Francesca Martinez was three years old when she knew she wanted to spend her life on stage. Best known for her standup, Martinez never planned on becoming a comedian – the original dream was to act, she says.
Martinez, 44, is sitting outside London’s National Theatre, sipping from a water bottle. After a 22-year detour as an award-winning comedian who is volubly “wobbly” (the word she uses to describe her cerebral palsy), she has been delivered back to her first love. She is performing a leading role in the National’s All of Us, directed by Ian Rickson, which also marks her playwriting debut. On a break from rehearsals, she is feeling relaxed. “I like a new challenge,” she says, petite and bright-eyed. “But,” she adds, her voice rising to raucousness, “childhood Francesca would be so flabbergasted that I’m doing this … as an actor!”
