways…
