Brian Beacom

A YOUNG woman gets caught stealing from a department store.

But store manager Tess lets Cher off with a warning. However, Cher steals again. And again.

Why? That’s the theme of this week’s Oran Mor play Beg Borrow Steal.

The play, by David MacLennan Award winner Anita Alexander Rae, is multi-layered. We discover a “fragile bond” develops between the thief and her captor.

“There are layers of personality we come to understand,” says Natali McCleary, of her character, Cher.

“The writing is so complex, but in a good way. The characters are deep, and when we come to understand their histories it all makes for a perfect storm.”

Why would Cher turn kleptomaniac? And what is there about Tess (played by Molly Innes) that allows her to get inside Cher’s head?

“The journey sees the characters learn about themselves as they learn more about the other,” says Natali.

The play calls for an intelligent performance and Natali certainly carries those credentials.

Growing up in Glasgow’s East End, she left school at 15 and went to university at 17, having attained all the Highers she would ever need.

“I didn’t enjoy school,” she admits with a wry grin, given both her parents are teachers.

“There was no autonomy and I wanted to have control over my own learning. I didn’t want to be spoon-fed with material I wasn’t interested in.”

Natali studied Genetics but it wasn’t for her. In her twenties, she decided to study Dance. Right out of nowhere? “I had danced when I was younger,” she says, grinning; “Although I preferred to play football.”

Natali went on to train as a dancer at the London Contemporary Dance School, going up against 3000 other applicants.

Since then she has worked in interpretative dance, community theatre and with young people “excluded from the mainstream.”

She also joined the cast of Trouble The Water, the NTS-backed theatre piece which explored the connection between Gaelic music and American jazz.

The theatre play experience brought with an added piquancy, given Natali’s racial diversity.

“I sit between two cultures,” she says. “My mom is Scottish and my dad Jamaican, who came to the UK when he was ten.

“There is definitely a tension which exists between how much I can appropriate a particular culture.”

Scotland may claim to be open and welcoming. But as a nation we’re not as inclusive as we like to think we are.

“People don’t assume they will hear a Scottish accent coming from me,” she says poignantly.

Racial diversity in Scotland should be represented far more in in theatre and television.

“When is the last time you looked around a theatre and saw a real mix of cultures,” Natali adds, rhetorically.

“We should look at the disconnect between minorities and the Scottish arts scene.

This play is only her second straight acting piece, (her first was Secret Show 1, at the Tron Theatre.)

“I was working with a great calibre of actors in that show,” she says in modest voice.

Natali McCleary, it seems, is no stranger to humility. Yet nor is she devoid of innate confidence.

“Dance training was so egocentric,” she points out. “It’s all about you. But acting is a different process. The motivation is to become the character.

“The quest is to find a degree of authenticity without playing at being something.”

So she doesn’t have to go down the shops and nick a packet of Fruit Pastilles in order to play a shoplifter?

“Exactly. But I’m still not sure about how I will do it,” she says smiling.

“I’m still navigating my way around this character.”

The fact this very bright actress questions herself so much suggests she will find the answers.

“I hope you’re right,” she says, with a wide smile. “But I’m delighted to get the chance. It’s easy to see why this play is an award winner.”

• Beg Borrow Steal, Oran Mor, until Saturday.