Her family is best known for its catering business, but its members seem more drawn to artistic pursuits. Arminta Wallace meets the actress Kelly Campbell, who will soon appear in a UTV drama and on stage in Dublin.
Kelly Campbell is a little breathless when she walks into the bar where we are meeting. Its stairs can do that to you, but she has also just come from an audition in London. How did it go? She wrinkles her nose. It went okay. But auditions are pretty weird. "That's what's so horrible about them," she says. "Strange things happen. You can prepare and you can know the part and you can really, really want it - and it can just be wrong." Then she grins. "I wouldn't mind getting it, though. It's shooting in Mexico."
It's hard to imagine this thoughtful, self-possessed young woman messing up an audition, which may be one reason why we're about to see a good deal of Kelly Campbell. She takes to the stage shortly as Roxanne in Barabbas's new version of the Cyrano de Bergerac story, at Project, in Dublin, and to the small screen in a UTV drama series starring Stephen Fry, to be screened in the new year. There's also a Christmas special of Bachelors Walk, the RTÉ comedy drama, on the way, in which she reprises her role as Jane, other half of Michael - plus a box set of the whole series on DVD.
Rehearsals for Cyrano are, she reports, going well. Barabbas director Veronica Coburn's take on the familiar tale - of the guy with the big nose who woos his lady love by writing flowery letters to be delivered by his handsome friend - is to turn the two lads into celebrity chefs and Roxanne into a New York Times food critic. So it's comedy, but it's more than just comedy.
"It's really about love," says Campbell. "Romantic love, intellectual love and physical love, and what makes a perfect relationship. It also looks at some interesting questions around celebrity: the idea that you could become a celebrity tomorrow, the notion of celebrity for its own sake. It asks 'Why do you want to be famous?' "
An intriguing question, which is given an even more intriguing twist by Campbell's background. Her father is Patrick Campbell, whose company is best known for its takeover of the Bewley's cafe group. Her brother Duncan is an artist who currently has a piece showing at Tate Modern, in London. Her sister Siofra is a film- maker based in New York, with a film due to show at Tribeca Film Festival in February.
Campbell says the family's catering business played a crucial role in their upbringing, and not just because there was always money around. "There was always a lot of talk at the table about business, and my dad has been an incredible mentor for me," she says. "And my mum as well. She's a fantastic cook and interior designer, and she has a great sense of style. Whenever I have a big decision to make, I always know my dad will give me a good answer - maybe a difficult one, but it will always be good. He understands people, and he has always encouraged us to take risks. He's a big advocate of learning through failure, that when something fails you pick yourself up. In his business there were a lot of failures in the early years which taught him lessons about the way to structure the company."
Patrick Campbell now lives in semiretirement in Florence, where he is working hard as a sculptor. "He has always painted. He's a good painter but a brilliant sculptor," says his daughter. He's currently working on a piece commissioned to commemorate the victims of the Air India bombing and Betelgeuse disaster, in Co Cork.
Are they a close-knit bunch? "Hmm. Well, it's funny: I've collaborated with everyone in my family, either through business or through art," says Campbell, who, when she's not acting, runs Bewley's Café Theatre, on Grafton Street in Dublin. "We don't see each other very often nowadays. But there are lots of arguments when we get together, that's for sure."
Campbell's mother brought her to the theatre from an early age. "I loved the magic of it," she says. "I wanted to be those other people on stage, be part of the world of the theatre."
After taking a degree in theatre, history and English at the University of Ulster, in Coleraine, she went to the Central School of Speech and Drama, in London, immersing herself in Ibsen, Chekhov and Greek tragedy. Working, more recently, with such experienced screen actors as Fry, Rory Bremner and Tony Slattery, in the six-part comedy drama The Kingdom, has, she says, been an education in itself. The series, which is due to air in January, features Fry as a village solicitor. "I play this mysterious Irishwoman who comes in in the last episode and blows the whole plot apart," says Campbell. "It was terrific fun to do. Stephen Fry is great to work with."
What does a relative newcomer to the world of theatre learn from the work of actors such as Fry? "There's a kind of conviction about what they do," says Campbell. "When they approach a character they're so present, so there . . . They resonate." Something tells you she has learned a thing or two about resonating already.
Cyrano opens at Project, Dublin, on Friday. The Kingdom airs on UTV in January