Ingrid Rae Doucet discusses her subtext as Emma in Theatre and Company's "Betrayal", cast mates Brian Marler and Jeff Meadows, Project Undertow, and The Ship's Company.

Ingird Rae Doucet is always very busy. She's a puppeteer, has done countless TV commercials and voiceovers and is part of Toronto acting collective Project Undertow. Yet this petite actress is originally from Nova Scotia, and will soon return for her fourth season with hometown theatre troupe The Ship's Company.

Currently she is exploring the complex character of Emma, a wife having an affair with her husband's best friend in Harold Pinter's Betrayal,directed by Daryl Cloran.

As Emma, you have two men in your life. How powerful do you feel?

"Is that a woman’s dream or a woman’s nightmare? I don’t know if powerful is the word. I think screwed-up is a better term."

For you what is Emma’s sub text?

“It changes all the time. I think she is really insecure and battling a lot of different demons in her life. It’s hard to say. I don’t know if there is one overall. Emma wants love and she needs a lot but she just can’t seem to get it from anyone. She can’t seem to get what she really wants and she keeps going into different places trying to find it.”

What do you like about Emma?

"I like that she’s a funny mix of quite insecure and quite needy but she stands her ground and can be very strong and smart and very intellectual. There is a lot going on with her and that’s the most interesting part of playing her – that huge mix of emotions bubbling under the surface."

This is your first Pinter play along with Jeff Meadows and Brian Marler. How do you like working with them?

“They are so lovely. I feel like I have been so lucky. In practically every show I’ve done I have worked with so many amazing casts. I didn’t know Brian and Jeff at all and the work is really intimate especially with Brian (who plays lover Jerry) We’re all over each other, and it’s totally easy because they are sweet and giving.”

You are known for work in TV commercials and voiceovers, but you have also been in several productions for Nova Scotia’s Ship’s Company. Are you back for the 2008 season?

“Yes, I am going to be there this summer. I will be in a new play by Daniel Lillford. I worked on his script two years ago called The Mystery of Maddie Heisler. (Doucet received a Nova Scotia Merrit Award nomination for Best Actress.) Daniel has been changing the title of the script. I think it's called Snow Dance.So they are doing Snow Dance and another script that I don’t know yet."

You also received a Merritt Best Actress Nomination as Sugar in Trout Stanley.

“That is one of the most beautiful scripts ever written. We did the world premiere at Ship’s. Claudia Dey is a wonderfully quirky writer. It’s a show about three misfits who come together and two of them find love in a wild and weird way. That was a gift of a show to be in.”

So though you are headed back East your TO actor's collective Project Undertow just received a grant from play development company Nightswimming ?

“Yes. We are in a flux right now because everyone is so busy. We did a lot last year. We did two clown pieces and a workshop with Madd Harold who came from Stratford to work on a piece that we have continually working with. So we have mainly been doing workshops and want to put this piece up. But we have all been working so hard. Project Undertow (including actor Dylan Smith and playwright Rosa Laborde) is a great group – there are six of us. We are hoping to have a meeting in late spring and try to figure out where our next move is.”

Who is your favourite playwright and why?

“I have to say Tennessee Williams because his scripts are so clear and you know so well what is going on with these people. They are beautiful and fragile and sad and lovely. They are exquisite scripts to work on."

If you could do a Williams play what would it be? Jeff Meadows who plays opposite you in Betrayal was just in Summer and Smoke at The Shaw Festival last season.

“I would love to do Summer and Smoke. I have done 27 Wagons, and I was Stella in Streetcar years ago. I have a friend who runs a theatre company and I have been harassing him to do Tennessee Williams so I can come down and work with him. I would do anything. I love his stuff.”

You also played Pinocchio.

“Yes three times. I am a puppeteer as well. We did it at Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, and then Thunder Bay’s Magnus Theatre, and then Theatre New Brunswick in Fredericton. That was probably one of the hardest shows I have ever done physically because I was onstage for two hours lugging around a puppet that went up to my chest which was really quite heavy and physically demanding.

It’s a lovely story about a soul who is trying to figure out who he is and what it means to be human and live in this crazy world even though it was written years ago – the original version by Carlo Collodi. It was very adult but children loved it as well. It did well everywhere and people liked it and I loved doing that show. It’s nice to do a show that both parents and children adore. You feel you can influence all ages.”

Part Three - Betrayal's Bad Boy: Brian Marler - from playing The Other Man to new Canadian playwright J. Karol Korczynski.