Married actors become Hermes drivers as theatres shut down

For three decades, Anna-Jane Casey has been a West End leading lady. But her new role is a good deal less glamorous.

Casey is working as a delivery driver, earning £1 per parcel, after the shutdown of the arts left her - like thousands of others in the industry - unable to do the job she loves.

Since June, Casey has been working for a courier company with her husband and fellow actor, Graham MacDuff.

It is a far cry from Casey’s West End career, which has included playing Velma Kelly in Chicago, Anita in West Side Story and Mrs Wilkinson in Billy Elliot.

“I’ve been acting since I was 10 years old, I’ve paid tax for all that time. And yet you’re telling me that my industry isn’t viable, and that I should probably retrain and do something else? Well, that’s not what I’m going to do,” Casey said. “But I have a mortgage and two kids, so I need a job right now.”

When the country went into lockdown in March, Casey was about to perform a concert with the Halle Orchestra at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. Her husband was two days into rehearsals for the Sister Act musical with Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Saunders.

Overnight, work and earnings dried up. MacDuff found a temporary job in a Morrison’s warehouse, loading bread into containers to be shipped out to stores. Casey packed vegetables near their home in Faversham, Kent from March-May, before realising that the theatre shutdown would be lengthy and she needed more than seasonal work.

Casey, 48, said: “I applied for every job going on a jobs website - care home staff, supermarkets, driving jobs. Thankfully, there is a company that is a subsidiary of Hermes in Kent, and my husband and I are now delivery drivers. We had to buy our own van.

“Obviously we don’t want it to be permanent. It’s paying the bills and it’s keeping the children fed and watered, but it’s not really what I want to do for the rest of my life.

“I’m nearly 50 and I trained for a long time. So, no. Open theatres, for crying out loud.”

On a slow day, Casey delivers around 100 parcels, but can shift closer to 200. “You have to hit those targets and you have to get it all done by 7.30-8pm. You are paid £1 a parcel. So an easy day is physically easy, but it’s not going to pay the rent.

“Yesterday I delivered 163 parcels, and out of that £163 I’ve got the petrol to pay for, the insurance on the van. It’s a self-employed job so we’re having to put money away for tax next year.

“I deliver everything. I’ve had a car door - now I’m strong as an ox but I’m 5’3” and I’m eight stone wet through and I was like, seriously, a car door? Sometimes you’ll get a box and it’s so heavy you think, what are these people ordering, anvils?” The couple split the week, with Casey working Monday-Wednesday and her husband from Thursday-Saturday, allowing them to juggle work with looking after their two children.

Casey is known as one of the warmest, most positive people in the business. She said of the delivery job: “People say to me, ‘Oh, God, is it horrible?’ And it isn’t, because people are very kind. Sometimes we have conversations with clients and they go, ‘Oh, you’re ever so personable,’ and we say, ‘Well, we’re actors, really.’”

Last month, Casey had to deliver a parcel to Anthony Drewe, the famed West End and Broadway lyricist. It was a low point. “I’ve known him for years and, oh, the shame of Anthony opening that door. He was really sweet about it and it shouldn’t be a problem but, you know, I’m a drama queen and I did sit in the van afterwards as I drove away and I did sob.

“I thought, ‘Two months ago he’d have been asking me to go and do a demo for him for a new musical, and now I’m offering him a Lakeland parcel.”

Equity, the actors’ union, said more than 6,000 of its members have lost work since March and a number have reported having to use food banks because competition for even minimum wage work is so tough.

Casey spoke to The Telegraph in the week that the Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, expressed his regret over a “crass” advertisement which suggested a ballet dancer called ‘Fatima’ should retrain in cybersecurity.

Earlier, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, responded to a question about the plight of arts professionals by suggesting that they seek “new opportunities”.

“We understand that a lot of other industries are collapsing. But to go, ‘Oh, just retrain and get a new job is offensive,” Casey said.

“To be that flippant - ‘It doesn’t matter that you spent years training as a ballet dancer, just go and do computers.’ I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be that way, and they retracted [the advert] and apologised, but not even to have the foresight to see that was rude is gobsmacking.”

While Casey has no work on the horizon, her husband has been told that Sister Act has been rescheduled for next summer. One of Casey’s customers has tickets for it. “I said, ‘Well, you’ll see my husband, and he won’t be handing you an Amazon parcel at the time.”