Writer and director Nina Conti with co-star Shenoah Allen

In her new movie, Sunlight, Nina Conti spends much of the time encased in a monkey suit – a lifesized version of the character that has accompanied her on film and stage for two decades.

For a ventriloquist, the puppet can have a life force that makes it sometimes hard to remember who controls who.

“I was talking about Monkey on a podcast in the third person when he was there,” she says. “And he said ‘how dare you talk about me in third person!’ I thought, this is absurd. But I have been with him for 20 years and cannot undo the rules.

“When I put him into the bag on stage the audience always go ooh! I think – did I do that too fast? Does that look like I discarded him?”

In Sunlight, Nina has teamed up with actor Shenoah Allen. They tell the story of Sunlight Radio host Roy Belvedere (Allen) and a character called Jane (Conti) who finds solace wearing a full-sized monkey costume. They are a couple who form a friendship in harrowing circumstances.

Roy has checked into a motel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the intention of taking his own life. He is saved by a person wearing a monkey suit – Jane (Conti), who considers the outfit a wholly separate persona from herself.

Jane is running away from a toxic relationship with her stepfather, Wade, who owns the motel and uses Monkey as a mascot for his club.

Monkey has stolen Roy’s campervan with him inside and wants to drive to a lake where she plans to set up home. He, on the other hand, is desperate to get to his mother’s house before she reads the suicide note he sent her.

It’s a classic road trip scenario with two fascinating characters – both escaping from past trauma and finding out about themselves as they discover each other. It is an unlikely romance and has Nina’s sideways comedy writ large.

Nina’s landmark act, which features her on stage with her comedic co-host, Monkey, has confirmed her as the UK’s first ape of ventriloquism. The film involves Monkey moving from her right hand to taking her over completely.

“The genesis goes way back to when I first started ventriloquism,” she says. “Monkey could voice my thoughts more articulately than my own face. I soon found I was the fake one and Monkey was more real.”

Nina was on the set of a Star Wars film and, unsurprisingly, made a beeline for the many strange creatures walking around.

“I loved meeting the creatures department,” she says. “Watching all these strange Star Wars creatures, walking around. I thought… what would it be like to have a Chewbacca-sized Monkey?”

Star Wars creature creator Vanessa Bastyan agreed to upsize Monkey for her. The result was a Monkey that Nina could climb into – perhaps the final step in Monkey and Nina’s intertwining as a duo.

“I loved it!,” she says. “The outfit was interesting to put on. “I’d worn Monkey as a glove but this was like a deep dive inside me. It was going full Monkey. This is what it felt like.

“Here it is. He has taken me over – he is now the puppeteer.”

In Sunlight Nina plays Jane, who worked in her father’s club dressed as a monkey, and ends up on a road trip with radio host Roy Belvedere, played by Shenoah Allen

Shooting in the New Mexico heat dressed as a monkey sounds like a  trial of strength, but it did have advantages.
“Try directing in a monkey suit, and watching a monitor back, and it not be funny,” she reflects. “It was an impediment, but a welcome one.”

Her co-star Shenoah is originally from New Mexico and the adventure takes place on his home turf.
“I met Shenoah at an improv festival and he really clicked with Monkey,” she says. It led to them working on a script that brought two characters together.

“He came from New Mexico, and we thought – we could set a movie there. Shenaoh brought his life into the film, I brought Monkey. I loved how his mind works, and how he can improvise in any situa­tion with truthfulness.”

Fans of Nina’s work know all too well her ability to spin a yarn and head off in every direction Monkey fancies. In Sunlight, filming scenes allowed the pair to improvise.

“It is always a good surprise when you go off on one!,” jokes Nina. “And it’s a bit looser in terms of forming a scene. The story and screen play was really tight and you know what each scene needs by intuition.”
Creating a character that has a woolly-felt face and two buttons for eyes takes one expressive tool away from the actor.
“In a way, he projects what the audience wants to see,” adds Nina. And having Monkey as a mouthpiece has given her the chance to express unfiltered thoughts.

“I think everyone can relate to gate-keeping, people do it all the time, for politeness, or because of a way we wish to be perceived,” she says.

“We worry all the time about perception, worry about how we come across,” she adds. “With Monkey, that just goes away. It’s like taking on a pseudonym –­ I feel that way inside a gigantic monkey.”

• Sunlight opens on October 17.
Details of cinema listings and screenings at: https://theninaconti.komi.io/