Making her Markle

The world of the East Lothian-born actress has been dramatically reshaped in the past few years. Since being literally blown up in River City (gangster Lenny was, as always, to blame), Chetty has married and had a baby son, Luca.

Meantime, her career as a writer has juddered to a halt. Despite working for Radio Four and having a hugely well-received play staged at Glasgow’s Oran Mor theatre, Kontomble, Chetty has taken a step back.

Indeed, the screenwriting course she’d once taken with Channel Four was paying off when she moved from acting to writing for River City, the soap she’d previously starred in. But then writing too was dumped on the backburner.

This is all something of a mystery, but now she’s back on the acting horse. We’re at the Tron theatre in Glasgow during her lunch break for rehearsals for a new comedy play. Chetty, at 35, talks excitedly about Martin McCormick’s new show, Ma, Pa And The Little Mouths. In it, she will be working alongside the likes of Karen Dunbar and Gerry Mulgrew. “I love rehearsals,” she says of the new work. “I love the chance to work out the character, to dig deep into the play.”

It’s certainly a show which will reset Chetty in the minds of the public so used to seeing her play the mercurial Zinnie in River City. Ma, Pa And The Little Mouths is described as “absurdist". So what’s it about? “It has its own beautiful language and rhythm,” she offers, smiling. “It’s a little odd working with a piece that doesn’t have a linear narrative. And it’s so clever and so funny.”

Yes, yes, but having said all those flowery things, Nalini, what’s it about? She laughs. “Karen says it’s about a giant chicken. Gerry says it’s about existentialist angst. And me? I think it’s about the absurdity of the everyday. What the audiences will relate to is the recognition of some of their families, people they know. It’s a heightened reality.” She adds: “It has the feel of an Ionesco, a Beckett, shades of Enda Walsh.”

But if comedy emerges from truth, Nalini, where is the truth in tales of giant chickens? “Yes, but what is reality these days?” she poses, grinning. “I read the paper coming into work this morning and there’s a guy in Cumbernauld stockpiling weapons. Or there’s another story about someone who has been abducted by their stepfather – or Trump is tweeting something mad. The real world is dark and absurd. This play reflects this. It pushes at the boundaries.”

Chetty plays Neil, a jogger, who somehow finds her way into the strange world of Ma and Pa. “But Ma can’t work out what jogging is," says Chetty. "And there’s a truth to this. A lot of people have never jogged in their life. And why expound energy running when you could be doing other things?”

She adds, smiling: “Not everyone may get what’s going on in this play. But it should be great because it’s fun. It’s really the most fun I’ve ever had in rehearsals.”

Well that’s cleared that up. Sort of. But it doesn’t matter. The concept is so intriguing it will carry audiences along on the journey. And we will come away with an understanding of the human condition. Won’t we? “I think so,” says the actress. “When I first read the script I had no idea what this was about. But I enjoy the world, the language, the confusion, watching it evolve. And it asks ‘What is reality?’”

The reality for Chetty is her acting career is back on track – she will also appear at the Citizens’ Theatre in Cyrano de Bergerac in the summer – but what happened to the blossoming writing career? Chetty is no longer writing lines for River City's Shellsuit Bob and co. It transpires she needed to switch off the world of Lenny’s unrelenting gangsterism and Scarlett’s tragic love life.

But why? Had it been too strange/awkward writing for a series she had once acted in? “There were moments of strangeness,” she agrees. “It was funny to be on the other side. But it was more about feeling that River City had it’s own world and you can’t dip in and dip out. You have to watch the show religiously, and live it and love it. I did love it, but I’d done almost five years of acting in it and then a year and half writing. It was great experience but ...” She takes a beat and thinks; “I think if you want to be creative, you have to move on.”

That makes sense. Chetty wants to stretch the mind that once secured five As at Higher, which would have allowed her to study law or medicine. But she points out that writing isn’t easy when you have a two-year-old to look after. “It’s hard to be creative when you’re not contracted to write something,” she says with a wry smile. “If you have a commission and a deadline, yes you can work to that. But if someone says to you ‘Yes, write up that idea and bring it to us,’ and it’s not definite, somehow you get caught up in batch cooking and cleaning out nappy bins.”

She adds, pushing out a smile, her voice becoming a little darker. “Writing’s hard. And it’s been very difficult to make the commitment. So I’ve had a wee bit of a break.”

There’s another reason why dreams were dropped and plans pushed aside. Chetty’s mum died in November. The death, she acknowledges, meant life suddenly took on a very different form. She takes a little gulp of air and continues. “It’s one of those things that propels you into a very different phase of your life. It makes you re-evaluate. I needed to have six months of being with the wee one. Then we moved house as well. I just needed time to get myself together, to think about things.”

It was serendipitous when Tron director Andy Arnold offered Chetty the chance to appear in Ma And Pa. In fact, it’s almost been a life saver. “I got the chance to do this play and I jumped at,” she says. “It’s the sort of thing I would have loved to have done 10 years ago.”

Yet, taking the role hasn’t come without some regret. “You want to make sure that you are fulfilled. It took a wee while after Luca was born for my husband to appreciate that acting was really in me. And for me to appreciate that. But I know it is," she says.

“Yet, you want family time as well. And you do feel guilty about leaving your boy behind.” She takes a moment and grins. “I don’t know why but the guilt seems more so for women. It must be a biological thing. So if you go out do an acting job it has to be something you really want to do.” She adds, breaking into an ironic laugh: “That’s partly because so much of your money goes on child care.”

Chetty, despite the travails of the past two years, sounds continually upbeat. “The work is an investment in yourself, in your career,” she says. It’s really important. But trying to juggle the work/home balance is really hard. Somehow people manage it but I don’t know how they do it. All I can say at the moment is I’m having a lot of fun and I tell myself Luca is a sociable child. He enjoys the days at the nursery, the childminder and the day with his gran. And when he comes back he seems to appreciate me more.”

Chetty’s partner, Alan, is a lawyer. She smiles as she rewinds on how they met. “It was on a blind date. We were set up by my brother-in-law who is a lawyer, as is my sister. We met in 2013 in the Waverly Tea Rooms in Glasgow and were married two years later.” Rock n’roll, Nalini? “Yes,” she says laughing of the tea room tale. “But it all worked out. I suppose you get to a stage in life when you just know what you want.”

Chetty grew up believing she would become a lawyer, or perhaps a doctor. But she took off to Bristol University to study drama. “At one point after my degree I applied to do a legal conversion.” This suggests she wasn’t hell bent on a performing life? “Well, having done a degree in drama I realised I wasn’t qualified for anything. And at this point I was working in a perfume shop. But I also thought about applying to drama school.” She adds, laughing: “The applications for drama school were a lot harder than the Law degree.”

Fate decided. Chetty was accepted to drama college. But what was the reaction of her parents? Her dad, a South African Indian and mum, a teacher from Grangemouth, fully expected young Nalini to follow big sister into law. “I remember telling my mum (about acting) and she was taken aback. I can understand it. Acting was a strange world and it represented no financial security.” Were there tears? “There may have been,” she says smiling. “I remember going for a walk along the beach to think things out and calling my boyfriend at the time, who said ‘I really think you should go for acting.’ But my mum was great. She kept saying to me ‘Well, if it doesn’t work out you can always teach.” She adds: “There is a fine line between pessimism and realism. And I know my mum was worrying about me.”

After drama school, Chetty found it tough. She was demonstrating vacuum cleaners in stores, handing out newspapers, anything to pay the rent. When she took off to seek her fortune it London life became mostly about waitressing. London theatre didn’t really want Scottish voices. “I was paying rent in London but getting jobs in Scotland and Birmingham. I was really getting into debt.”

Then the call came from River City. Life changed dramatically. But what of race discrimination? Scotland’s actors of colour have long complained about lack of opportunities? “Scotland still has to catch up a bit with London. There have been some interesting castings recently but we still have a way to go.”

Most of the early jobs offered were playing Middle Eastern women. Now, she says TV roles are opening up to people of colour but “they tend to be filming in London or abroad. There’s not a lot happening here. The last thing I went for was filming in Sri Lanka and I went down to London on the train and back the same day – and you arrange for child care and all of that. The audition seemed to go well, all very emotional. But the casting agents didn’t even call to say whether I’d landed the part.” Her voice becomes more serious. “You just want to be treated as a human being, and it’s not always the way. That’s the hard part of being an actor.” She adds, smiling: “If I ruled the world.”

But you can write, Nalini. Very, very well. You can create great roles for yourself? “That’s the answer,” she agrees, grinning. “But it’s finding time. If I could clone myself ... although Alan says he doesn’t think he could handle more than one of me.” Chetty adds: “Time is all important. Time to be a mum, a writer, an actor and ...” Have a life? “Yes, exactly. Have a life.”

Yes, but you don’t have to worry long term. Right now, film producers will be commissioning script ideas for a film about the life of Meghan Markle. And wouldn’t the Scots actress, who once played the role of Princess Jasmine at the Ayr Gaiety panto, be perfect for her? “Oh, I would,” she says, laughing. “So let’s hope.”

Ma, Pa and the Little Mouths, The Tron Theatre, May 3- 12