Reviews: Edinburgh Fringe Roundup

This year’s Edinburgh Fringe, with just under a week still to run, has been its usual melding of international artists, fledgling companies and students vying for audience to see their offerings. With comedians dominating the program you would be excused in thinking that theatre would be scarce and hard to find between the great wealth of stand-ups and sketch troupes. However, the wide range of shows on offer is as varied as ever with many of the performances demonstrating some real quality. Here I’m going to look at the best ones I saw over my two weeks and those which I think anyone would enjoy if they have the chance.

A favourite show of mine was Memoirs of a Biscuit Tin by Derby’s Maison Foo. Telling the story of a house, in this case literally – the protagonists the wall, floor and chimney, searching for its missing elderly tenant, Mrs Benjamin. The simple but wonderfully vivid imagery used in the performance told the tale in a smart and inviting way; you truly believed a hat was Mrs Benjamin’s beloved or that a milk bottle was a randy milkman. It was both fragile and robust with an authentic voice behind it; a beam erupted across my face when Mrs Benjamin’s neighbour referred to her as ‘Duck’. Whilst the structure wasn’t perfect, any tweaking would run the risk of disrupting the effusive qualities of this great piece of theatre which leaves you unsure whether to laugh or cry.

Lockerbie: Unfinished Business is verbatim theatre at its most expository; taken from the unpublished accounts of Dr Jim Swire whose daughter Flora was murdered on Pan Am 103 with writer-performer David Benson playing Swire himself. It is a hard-hitting exploration of both the bombing and its effect on those bereaved where the audience, presented with Swire’s lecture on his experiences after the tragedy and his continued pursuit of justice, are delivered some truly compelling theatre. Benson’s Swire is engaging and restrained in his delivery of the cold facts but the cracks in the defences are evident, the grief seeps through them – the characterisation is superb. Whilst many know the headlines of this as yet unresolved tragedy, Benson and Swire’s collaborative effort allows its audience to see the suffering and unfamiliar truths behind the newsprint.

Lidless, by American playwright Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, traps its audience inside a claustrophobic box from which they cannot escape the unfolding drama. This box is both literal and metaphorical, the show performed inside a small white structure on the venue’s stage. The starkness of the staging complements the subject matter; Alice is a former Army Interrogator whose pill induced amnesia has caused her to forget the horrors of what she did at Guantanamo Bay 15 years ago, until the arrival of Bashir, a former detainee. Referred to almost flippantly at times as ‘Gitmo’, the modern resonances of Guantanamo haunt the piece and give it an unnervingly eerie feel. It is expertly written with blistering dialogue, not least that between Alice and Bashir in the former’s florist shop, her new employment after demobbing, and powerfully acted, Greer Dale-Foulkes as Alice’s daughter Rhiannon is outstanding. It was best piece of writing I saw all festival.

The piece that has fast become the topic of discussion in all the coffee shops frequented by fringe-goers is Tim Crouch’s The Author, an acerbic look at the audience within the context and confines of the theatre. Originally staged at the Royal Court last year, those watching are presented with just the audience and sit through excruciating revelations from the ‘performers’ amongst them, ‘audience members’ walk out – some of these are staged and scripted – and as a participant observer are forced into questioning their own role and acceptance of what goes on around them. Is it ok to do this because it’s in a theatre? Whilst The Author goes out of its way to be offensive and assault its watcher, you can’t help but keep thinking about it days after seeing it.

Bristol based writer-performer Tom Wainwright’s show Pedestrian is a more introverted affair, but nonetheless maps onto us all. In the piece Wainwright appears to host a one man therapy session with his goldfish. The fish in question is also deeply rooted in his subconscious as, in his dreams, it is chasing him from a closed branch of Woollies down the pedestrianised high-street whilst peering at him through its beady, monocled eye and gulping down a soya latte. It comes to symbolise much of what Wainwright appears to dislike about the world, this is his personal battle against modern commercialism, people with clipboards and the moral high ground – he calls them ‘chuggers’, charity muggers – and Tesco Metros. It is disaffection from modern society brilliantly and absurdly realised with stunning backdrop projected visuals.

The youthful exuberance of Little Bulb’s Operation Greenfield was a refreshing change from the more than unusually dark offerings that frequent the fringe. Following the development of a band of youngsters preparing for the Stokley Annual Talent Competition from their frequent meetings at the local Christian Club or burgeoning love affairs it is a joy to watch from start to finish. The wonderfully stilted performances of the four talented multi-instrumentalist actor-musicians coupled with the sun-kissed aesthetic of a Wes Anderson movie make for a show which was either smooth or staccato in all the right places and for all the right reasons. Multi-layered reminisces including summer fruits squash, a Bowie inspired dream sequence, and the song the band enters into the competition about Zechariah’s vision of Gabriel in the Temple loads the piece with fun and memories of a time when for all of us that kind of life would have been ideal.

Another show looking at freshness of youth is RashDash’s Another Someone; a vibrant cocktail of music, song and dance which is wonderfully supplemented by a lilting, if a little knowingly kooky, script. Looking at what it is to innocently dream and to want to be someone, the show kaleidoscopes into an infectiously enthusiastic performance which the audience picks up on instantly. While the narrative meanders, the talented performers are top notch and entertain with every second they are on stage – even when not involved in the action. Wildly energetic and with some star turns too.

The Wake, which along with Another Someone makes up The Bedlam’s late evening programming block, is another top show. This absurd and meta-theatrical farce becomes one man’s lesson on life, love and legacy as he comes to terms with the death of his father and separation from his wife. There are great plot turns in the narrative, which is a triumph for a play which doesn’t have much of a plot – it instead buoyed along by sharp performances and a sparklingly witty script, and with the unseen arriving at every turn this is a story which will keep you beaming throughout.You can do far worse this year than stay at the Bedlam of an evening for reasonably priced drinks and two top shows.

Bryony Kimmings’ self-referential Sex Idiot explores the performer’s journey post-diagnosis of what a she calls a ‘very common sexual disease’ via a re-working of Dylan tunes, destruction of floral arrangements and some very intimate audience participation. As she tracks lost loves and seemingly gets nowhere, the show fast becoming a 21^st century female High Fidelity with Chlamydia, the vestiges of the lovers become discarded into an ornate dentist’s spittoon. Whilst Sex Idiot doesn’t have the overt intellectual feel of more conceptually heavy works of performance art, it is fantastically good fun and far more accessible than what can be seen as its highbrow contemporaries. Kimmings has made a show which is highly personal and her final act of ‘bathing’ – not wanting to give too much away – feels truly redemptive.

Quirky to the point of estranging when you first start watching it, Made in China’s Stationary Excess is a slow burning treat which cannot fail but make you smile at 11.15 in the morning. Relating tales of rural America whist maniacally cycling on her exercise bike, enacting increasingly messy acts of preening performer Jessica Latowicki wins over the audience with this bizarre concoction with aplomb. Essentially looking at what we try to do to ourselves in pursuit of looking good, a goal so horribly changeable and subjective its like trying to get somewhere on an exercise bike, that when that penny drops and the show comes into focus, its metaphor is magnificent. Soundtracked almost exclusively by a dull, pinging bell and the Righteous Brothers’ You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling, the show is fun, bubbly – quite literally – and yearns for the audience to get the joke; when you do, it’s a hoot.

Plasticine Men’s Keepers is a celebration of stage minimalism in which the two talented performers tell the tale of Thomas and Thomas, the keepers of the Smalls lighthouse of the Mubles coast in South Wales - with great accents - two hundred years ago. It is a brilliantly choreographed and sweetly comic piece with every wipe of the lighthouse’s glass or splash of swirling sea foam is enacted with precision. The performers’ stage-craft is clever and using only a ladder or mess tin they create truly evocative piece of theatre that is executed with really pathos and panache, creating a lasting haunting atmosphere which remains for days after the watching.

In terms of invention within a style of theatre Others by Paper Birds is the most innovative take on verbatim theatre seen at the Fringe. Focusing upon women whom they see as their opposite these three performers engage them in conversation through letters and emails. An Iranian theatre maker, a prisoner and Heather Mills are questioned and their responses form the basis of the show. What happens next is most interesting, the performers now explore what we assume about these women, how they are perceived or maligned, what we almost parasitically want to know about them. Our assumptions go through the same process of questioning and response. It is a truly inventive show which tenderly examines our similarities with those believed to be unknown to us in a thoroughly unassuming way. With the aid of great live sound and clever interaction with their set, Others is touchingly truthful and causes you to re-examine what we assume about everyone we meet.

Squeezed into the underbelly of Milne’s Bar, just off Edinburgh’s main Prince’s Street drag, Dave sits you down and, beer in hand, recounts why he feels he cannot lie. The play, Honest by Northampton's D C Moore, follows Dave as he recounts his life in a less than glamorous department of the civil service and his relationship with his nephew. It is an intimately accurate portrayal of Dave's banality in which the colourful anecdotal episodes he tangentially wanders into create a world where his London comes vividly to life. Whilst, like Dave’s story, the plot wanders on the journey from night-out to his brother’s house, Moore’s writing is constant in its clever usage and style. Trystan Gravelle gives a sparkling performance and, in the close confines of Milne’s, engages every single audience member with his intense glare or softening gaze. It is this intimacy that makes Honest such a great experience, it is a show where those watching see a very talented actor up close and tell a really brilliantly written, comic and brutally truthful story.

Idle Motion, a young company from Oxford, bring their show The Vanishing Horizon to the fringe with more suitcases than you would normally expect for a cast of their size. However, these cases are the set for this curious and whimsical show which cleverly charts the history of pioneering female aviators in 1920s and 30s through the recording of a radio documentary and woman tracing her absentee and recently deceased grandmother. It is the wonderful stage-craft with the cases, of which there are roughly fifty, that remains after leaving the theatre but this is not to say the performance is lacking. The script is considered and carefully informs the audience without both showing and telling whilst the physicality inventively creates worlds and environments simply with minimal fuss or pause. It is a show which, off a small budget, creates something very special.

This year's Fringe has had many other great shows that I missed but these were the few that stood out to me. Other Fringe favourites like The Edinburgh Mosque offering affordable and delicious curry every lunchtime with a donations bucket for the Pakistan floods, Black Medicine Coffee Shop on Nicholson Street or the garish 'enjoyment' of a night in Frankensteins are all musts but it was the theatre which really made these two weeks. So, if heading northward (or south if you live in Orkney), see as much as you can and try following @fringebiscuit on Twitter for up-to-date news and reviews from the festival.

You never know you might enjoy your self!

Image courtesy of IdeasTap.

Review: Summer Readings Series, Nottingham Playhouse

Nottingham Playhouse’s summer readings series has proven a massive hit with the play going public. Opening with the sell out UK premier of Laura Forti’s The Clouds Go Back Home and culminating in Stasiland, directed by Playhouse Artistic Director Giles Croft, four days later, excited and interested audiences have flocked to see and hear new work at an early stage.

The Clouds Go Back Home tells the story of an Italian student and the Albanian migrant sex worker she befriends one university summer whilst cleaning flats in Florence. The play looks at both the root and consequences of girls coming to the bright Western lights with stark and clinical results. Expertly directed by Susannah Tresilian it shows why the piece has such wide acclaim in Europe and hopefully will achieve the same here.

The next event, Come To Where I’m From, curated by Paines Plough’s new artistic team James Grieve & George Perrin - founders of the award winning Nabokov Theatre Company – was of a different style but packed no less punch. With 5 young regional playwrights - James Graham, Leah Chillery, Laura Lomas, Mufaro Makubika & Beth Steel - performing and premiering their work this was certainly a night for firsts. For Mufaro it was his first public airing of any of his writing whilst others, most notably Laura Lomas, were Playhouse veterans. All the pieces went down a storm in a packed Playroom which had to have more chairs added to accommodate those eager to hear these new voices.

The final offering in this series was Stasiland adapted by Nick Drake from Anna Funder’s book of the same name. The play looks closely at stories from either side of the wall in the late ‘90s when the Stasi’s brutal tactics and coercive methods were coming to light. It is a compelling if gruelling account and whilst it certainly had great moments of pathos and drama, there is work still to be done.

However, to rate the works presented in their current form in terms of stars would be missing the point, these are developing ideas, whilst the plays, playwrights, performers and the relationship established with an audience were a triumph in showing new work and benefitting all involved. The great hope is that a similar summer event will be held next year and, I’m sure, all that attended this look forward to Michael Pinchbeck’s reading of The Ashes in the autumn.

Image courtesy of Drew Baumhol

Review: The Falling Sky, Aslockton Village

Brendan Murray’s The Falling Sky, in its latest staging by New Perspectives Theatre Company, is a piece of the theatre which really does become part of the community. With the audience led through the streets and bridleways of a rural village, in this case Aslockton in Nottinghamshire, by map and an iPod telling the story, a marriage of radio play and evocative setting combine to make something very special.

The play looks at a year in the life of a rural community with arrival of a high-flying Caroline, a London journalist, making the village home and how her interaction in village affairs affects the delicate balance. Whilst set here Murray’s piece examines, in the broadest sense, the state of the nation and talks widely about issues which do not only affect those living in the green belt: Organic versus intensive spray farming, mental health issues, Afghanistan and the hunting ban all get an airing but in a truly intergenerational way.

The recording has a top cast, including Stephanie Cole and Julian Glover, and the calibre of the actors is instrumental to its success. Few criticisms can be levelled however John – who’s character seems as tied to the land of the village as the landmarks we see when on our walk – is estranged from the rural English setting through his Irish accent and the opening of the piece was too monologue heavy without properly setting up characters.

This said The Falling Sky is a wonderful two hours spent walking and taking in a community. The direction on the part of Daniel Buckroyd at New Perspectives in the logistics and planning of the walk is impeccable, the serendipitous encounters on this however are entirely the audience’s own making this experience one which is highly personal, brilliantly uplifting and startlingly real.


The Falling Sky: ****


The Falling Sky continues in Glentworth, Lincolnshire; Wadenhoe, Cambridgeshire and Tideswell, Derbyshire. See www.newperspectives.co.uk for details.

Image courtesy of New Perspectives Theatre Company

Interview with Giles Croft, Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse

Giles Croft is the Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse; we met up with him for a chat about what new writing means for him, how his role has allowed the Playhouse to find and foster emerging talent and what the future holds for new playwrights in the region.

Weasel under the Cocktail Cabinet: What, for you, is the importance of developing local theatre writing talent?

Giles Croft: I am a firm believer in theatres making connections with the community in which they are based and speaking directly to their audience in work relevant to them and their lives. Local writers are central to this and to the life of an arts organisation like ours, I would hope that people who come to Nottingham Playhouse see and appreciate this. There are many other organisations serving and supporting new playwriting regionally such as the Lakeside Arts Centre, New Perspectives and Theatre Writing Partnership, and their work, in tandem with us, is creating brilliant new drama. The projects we and others have embarked upon with local talent have been very fruitful and the graduates of which have proven there are careers and futures to be made from their talents. In short, it’s a great time to be an artist in the East Midlands.

Weasel: What do you see as Nottingham Playhouse’s role within this?

GC: We have to be able to provide opportunities for new writers to have their work produced. It is great for writers to develop their plays with local theatres and agencies through readings and workshops but this ultimately lacks a full audience response. We have worked closely with the other organisations in the region and fostered the work of many writers: Michael Pinchbeck, Andy Barrett, Amanda Whittington, Leah Chillery, Nick Wood, Stephen Lowe, Laura Lomas and, in the last season, Michael Eaton and Michelle Vacciana. Some of these writers have been more established than others and maybe in different fields but I believe they will all say the same thing, when writing for performance you gain most through seeing the work on stage with actors and an audience. We see this as part of our contribution to our commitment to new work.

With the unsure financial situation all arts organisations have found themselves in at the moment our ability to produce may become more limited but we are exploring different ways to have new work performed in the region. We have plenty of projects in the pipeline, many emerging artists already working with us and our partner organisations and we will find clever way to invest in local writing talent over the next few years.

Weasel: What have been the real success stories and which new written shows have you been most proud off?

GC: I believe that the real success stories are not actually the plays themselves. This is not to say that the plays have not been good, they have been excellent, but what I am most proud of is our steadfastness to making a commitment to new writing, mounting these shows and now having a group of writers who are proud to say that they have had their work produced by Nottingham Playhouse.

Shows which are personal highlights for me have been recently directing Families of Lockerbie by Michael Eaton. Whilst the play was seen as an odd hybrid between verbatim, documentary theatre and the individual tragedies of the characters Michael created, I knew that the intent and the delivery were absolutely right. It also further demonstrated our continued commitment to producing innovative, different and challenging work. Last year’s Garage Band is another show I enjoyed. It was Andy Barrett’s second show with us and showed a clear development in his craft as a writer, highlighting the importance of having work performed. The show was also bloody good fun; it was a really enjoyable place to be with the audience dancing and cheering every night. Finally, Laura Lomas’ The Island which I see as a perfect example of Nottingham Playhouse’s ability to sustain a working relationship with an emerging writer and help them towards a successful career. Laura, after doing the show with us, has now gone on to work with New Perspectives and the National Youth Theatre whilst we have continued to stay in contact. A possible commission in the future? I hope so.

Weasel: What are in Nottingham Playhouse’s plans for new writing and new playwrights in the future?

GC: We have five writers under commission currently: Amanda Whittington, Andy Barrett, Michelle Vacciana and Micheals Pinchbeck and Eaton. Some of these writers are moving in new directions such as Andy who is adapting an Ibsen piece for the ETC conference here at Nottingham Playhouse in May 2011 whilst Michelle is doing further development on Fakebook. We have our Summer Readings events where we will hear the work of some very different playwrights over the course of a week, this due to be repeated in the autumn, plus we are delivering this year’s Peter Wolff supports The Whiting Award in association with Theatre Writing Partnership.

When you look at it a lot of what we are going to produce, whilst taking a small step back, shows that in spite of the financial climate there is a real push here to keep producing and investing in new theatre writing talent throughout this period and to encourage the relationship we have with the writers we already work with, those we are interested in and those we are yet to encounter. It is important to acknowledge the work of people like Gavin Stride, who when I arrived was the Artistic Director of New Perspectives, it was his energy and drive which brought much of this early progress together. Since then Ester Richardson, Matt Aston, Daniel Buckroyd and Kate Chapman, at the helm of the current incarnation of TWP, have continued to develop great work and this vibrant new writing community we are very proud to have in the East Midlands.


Giles Croft directs a script-in-hand performance of Stasiland, adapted by Nick Drake from the book by Anna Funder, as part of the Nottingham Playhouse Summer Readings season on Saturday 24th July at 7pm. Tickets are free but must be booked in advance by calling Box Office on 0115 941 9419.

For more details see www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

Interview originally carried out for Theatre Writing Partnership in association with Nottingham Playhouse.
Image courtesy of Robert Day.

Review: Quartet, Nottingham Theatre Royal

Ronald Harwood, when asked about his inspiration for Quartet, recalls a scribbled note which grew into a more fully formed piece: “home for old opera singers, end with the Quartet from Rigoletto.” It is these old opera singers which he presents his audience with, warts and all, and, in a business dominated by young up-and-comings, it is a pleasure to see some seasoned pros shine in a play tailored to them.

Though none of the cast are still waiting to receive their bus pass they perform with an energy that belies their years. Gwen Taylor’s Cissy is a constant bustling presence, welcoming back absent friends from imagined Indian sojourns or chasing the handsome gardener. Equally, Michael Jayston’s clean cut Reggie, whose diatribe on the shortcomings of apricot jam when compared to lime marmalade is very neatly observed, impresses in his reserved characterisation. However, the undoubted star turn comes from Timothy West with his Wilfred Bond, a gruff and ribald baritone, constantly humming, coughing or chuckling at a smutty wisecrack; many directed toward the blissfully unaware Cissy. The three’s tranquil world is disrupted by the arrival of Reggie’s ex-wife and former operatic superstar Jean, played here with icy certainty by Susannah York, and her refusal to join them in the singing of Rigoletto for their gala performance.

Harwood creates a world retirement homeliness where the audience truly believes that greying artistes can come for their twilight years; there is in fact a real comparison: Brinsworth House, a home in Twickenham for members of the entertainment community. The play is clever too in its construction with the action opening on the current ‘quartet’ a voice short and awaiting their fourth; in fact, more sombrely, they are all waiting in a literal sense. Yet in spite of this the play’s possibilities never truly deliver, the relationships are touched upon only fleetingly with too much of the stage action spent on the repetition of gags which tire quickly. In the quartet’s triumphant ‘return to youth,’ recorded heckles from the audience detract from a moment which should be handled in a more sensitive, touching way and with many questions left unanswered the play ends far too abruptly. In all, it is a show lacking the sheer entertainment of the markedly similar Forever Young, staged earlier this year at Nottingham Playhouse. Whilst Quartet did have moments of real tenderness and a cast which made light of what the script might have lacked, the high notes of their swansong were never quite hit.

Quartet: ***
Image courtesy of The Ambassador Theatre Group.

Interview with Laurie Sansom, Artistic Director of Northampton Royal & Derngate

Regional new writing is currently taking centre stage at Royal & Derngate with their ‘celebration of Northampton’, the HOMETOWN festival, showcasing the best artistic talent the town has to offer. Northampton audiences will be treated to 10 vibrant and exciting shows, each rooted in local issues, being performed over the project’s two month run. The theatre’s Artistic Director Laurie Sansom is rightly very proud of the project which has grown from its initial premise to become one of the biggest new writing projects in the East Midlands and, certainly, the largest concerning issues directly relevant to those living in the region.

Laurie and I discuss the festival, those involved and how new writing will be encouraged after HOMETOWN comes to an end. Laurie, who is instantly engaging and enthusiastic, is quick to acknowledge the input of the writers involved in the project, especially returning local favourite D C Moore who wrote the festival’s centrepiece Town, reviewed in an earlier post. The play, originally conceived to address Northampton’s unenviable moniker of The Binge Drinking Capital of England, soon became the spine of the festival which has widened its scope now to look at what modern Northampton is and who Northamptoners are. Around this central core in the program, Laurie and his team have managed to craft an admirable festival rich with local talent in all its aspects and chock full of new work from regional writers or those with long standing relationships with the Royal & Derngate.

Phil Porter’s From Out of This World considers an alien invasion of the town; then Northampton can either be squashed to become a two-dimensional play-world in Daniel Jameson’s Flathampton or transported into the comfort of your own living room, literally, in Chris Goode’s Henry and Elizabeth, a play delivered direct to your door. There is also Jo Blake, the theatre’s resident storyteller, giving a guided walking tour of the town and, most importantly to Laurie in terms of new writing development, New Town.

New Town is a platform event allowing new local playwrights still learning their craft to have their work performed by the theatre’s youth company of which many of the writers are graduates. Other pieces have been brought in from elsewhere but have that feel of an authentic local voice talking about contemporary issues. The award winning Scots company Grid Iron perform their Decky Does a Bronco in a local park whilst Theatre IS bring Epiphany to the festival which looks at how local urban culture like MC-ing, street dance and graffiti art can translate into a theatre space. With the popularity of groups such as Britain’s Got Talent’s Diversity, Epiphany is both a piece of theatre well aware of the current climate in performance and prudent bit of programming, added to which the company have been running a series of successful workshops with young people within the town.

This interest in urban arts is something which Royal & Derngate are going to be continuing with their new venue, The Theatre at Corby Cube. Working on a remit of making participatory and locally orientated live arts, the Corby venture will be an embarkation into new territory for the area with the venue being, according to Laurie, the first fully focussed artistic performance project for the community bringing together music, visual arts and urban culture.

Corby is not the Royal & Derngate’s only new creative venture in the near future. Laurie is always on the lookout for new writers and very keen to continue working with both D C Moore, he is secretive about the project but hopes there will be a new play for the 2011-12 season, and the writers with work involved in the New Town event. He cites New Town and the work which Theatre Writing Partnership is doing local writers in Northampton, such as Subika Anwar – one of our Young Writers who has an extract in New Town, as key to the development on talent in region. For Laurie TWP’s projects which have a focused outcome like Momentum provide grassroots support, drive and a goal for young and new writers to work toward which may not be available in their local, regional theatres. He also discusses Tommy Murphy. Although not local, Murphy hailing from New South Wales, Australia, he is an exciting new playwright whose work fits into what Royal & Derngate are looking to do next.

Laurie goes into this further stating that core to the theatre’s ideas of working with developing theatre makers, including writers whilst also talking more broadly, is finding an artist with whom a collaboration with Royal & Derngate would, beneficially for both parties, create interesting work. This is often a slow-burning partnership but will rarely give poor returns and is some thing Laurie himself has been on the flip-side of. His recent success in the staging of two lesser-known plays by Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill, respectively Spring Storm and Beyond the Horizon, has been a project he had been trying to get off the ground for over 10 years. With other examples of these long developing projects becoming seemingly more common, Tom Morris’ Juliet and her Romeo springs instantly to mind, I ask Laurie about how these things can come about. He shoots me a characteristic smile, ‘you have to be a Katie Mitchell,’ he replies with his smile widening ‘or become the Artistic Director of your own theatre.’

HOMETOWN continues throughout July with Flathampton, Henry and Elizabeth, and youth theatre productions of Our Town by Thornton Wilder and Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle. The New Town platforms continue also with performances on 8th and 15th July at 19:30.

For more details see www.royalandderngate.co.uk

Interview originally carried out for Theatre Writing Partnership in association with Northampton Royal & Derngate.
Image courtesy of Robert Day.