Charlotte Beaumont talks ahead of The Lovely Bones role at Birmingham REP

The play is based on the best-selling book by Alice Sebold, which was made into a hit film in 2009 starring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon. The stage adaptation has been re-imagined by the brilliant and award-winning Bryony Lavery and will run at Birmingham’s REP Theatre until November 10.

The book was one of the best-selling novels of the 21st century, a coming-of-age tale that captured the hearts of readers throughout the world when it was first published in 2002.

An unforgettable story about life after loss, The Lovely Bones achieved critical acclaim and became an international best-seller. It won the Indies Choice Book Award for Adult Fiction 2003.

It tells the story of young Susie Salmon, who is just like any other girl. She wants to be beautiful, adores her charm bracelet and has a crush on a boy from school. There’s one big difference though – Susie is dead. Susie can only observe while her family cope with their grief in their different ways. Her father, Jack, is obsessed with identifying the killer. Her mother, Abigail, is desperate to create a different life for herself. And her sister, Lindsay, is discovering the opposite sex with experiences that Susie will never know. Susie is desperate to help them and there might be a way of reaching them.

Playwright Bryony was thrilled that Birmingham REP asked her to adapt Alice Sebold’s rich, funny, tough, healing book. “I’ve found that the huge story is very, very happy to change its medium and reveal its treasures on The REP’s main stage. I am a most fortunate playwright.”

And Charlotte was equally pleased to lead the line. “It’s really a beautiful part to play. It’s quite rare to have a character in the centre of everything who is on stage for the whole time and in such a complex scenario. My character is a teenager with so many different things to discover and layers to her personality.

“I found the possibilities endless. I knew that they wanted her to be onstage the whole time and they wanted her to be watching the action because she’s such a keen observer. I just wondered how we were going to do it. I thought it was a fascinating concept and she’s ever present and even more alive in death than before.

“When you’re a teenager you don’t know what you want at all, for many, but you don’t think about it. But this big thing that happens to Phoebe and the fact of it being so tragic makes her know what she wants.”

Charlotte is well known for her role as Chloe Latimer in TV series Broadchurch, with recent theatre credits including Three Winters at the National Theatre. She is joined by a strong cast in a 10-strong ensemble, with Jack Salmon played by Jack Sandle (War Horse, National Theatre; Running Wild, UK tour), Emily Bevan (The Haunting of Hill House, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse) as Abigail Salmon and Ayoola Smart (Othello, Unicorn Theatre; The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare’s Globe) as sister Lindsay.

Keith Dunphy (The Rivals, Bristol Old Vic) takes the role of Mr Harvey. The cast is completed by Pete Ashmore as Len Fenerman/Samuel, Bhawna Bhawsar as Ruana Singh/Franny, Susan Bovell as Lynn/Cop/Mrs Flanagan, Natasha Cottriall as Ruth Connors/Buckley Salmon and Karan Gill as Ray Singh/Principal Caden.

Charlotte is like a kid in a sweetshop. “I think it’s brilliant to be on stage all the time. I love it. I find it really energising because it’s a cast of 10 of us. Everyone else is coming and going and grabbing the baton and telling another part of the story. To watch and feed off everyone’s energy is great. They keep the energy up.

“We are constantly finding new things in it and new thoughts and discoveries. It makes for a different show every night. I read the book. I had actually read the book before the script and Bryony is so true to the book. It was really important because it’s from my characters’ point of view. It’s 300 pages reduced down to 100 minutes, so you need to know the backstory. And if I’m ever feeling unsure about a show I can just go back to the book and read a little section and that clicks me back in.”

Charlotte is making steady progress through an impressive career and looking forward to more good work in TV, film and stage. “I really love all of them. I love the immediacy of theatre and how you’ve got the audience right there. There’s constant feedback. You can feel the atmosphere and that changes each show. The audience changes it each night.”

For many, she’s best known as Chloe in Broachurch, a part she won when she was just 17. “I just had no idea of what I was getting into. You get a part and at that age, that in itself is brilliant. But then Broadchurch turned out to be this huge success and it was amazing to be involved in it. I look back and think I was very lucky to be involved in that. I got to work with incredible people, such as Jodie (Whittaker), who is now the Time Lord in Doctor Who. She’s amazing and I root for her.”

Charlotte’s career is following a similar trajectory. And while The Lovely Bones brings her to Birmingham now, bigger things no doubt await.