Philippa Kaur

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    Interview: Taking a Stroll Down Gutter Street

    Gutter Street on bringing their Street Night to ChewFest

    We had our first walk down Gutter Street last year with Feathers. At the time we weren’t aware of the company, but the play certainly had us interested in future work. We also had no idea about their Gutter Street Nights. But Chewboy Productions were singing their praises during a recording of our podcast, and informed us that they would be taking over the Friday night of the upcoming ChewFest at Lion and Unicorn. So it seemed the perfect opportunity to delve into their world and find out just what it is that they have planned.

    It was our pleasure then to chat with co-founders, Leo Flanagan, Isobel Warner and Josh Barrow and ask, just where is Gutter Street?

    What do you have planned for ChewFest?

    We’re going to be bringing Gutter Street Nights to ChewFest. Our monthly new writing night for musicians, poets, actors, comedians and all manner of artists. We ask five featured performers to create or curate a piece of work centred around one central theme, this month’s theme is ‘Homeward’. We then do a little pub quiz and open the stage for the audience to jump up and share whatever they like on our open mic. We usually host these nights at our spiritual home of Green Note in Camden but we’re excited to travel up the northern line one stop to Kentish Town and bring Gutter Street Nights to the Lion and Unicorn Theatre!

    How have you gone about selecting the five creatives for the night?

    For this particular event we have asked five artists who have all performed with us at some point over the last few years. We usually programme creatives from those who have reached out to us or chatted to us on one of our nights. Our aim with the whole company is to build a community and develop real relationships with creatives. It’s great when someone has come down to one of our nights to support a friend and on a whim jumps up on the open mic, and then the next month they’re sharing their first bit of writing as a featured performer with us.

    Do you help with input and advice along the way?

    We don’t really involve ourselves with the writers pieces. We do strive to get at least one first time writer at every one of our nights, people who have flirted with the idea of writing something of their own but never got round to it. We’re always there for those creatives and if they would like a bit of support or guidance we’re more than happy to help and provide a bit of feedback but really the first time we’re seeing their pieces are when they’re on stage!

    Your own work is all based along your fictional “Gutter Street”, does this mean they are all based on the same dystopian world that existed in Feathers?

    All of our plays and stories do take place in our fictional ‘Gutter Street’ world, but we’ve given this world a very wide timeline of 10,000 years to fill! Feathers takes place somewhere along this timeline and we do have other plays and tales that take place around the same time, but our next story could be 1000 years before the events of Feathers. We didn’t want the plays to be direct continuations or sequels/prequals but anthologies. Individual fables that if you were to watch one on their own you’d enjoy the story presented to you, but if you had seen a few and connected with some of the moral questions, myths and background set up, you may walk away with a different experience to someone who hasn’t.  

    Is ChewFest a great opportunity to get your work seen by a new audience?

    Absolutely! We are all massive fans of the work that ChewBoy put on and when they asked us to produce one of our ‘Gutter Street Nights’ for the festival we had to jump at the chance. It’s also a great challenge to adapt from our regular venue (Green Note) which is so ingrained into the DNA of our nights to the beautiful black box space of The Lion and Unicorn. We hope that our regulars feel the vibe and personality of Green Note bleeding through at the Lion and Unicorn this month and that newcomers get a real flavour of our regular nights.

    And you promise an open mic slot at the end of your evening at ChewFest, is that something you normally do, do you get many takers then?

    We do an open mic at the end of every ‘Gutter Street Nights’ and it’s always such an energetic and exciting part of the evening, because it’s full of creatives who didn’t really expect to perform or share that little poem they’ve had written on their notes app for months, or that song they’ve had in the back of their minds. We’re never short of people who want to get up and perform, especially after watching the first five featured performers. They’ve seen the warm, enthusiastic and vocal response from the ‘Gutter Street Nights’ audience and think ‘I fancy a bit of that!’. We also film everyone’s performances so they can take it away and use it for whatever they like, which as performers ourselves, we know is really useful.  

    Gutter Street Night Audiences

    Our thanks to Leo, Isobel and Josh for their time to chat with us. Gutter Street will be taking over the Friday Night of ChewFest. Further information and bookings can be found here. More

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    Interview: Hopping on the Kindertransport to the Little Angel

    Smoking Apples’ Molly Freeman on Kinder at Little Angel Theatre

    Kinder is an immersive new show for children, hitting the stage of the Little Angel Theatre this May. Set just before WW2, it tells the story of a small Czech-Jewish girl called Babi, who is sent away from her home on a journey to safety in the UK.

    We had a chat with Director Molly Freeman of Smoking Apples, the award-winning puppetry and visual theatre company, who have created this intriguing production, to find out more.

    So Molly, Kinder is about the Czech Kindertransport rather than the more familiar German one. Did they both happen at the same time? Why have you chosen to explore the Czech one?

    The Kindertransport in Germany and Czechoslovakia, took place at the same time, yes. This was all just before the outbreak of WW2, in 1938. The catalyst for this movement was Kristellnacht, where the Nazis undertook violent acts against Jewish people and businesses in Germany.

    A lot of people are familiar with the German Kindertransport, but Europe and the Jewish communities were very connected so word got out elsewhere that these violent acts were taking place. As a result, the British authorities allowed minors to seek refuge and enter Great Britain from Germany and German-annexed territories, which Czechoslovakia fell under.

    We wanted to explore the Czech Kindertransport for a number of reasons. Firstly, there can often be a sense of compartmentalisation with these stories, as in, ‘oh that happened in Germany because that’s where the war started’. But we wanted to reflect that the repercussions of the early situation in Germany had a ripple effect across Europe, impacting and affecting a huge number of people elsewhere. Secondly, the Czech Kindertransport was instigated by Sir Nicholas Winton, a British man, and myself and my co-artistic directors, Matt and Hattie used to live in Prague, so it felt like we would be able to tell this story from a place of understanding, in terms of the locations and cultures.

    I understand you have rather an unusual immersive space for the show. Can you tell us a bit about it and how the audience fit in?

    The space is a freestanding, self-sufficient box structure. The audience are seated inside and the performers play from the outside of the box inwards, through a series of hatches and openings. The set allows us to be completely in control of the show environment and to reflect the visceral nature of Babi’s journey; her excitement, bombardment and, at times, fear of it all. It also means that wherever we take the show, the audience can always have the same experience, whether that’s in a theatre, a community centre or a school hall.

    Smoking Apples are renowned for their fabulous puppetry work: I was very impressed with your giant walking tree last summer! What kind of puppets are in this show? And why use puppetry rather than just do a straight play?

    Ah yes, that was our Arbor, the tree! He’s pretty hard to miss! Kinder uses a combination of table-top bunraku-style puppetry, shadow puppetry and object manipulation. We are a puppetry company but we always ask ourselves ‘why puppets?’ at the start of every show. For Kinder, it allows us to jump backwards and forwards in the timeline of Babi’s story, but the form itself allows us to bring new resonance to actions. Across her journey, the actions that both Babi and the people she encounters around her are magnified and this helps the audience to focus on them as catalysts. When an actor performs an action, you read it as a whole but you may miss the importance of it because it is natural and already in human form. When a puppet performs an action, it is magnified because of the effort and care that has to be taken in order for it to do it.

    Are there any other interesting or unusual production features you can tell us about?

    In Kinder we are, for the first time, using a combination of shadow puppets, silhouette and OHP puppetry to form our overall shadow puppetry strand. This is a fairly new system of working for us but enables us to have a more film-like quality to the work.

    We’ve also taken inspiration from Czech illustrators, such as Miroslav Sasek, to create illustrated backgrounds for the shadow puppetry, so there is additional visual depth there. Czech illustration, as a broad style, is very striking and often warps scale and perception, which felt appropriate as a reflection of Babi’s young mind. We also use verbatim throughout the show, so there are segments of stories from real people who were evacuated on Kindertransport trains. The Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive kindly gave us permission to use them and the piece would be very different without those.

    What themes does the show explore? Presumably, it’s not just a bleak and depressing war story?

    Not at all! Mostly, Kinder is about hope and about how the acts of kindness that Babi encounter along the way really do make all the difference to her; in fact, they save her. Of course, there is difficult content in there and we wouldn’t be doing the story justice if we didn’t cover that, but it’s a tale of humanity, in all its various forms. For me, that’s what’s so compelling, particularly in light of the situation in Ukraine. Despite nationality, despite culture, despite race, despite religion; what binds us is that we are human and if we can hold on to that, kindness will prevail.

    You’ve made a show for older children, age 11-16, which is brilliant to see, as teenagers can often miss out on this kind of really creative, visual theatre. Is Kinder just for schools, or for wider family groups?

    We wanted to make a show specifically for teenagers because as you say, they’re often missed out.  We regularly work with young people, so something the story focuses on is this idea of identity and what that means. Teenagers are often asked to make really tricky calls on their futures; who they are, what they want to be. But ultimately, it’s sometimes OK to not have all the answers, to change your mind, or to just not know.

    We’ve also reflected the age group in the actual construction and presentation of the work. Sometimes shows can feel physically and emotionally very distant, making them hard to engage with. By placing the audience literally in the centre of the action and actively removing the preconceived notion of sitting still and being quiet, we hope that their engagement and investment will be much greater. Kinder is definitely something that wider family groups can enjoy though, and whilst we wouldn’t recommend it for younger audiences, it’s a great show for families, as familial ties are at the heart of our story and you see Babi as a grandmother, revisiting her past with her Grandson.

    What do you hope your audiences will come away with from Kinder?

    As I mentioned, Kinder is a show about hope. There are joyful parts and there are sad parts, but ultimately it is a reminder of all of the things that unite us when conflict tries to divide us. Being sat inside the set, with the show taking place around you, brings a different perspective on the work, one that we hope will resonate with our audiences. 

    I believe the show is going on a journey of its own, isn’t it? Where will your tour take you?

    We’re opening the show at the Little Angel Theatre in London and then we’ll be visiting the National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Newark (near Nottingham) before heading on to Harwich Festival. We’re planning on touring Kinder fully next year and will be visiting theatres, schools, festivals and community centres.

    Many thanks to Molly for taking the time to talk to us. Kinder is on at the Little Angel Studios from 12–14 May, and is aimed at ages 11-16. Further information and bookings can be found here.

    The show will also play National Holocaust Centre & Museum 31 May & 1 June, then Harwich Festival, Harwich on 30 June & 1 July More

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    Interview: Face Off with Fight or Flight

    Jess Barton & Ross Kernahan on Don’t Forget My Face

    Don’t Forget My Face was such a success last year when it played at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre that they have been invited back for a second run (17 – 21 May, tickets here)

    The show sees twins Rhea and Jack share everything together, hardly ever apart. But what happens when one of them gets the opportunity to move on, and break that special bond they have always had?

    And as here at ET we aren’t afraid to jump on a bandwagon if we feel it’s going our way, we thought this would be the perfect time then to catch up Fight or Flight‘s Jess Barton and Ross Kernahan, the people behind (and in front) of the show, to find out why we should get along to see the show now we’ve been given a second chance.

    How good does it feel to get invited back to the Lion and Unicorn then?

    It feels great! As associate artists of the theatre it’s amazing for there to be a home for our work, and to have the space to experiment and play with new ideas. David [Bardy], and the rest of the L&U team, have always been incredibly supportive of us and other companies in creating the work that we want to make first! We’re so delighted to be invited back after our last run was jinxed by the Omnicron wave, and for audiences to have another opportunity to join us! 

    The show is about twins – is that something either of you have experience of? Or if not, what brought you to writing a play about them?

    We’re not twins, but we both have siblings, and there are definitely parts of our own sibling relationships written into Jack and Rhea. However we were mostly interested in the idea of two people with near identical upbringings who react to life events unfolding around them in a very different way – there’s also something fascinating in the way we can remember a shared memory so differently! We wanted their sense of shared identity to be put into flux, to challenge their similarities and begin to embrace being different people. Many of us, ourselves included, rely on family a great deal to get through modern life – we think we cannot know anyone any better – and yet these people will still surprise you about who they really are and what they share with you.

    As well as writing the play together, Ross acts (alongside Aimee Kember) and Jess directs; how easy is it to be subjective when you are so heavily involved to be able to see when maybe things aren’t quite right and need a little tinkering?

    We’ve been working together for nearly a decade now – which makes the play’s theme of turning 30 feel all too familiar! – and have learnt to trust each other’s instincts, as they’re usually very similar to what the other is thinking. We also made sure to invite an outside pair of eyes into the room –  our dramaturg, Farah Najib, came in and asked all the big questions to keep us honest.

    What has been particularly enjoyable about making this show ourselves, is the freedom to play and develop the piece as we go. We learnt a few years ago that we really enjoy challenging and interrogating a show and its characters – so we’re constantly learning and finding new things within the script. It’s always a joy when something catches us by surprise!

    For those who didn’t see the show the first time at Lion and Unicorn, what can we expect if we come this time?

    We hope you’ll laugh, and cry, and ultimately be entertained – but also come away with a different appreciation of the people who support us through life! This is a play that celebrates the small moments that exist within the really big ones, whilst also confronting how overwhelming life can be. It was important to us to acknowledge how global events – and the habit of constant media consumption, and seemingly endless doomscrolling – can destabilise a person’s mental health, and how that is a very valid experience. When combined with our own, often non vocalised personal crises such as loss, family tragedy etc it can lead to explosive and mentally damaging behaviour – which you may witness when you see the show!

    Ultimately, this is a play about questioning the version of yourself that you present to the world, learning to live with grief, and figuring out how to challenge the pressures of societal expectation!

    Have you made any major changes from the original version you put on stage the first night?

    Since our last run we’ve been able to step back and look at what worked and didn’t work as well. We never had an R&D session when creating this show, it was put together rather quickly! So our first run was extremely useful in gauging audiences’ responses, and also in revealing things to us that perhaps we didn’t see at first! Since then we have been able to look at the script and address some imbalances, refocus some themes that didn’t get the limelight they deserved, and hone the story down to be what we really wanted it to be. 

    A second run at Lion and Unicorn, so obviously some mutual appreciation between you and the venue. What is it that makes this theatre such a fantastic place to put on a show?

    The London fringe theatre scene is always evolving, and despite the incredible hardships these venues have faced over the last few years the ones that survive seem to be shifting for the better: lower/zero hire costs, more production support, more interest in new work etc – it’s great to see – but these are things the Lion & Unicorn has been doing for years thanks to its AD David Brady. Their motto ‘be who you want to be’ feels very apt – in our experience, we have always felt in complete control of the show when we are in their venue. It’s a wonderfully open place to work, and allows us and other companies to be bold and take risks, which is exactly what theatre should be doing in our opinion. We just feel incredibly lucky that the theatre likes our work and continues to support us in doing what we do. 

    Is this the last hooray for Don’t Forget My Face then, or do you have further plans for it?

    We shall see!

    And if not this show, what do you have in the pipeline next then?

    We have hopes of creating something new later in the year – although what that might be is anyone’s guess right now! We will have to see if the rest of 2022 has something that will inspire us – for better or worse! 

    Our thanks to Jess and Ross for taking time out of their busy day to chat with us. Don’t Forget My Face will play at Lion and Unicorn Theatre between 17 and 21 May. Further information and bookings can be found here. More

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    Interview: Over The Bridge, Into The Shed

    Luke Adamson on Bridge House Theatre and The Man In The Shed

    We’ve not had the pleasure of visiting Penge’s Bridge House Theatre except for one fleeting visit back in 2014! Something we really need to change. But in the meantime, the second best thing to an actual visit would be a sit down with Luke Adamson, who is not only the Artistic Director of the venue, but also the director of The Man In The Shed, which will be playing at the venue from 10 May.

    Let’s start with The Man In The Shed, what attracted you to bring the play to Bridge House, and even to direct it yourself?

    Well, initially I was reading the play with a view to programming it as a visiting show as part of the spring season. As I was reading through the script in the bar of the Bridge House I found myself genuinely guffawing out loud. The humour hits you in the face in the first line and you’re off. Then what I loved was how the depth of the character and the show crept in amongst the humour.

    I contacted the writers saying that I’d love to programme the show at which point they admitted that they didn’t have any idea how to actually produce the show but had the finances in place, so we came to the agreement that we would act as producers for the show with their finances and I would direct it.

    The play is “told through the music of a classic album”; is there one album in play here, or is this a nice plot device just to draw us in?

    There is one specific album that The Man In The Shed wants to tell us ‘facts’ about. It’s one that I’m sure everyone will have heard of, even if they haven’t listened to it. Though it’s safe to say that his knowledge of this album may not be quite accurate, and his ‘facts’ may not be facts, so much as confused ramblings and ridiculous assumptions.

    And of course we do now have to ask, do you have a classic album of choice you would use to soundtrack your own life?

    It may be cliche, but I was introduced to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours as a child. My dad was a big fan and it was always on in the car. I know all the words to every song and once one song ends I could tell you what the next song is before it has even started.

    The play is about a man who finds himself out of touch with the modern world yet clearly feels he is in the right; can we assume our man is very anti-woke? Is the play mocking him or trying to sympathise with someone whose viewpoints are perhaps best left in the past?

    This is what so appealed to me about the play, The Man In The Shed definitely isn’t woke, but I also wouldn’t say he was anti-woke, he’s not your classic, gammony Pie*s Mo**an type who seems to want to rage against, and actively oppose anything or anyone that isn’t him, he’s more left behind. A man who has found himself out of touch with society and with his children, who wants to be able to understand, wants to connect to them and be able to talk to them but the era that he grew up in has left him ill equipped to do so. He’s emotionally inept and, in a way, insecure. The play shows us his yearning to do these things, but also why he falls back on the old ‘blokey’ tropes.

    With the show we’re neither mocking his outdated views, nor asking people to sympathise with them, we’re kind of lifting the curtain and taking a look at the man behind the views and seeing why people might behave in a certain way. We hope that the play will provoke discussion about the fact that ultimately we’re all shaped and formed into the people we are by the society and the world we grow up in.

    And as well as directing this play, you are AD of Bridge House Theatre – what took you there in 2021 then?

    Well I’ve lived in the area since 2013 and The Bridge House Theatre had always been on my radar. When trying to initiate some theatre in Crystal Palace Park back mid pandemic, I was in a Zoom meeting with Guy Retallack – the previous AD of The Bridge House Theatre – who revealed that he was no longer running the venue, so after a few conversations with Guy, he put me in touch with the management of the pub and, as I’d always wanted to run my own venue, I submitted a proposal to them of what I’d like to do and they liked it and the rest is history!

    And what is your vision for what you’d like the theatre to say with its scheduling?

    Our programme features shows from established small-scale companies as well as offering opportunities for emerging theatre-makers. We ensure that all the shows we present are entertaining as well as being what we term ‘socially conscious’ –  does the work say something about the world that we live in? It’s also important to us that all the shows offer opportunities to, and representation of, groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the theatre world. This includes but is not limited to: Working class artists, Artists from the Global Majority, Non binary or gender fluid artists, LGBTQ+ Artists.

    You were previously Associate Direction at The Hope Theatre, how different are the two venues?

    They’re very similar spaces in terms of the fact that they’re rooms above pubs, but that’s probably where the similarity ends. The Hope is a much more edgy space, the pub is more lively and, what with the musical history, has an almost raucous atmosphere. The Hope can also take a few more risks in their programming as they’re a much more established venue. The Bridge House is a very lovely, family friendly pub right on the edge of Crystal Palace Park with a much more chilled out atmosphere. As we’re not particularly well known as a venue yet and we’re still building a reputation we have to be quite canny in our programming in that we need to be able to balance out the edgier, less ‘commercial’ work with shows that have a slightly wider appeal.  We also have more scope for family friendly work and are able to supplement our theatre offerings with monthly comedy nights and spoken word events. Our space is also a little bit bigger than The Hope.

    We’re guilty of only having been to Bridge House once, way back in 2014 – it’s clearly not in the usual theatre heartlands such as The Hope was (no offence to Penge), does this make it more of a challenge on what you programme and drawing in an audience?

    How very dare you!? Penge is the centre of the theatrical universe! (Or at least it will be when I’m finished with it.) We’ve actually found that, unlike The Hope, we have quite a local audience around here. At The Hope we found that the audiences were primarily made up of friends and family of the companies, and people that were interested in the Off West End theatre scene and would travel to visit the venue specifically, but very few people that lived locally would visit the theatre regularly. We’re delighted that we’ve got a very supportive local community and we see the same faces returning to see shows again and again. We’re looking forward to the days that our local audiences are joined by those lovely fringe theatre supporters as they travel out to Penge. In the review of our last in-house production, Steve Coats-Denis said of us “If Under Electric Candlelight is the sublime level of drama we can expect under Artistic Director Luke Adamson, theatre lovers should be getting on that train to Penge!”

    Finally, what else do you have lined up for the coming season? What should we be trying to convince some of our reviewers along to check out?

    We have a rehearsed reading of new play Boys Will Be Boys and then a transfer of five star play A Final Act Of Friendship from The White Bear. Then in June we’re heading into a month of Edinburgh Festival previews and special events for the annual Penge Festival. Further details of our exciting Summer Season will be announced soon!

    Our thanks to Luke for finding time away from running Bridge House and rehearsing for the upcoming show to chat to us.

    The Man In The Shed plays between 10 and 14 May. Further information and bookings can be found here. More

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    Interview: Giggles and Sex, What More Is There?

    Hannah Baker on Banter Jar

    [embedded content]

    Here at ET we have all ages covered. And we admit, some of us older members are, occasionally, jealous of those youngsters in our midst who are just embarking on their journey into adulthood. So when we get invites to shows that tell us the show is “a one-woman play about growing up. About sex and giggles” our first thought is “damn these kids”. Then we read on and find “self-harm and busking… For falling in love. And for working out how to love that person when their demons keep telling you to f*** off. Why is it always the kindest people that’re the saddest?” and suddenly we remember being in your 20s isn’t always a bed of roses, it’s full of its own unique difficulties.

    So, having got over the fact Hannh Baker, is clearly one of those youngsters, it is also her show Banter Jar, promising all those things. It seemed like a good time to sit down with Hannah and find out about the play and remind ourselves that life can be tough whatever age you are. But that along the way, sex and giggles is what it is prehaps all about really.

    Your show is about growing up and all it entails; how much comes from personal experience then?

    When I began writing, it was all personal experience. But as the script developed names changed, characters merged, story lines developed and it morphed into the show I have now – a jumble of both experience and new writing.

    Clearly as well as containing plenty of the promised giggles, you tackle some serious topics as well in the play, what can you tell us about them?

    For me, Banter Jar is about a whole range of things mixed together. So there’s not one particular issue that it’s ‘about’. Having said that, I do touch on happiness and love, and finding a way through mental health issues. So if people are looking for a theme there’s certainly something they can latch on to! The mental health issues do bring a seriousness to the story, but they’re also normal, and that’s how they’re treated within the play. But the characters hopefully are not defined by their mental health.

    Are these themes ones you feel are common amongst 20-somethings? Or are you exploring the more serious elements of mental health?

    Again, it’s a mixture. Self-harm and depression are very common in my generation, and so it doesn’t feel such a big deal to talk about it. I also talk about psychosis (a rarer condition) and the responsibility and control (or lack thereof) of another person’s life  – not to say that’s totally uncommon amongst 20-somethings.

    The show includes music and you play the guitar, was music your entry into the theatre then? Have you done some busking as the show suggests?

    I have! Music has always been a huge part of my life. I grew up busking in Coventry town centre, outside Poundland, as I am doing in the play. I went to drama school to study an Actor Musicianship course, so yes music was in part my way into theatre.

    You’re playing at the Lion and Unicorn, what has the venue offer you in terms of support and guidance?

    David Brady, Artistic Director (and also from Coventry), has been a huge help! He expressed interest in my script when I was early days writing it, and has been incredibly encouraging and kind whilst bringing the show to the Lion and Unicorn.

    And after this run, is that the end of the road for Banter Jar, or is this just the beginning of its journey?

    These five days are the longest run I’ll have done of it. So I’m waiting to hear what people think! I certainly hope that this is just the beginning.

    Our thanks to Hannah for her time to chat to us. Banter Jar plays at Lion and Unicorn between 10 and 14 May. Further information and bookings can be found here. More

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    Interview: How To Fill A Space Like The Space

    Author: Everything Theatre

    in Features and Interviews, Podcasts, Runn Radio interview

    4 May 2022

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    Adam Hemming on running The Space Arts Centre

    This week‘s guest on our Runn Radio show was Adam Hemming, the Artistic Director of The Space Arts Centre. Adam has worked at the Space for 18 years, so has a strong record of supporting London’s fringe theatre scene. It’s a venue we love reviewing at, due to its range of shows and risk taking that can result in some amazing surprises in their shows.

    Adam hosts two of his own podcasts, which we can highly recommend. They are:

    Space Chats features interviews with shows that are performing at The Space. You can find the series on Spotify here.

    TV DNA is a podcast, as the title suggests, that talks about TV. You can find that on Spotify here. More

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    Interview: Spinning A Tune With James Broadbent

    James Broadbent on The Recollection of Tony Ward

    It can be the little things that grab our attention, making us eager to know more. In the case of The Recollection of Tony Ward it was simply the image of vinyl records, which along with the title, suggested that this was going to be a play about memories explored through a music collection. And that was enough to get the interest of one of our music obsessed team.

    So, we dropped the needle on our current favourite record (Fontains D.C.’s Skinty Fia just in case you were wondering), poured a couple of drinks and sat down with writer James Broadbent to find out more about the show that will play as part of May’s Peckham Fringe.

    The show follows a man who appears to be having a midlife crisis, divorced and forced to return to live with his mother – you’re clearly too young for this to be autobiographical, so what was the inspiration?

    Thanks for noting this is far from an autobiographical piece! It comes from a variety of places; the strongest of which being from when I worked in a record shop aged 17/18 – shout out to CrazyBeat Records in Upminster. I wasn’t writing at this point, and it was a simple Saturday job alongside plenty of my first experiences as a young adult.

    What struck me and inspired this piece I suppose were the customers themselves that came into the shop. How they found solace in a shop of used records and what was happening outside of the shop’s doors didn’t seem to matter. Most Saturdays were a blast and I think about them often but stepping outside I was always reminded of the strange expectation and traps of suburbia. That’s what this is all about really; traps and lessons.

    You’re bang on! Tony finds himself back at his mother’s house and while sitting alone he remembers that his record collection must be somewhere in the very house. It’s a little bit more freeform than: ‘This record reminds me of this’. Tony Ward, the protagonist, seems to be in the quietest place he’s been for a while, and this brings out an awful lot from within him.

    We’ve really tried to utilise the stage and lighting design in Tony’s journey through his youth. For a subject manner that can come across as self-pitying and defeatist it’s these memories that personally are my favourite part of the play – of the writing anyway- how Tony relishes in these moments of the past with his best friends and I really hope that the audience revels in them too.

    It’s also not all positive and yearning for the past either; Tony faces difficult memories within his marriage and experience as a father that Tal (The performer) is doing wonders with.

    So is music an important part of your life, is it an area you’d want to explore more in your writing?

    Music is an incredibly important part of my life. My older brother, Matthew, is a tremendous musician who has been writing and performing since I was around about ten. I remember my Dad bartering with bouncers at the Water Rats in Camden to let me in with him to watch because I was so underage. After this I’ve always surrounded myself with musicians as they’re always the funniest people. I’m happiest when I’m listening to new music, and I tend to write a lot more when I do too.

    This accompanied by my experience in CrazyBeat and core memories being formed at gigs and festivals with my closest friends. It’s something I love exploring in my writing too. One of my personal highlights from my previous show was seeing the audience bob and clap along to the dance routine performed at the end of the show. I want to reach that level of energy again and music is the only thing that really brings that side out of people.

    The play looks at identity and how we find our own; is this a theme you explore often, and how do you make it authentic when you aren’t anywhere near middle aged yet?

    I feel as though identity is something you are challenged with consistently in your adult life and the mistakes you make along the way. The play goes from Tony’s teenage years to the present day and there are plenty of mistakes in his lifetime. His biggest mistake for sure is the refusal to learn from any of them and that’s where the commentary on the past fifty years comes in – people believe they don’t have time for themselves because everything is moving so fast and that’s nobody’s fault, but I’m a strong believer we can always become better people. This theme is consistently challenged in my writing because I know that everybody struggles with the same big questions – ‘who am I and how do I fit into it all?’ and myself like plenty of others tend to avoid questions like these and put something on the TV for noise. 

    Making it authentic has been easier than I had envisioned. It’s not entirely naturalistic so that helps and working with an actor in Tal Profs who has been through similar life experiences to Tony has meant that he’s been able to bring an awful lot to the role. I’m nowhere near being middle-aged but the play isn’t about age really – but about proving who you are – even if that is just to yourself. Nothing more authentic than that.

    The show is part of Peckham Fringe, are such festivals a vital step in developing shows?

    Fringe festivals or shows off the beaten track of any form are the best ways to experience new art. Personally, I’ve no aspiration for anything to end up on the West End or even on screen and some people might disagree with this, but at this moment in time I think Fringe Festivals hold far more excitement than anything Between Charing Cross and Tottenham Court Road.

    Peckham Fringe is a wonderful festival, where I plan to see a dozen or so shows because you have people who, like ourselves, are working within difficult budget and time restraints but what is so clear to see is the love behind every show that is put on at these festivals.

    I think they help develop shows but perhaps in a different sense, you have companies that put themselves under enormous amounts of pressure to make something they never would have done if it wasn’t for the prospect of a show to fifty people at the end of it. The shows themselves take on new forms and cast and crew learn so much from these opportunities, so it’s great they exist and are popping up in new forms like Peckham Fringe.

    Your last show, Lovely Spread played at Camden Fringe, when you self-produced, was that a good learning curve for you?

    Such a learning curve. That was made with a very talented group of people who I can’t wait to work with again because we faced so many obstacles (covid relating and otherwise) and we overcame them together. Even six months after ‘Lovely Spread’ I know what I’d change and how I’d go about it and that’s not off the table now for another company or student production to take it and do it differently.

    I learned how important marketing is, how to make those who create and facilitate your show happy by having open lines of communication and finally I learned that my writing is good enough and trusting talented people is the key to success – so stop worrying about it all and have fun.

    What is it you hope audiences will walk away talking about when they see The Recollection of Tony Ward?

    I don’t know really. Theatrically I undeniably want people to walk away thinking that it was a step up in production value from Lovely Spread in terms of staging, lighting and sound design – they’ll see the choices we made, and they’ll have things to say on all that.

    Emotionally, it’s a strange bit of work that some people will resonate with, and some won’t. I suppose I want people to walk away from the show thinking about who they are and why that doesn’t feel enough. How being unspectacular can be the most wonderful thing if we learn to accept ourselves and learn from our mistakes.

    On reflection, I kind of don’t want anybody to talk about ‘The Recollection of Tony Ward’ but I’d like to think it would stay with them when they have a moment alone.

    And it’s on for just one day, with two performances, that clearly isn’t going to be all, have you got plans in place for where the show goes next then?

    Thanks for your optimism! We have a few festival slots booked in for later in the summer which I’m very excited about but they’ve yet to be announced – but keep an eye out. Hopefully that time round we’ll have an entirely different team because it will take the show in a new direction and grow in ways I could never even foresee.

    Thanks to James for taking time out to chat to us. The Recollection Of Tony Ward plays at Theatre Peckham on 8 May, with performances at 2.30 and 8.00. Further information and tickets can be found here. More

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    in Theater

    Interview: Welcome To The Land of OSO

    Author: Everything Theatre

    in Features and Interviews, Podcasts, Runn Radio interview

    28 April 2022

    86 Views

    Ian McFarlane on new show Forever Oz

    We met Ian McFarlane back in 2020 when we spoke to him about Revellers Society. He is now back with Forever Oz, which, as the title suggests, is based on L. Frank Baum’s series of books from which The Wizard Of Oz came. But rest assured, this is not a new stage adaptation of the film we all know and love, but instead is based on the second and third books in the series, along with some adaptations by Ian himself.

    Ian’s love of not just the Oz books, but Peter Pan are clear to hear as he tells us about the show and why his theatre company is called Big Adventure Productions. Plus we discuss why he the show will be playing at Barnes OSO Arts Centre before hopefully a tour.

    Forever Oz plays at OSO Arts Centre 19 – 22 May. Further information and bookings here. More