Anita Reeves is still under the spell of the stage

ANITA Reeves, who stars in a new production of the hit play Little Gem, jokes that she has been threatening to retire from her stage career for 20 years. 

The 66-year-old actor and singer, who is reprising her role as the grandmother in Elaine Murphy’s play about three generations of Dublin women, says she was never ambitious.

“But I have had an amazing career,” she reflects. “I have always done what I wanted to do. Once I settled down and had a family, they became the important thing for me. I still managed to work away quite a lot. I was very lucky to have a supportive sister who minded the children while I was away. They travelled with me as much as they could, but when they got to an age where they couldn’t do that, I stopped travelling so much.”