All actors know that to get awards, you have to go to the extreme. Charlize Theron put on huge amounts of weight for her Oscar-winning performance in Monster, Nicole Kidman donned a huge nose for The Hours, and we can only pray that Joaquin Phoenix is method-acting his way to an Oscar for his role in an upcoming film about a bad rapper with creepy facial hair. Well, in the Gaiety School of Acting, it’s no different.

“In one acting class I spent an hour and a half acting like a meerkat, pretending to run through the desert,” laughs Genevieve Hulme-Beaman. “I’m sure it was character-building, but exactly how it’s meant to help your acting is still kind of unclear.”
Oh, she of little faith. Judging by her recent success, meerkats must be where it’s at for budding actors, as the 21-year-old has landed herself a starring role in Little Gem, the award-winning play that’s returning to the Olympia after rave reviews in New York, London and Paris. Also starring Anita Reeves and Fair City’s Hilda Fay, the comedy explores the relationship of three generations of Dublin women. Hulme-Beaman plays Amber, a loudmouth 19-year-old struggling to deal with sambuca-fuelled hangovers, a mother she can’t talk to and a boyfriend who likes to play it hot and cold.
“Amber’s mad, a total loose canon. She says what comes into her head. We share some traits that way I guess!” says Hulme-Beaman. “She’s easy to relate to, and very funny. She has so many great one-liners, like she’s talking about a lad chatting up girls and says things like, ‘He’s really looking down her top to see if it’s all wonder and no bap’. I love that. She’s mental.”
Sarah Greene played Amber for Little Gem’s tour last year, and Hulme-Beaman only recently took on the role. “It was a different experience, coming into a production late and fitting into their play. But Hilda and Anita are such nice, warm people. I was made very welcome.”
While most actors want to make it in movies, Genevieve is messianic about the appeal of the stage. “I love theatre,” she says. “It’s so immediate. It’s you on stage, and your cast, and because the audience members are right there, they give you energy. It’s scary, but so exciting.”
Mind you, theatre life isn’t all thrills and glamour. In fact, sometimes it downright stinks.
“Now, I would never do this,” Hulme-Beaman stresses, “but sometimes people who are nervous fart a lot. So as you work with people you learn that there are specific farters and you get used to the specific smells. I’m not talking about anyone in Little Gem now! But in general, it’s one of the worst aspects of theatre.”
Lovely. One would imagine that doing risque scenes in front of thousands of people – including your parents – would be another, but Hulme-Beaman takes it all in her stride.
“There are scenes where Amber’s remembering risque incidents and there’s some acting out, but it’s fine. She’s such an out-there character, it’s not embarrassing, because you can always go, ‘I didn’t say that, it was Amber!’ I haven’t yet banned my parents from coming, though I probably should!”