Eve's best cherry in the orchard

This production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard is directed by Trevor Nunn and stars Vanessa and Corin Redgrave. Rehearsals have been extraordinary. Terrifying, really! But nice in the way that there are about six of us in the class who are sort of the younger ones, so I'm not the only person who feels intimidated. We can all sit in a corner and go, "Help!"

I've seen Vanessa on stage twice and, of course, in many films, and admired her from afar. Working with her is amazing. A lot of the time I sit in rehearsal thinking, "I wish I could just watch this, because she is amazing" - completely volatile, unpredictable. She'll get up and do a dance, burst into tears. Then you think, "I'm going to have to come on soon. What the hell am I going to do?"

I play Varya, Mme Ranevskaya's adopted daughter. People think of Varya as a po-faced school mistress coming in while everyone is having a party and saying it's time for bed. But she is the most wonderful character, the only responsible person in the whole household. While everyone else is messing around, spending the money and getting drunk, she keeps the whole thing afloat.

Working with Chekhov's text is like working with a crossword puzzle. There is tons of information all over the place, and it is a process of trying to piece all that together to make a coherent story.

As an actor it means you can be very free - there is no obvious way to do a scene. Mind you, that means you feel like you want about six years to rehearse.

David Lan has written a new translation. But there is not a huge concept behind the production. This is not Cherry Orchard set in space. We tell the story as truthfully as possible. With such a good play there is no point in making it tricksy.