A far cry from the usual hushed theatre experience – but Tom Fletcher, one of the UK’s bestselling authors and chart-topper with pop-rock band McFly, is not your usual writer. As his new play, There’s A Monster in Your Show leaps from page – in the beloved ‘Who’s in Your Book?’ series – onto musical stage, he’s adamant he wants a high-energy, 50-minute play to cement a love of theatre in pre-school children’s hearts. 

“I want kids to feel this is a show that they are a part of, not just coming to watch,” Fletcher says. “This isn’t a ‘sit down and be quiet!’ kind of show. There’s a lot of mischief in the book, and the show is not to go according to plan either! Certain monsters will require the audience’s help getting the show back on track. This might be some children’s first trip to the theatre, and I want no other theatrical experience to ever live up to it!”

The musical play sees Little Monster joined by his friends Dragon, Alien and Unicorn, learning about the joy of books and friendship – and the power of a great story. The production comes from the makers of hits including Twirlywoos Live, Sarah & Duck and The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show – with many of the brilliantly catchy songs in the show composed by Fletcher too. 

Tom first found fame with McFly’s hit 5 Colours in Her Hair in 2004; his bestselling books, meanwhile, have been translated into forty languages. So fans might be surprised to learn that There’s a Monster in Your Book, the inspiration for his new play, was actually the first book Fletcher ever wrote. “I sketched out a version of it years ago, and then made it into an interactive book which I gave to my bandmates,” he remembers. “I wish I’d filmed their reaction, because as I watched them say, ‘ooh look there’s a monster!’ and then shake the book and turn it over to find him, they all cracked up laughing. 

“I figured that my 20-something bandmates had the same sense of humour as three-year-olds, so it was probably going to work!”

The book idea sat on Fletcher’s shelf for a while – and now he’s thrilled to see his words come to life again in theatres. “I still remember going to see Sooty and Button Moon when I was little and often went to my local community theatres. Then I went to see Jason Donovan in Joseph [and the Technicolour Dreamcoat] when I was a bit older, and it changed my life. I decided then and there that I was going to be on stage doing what the children in Joseph were doing – and within a few years I was playing Oliver! on that stage in the Palladium. Theatre trips definitely set me off on the course of my life.”

Directing the action in There’s a Monster in Your Show is Miranda Larson. Writer of TV hits including Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder, and Thomas the Tank Engine, she has also adapted Fireman Sam and the YouTube phenomena Little Baby Bum for stage, as well as Fletcher’s previous book-turned-play hit, The Christmasaurus. “The Who’s in Your Book series is so mischievous and cheeky, with a huge sense of humour, and we’ve brought that to the stage,” she explains. “There’s a fun chaos to it all, slapstick humour, and the puppets have such a wow factor.”

Parents who struggle to keep their children sitting down for a single meal might worry how a pre-schooler will stay captivated for a play lasting almost an hour – but Larson, like Fletcher, is very relaxed: “the show is so engaging, with lots of interactive moments, songs to lift everyone up – plus the monster story just brings out giggles – the children will be laughing in the aisles.”

The theatre, both Larson and Fletcher believe, has never been more important for young children, with creativity being squeezed out of curricula. “There seems to be way more pressure on children these days, even really young kids are so much more aware of stresses than when I was a child,” Larson adds. “The great thing about theatre is they just get lost in this magical moment, the stage is a bubble where the audience of every age can escape their worries and have fun and smile.”

Fletcher reveals that his packed schedule saw him record demos of some of There’s a Monster in Your Show’s songs in the back of a car during a six-hour drive from Leeds to Margate during McFly’s UK tour. He’s famously a hands-on dad to his three kids with wife Giovanna Fletcher, as well as having achieved 10 UK number-one singles with McFly, written scores of books and he often pops up on TV, currently sharing a chair with his bandmate Dannny Jones as a judge on The Voice – how does he do it all? 

“It’s full on,” he grins. “The second they are in bed I’ll be in my studio writing until I fall asleep at my keyboard. But I feel so lucky to be able to do it all – if that means I sacrifice sleep and have bad blood pressure and feel slightly stressed then I’ll just eat lots of broccoli and hope for the best! Monster is an amazing show, I just can’t wait for everyone to see it.”

There’s A Monster in Your Show is currently on a UK Tour coming to Lowry, Salford from 27 May to 1 June 2025.

The post “I want no other theatrical experience to ever live up to it!” – Tom Fletcher appeared first on Quays Life.

“Kevin Fearon at the Liverpool Royal Court Theatre used to ask me every year,” recalls the Liverpudlian playwright, laughing. “And I’d always say, ‘I can’t do it.’”

Broadcast on the BBC, Blackstuff  became an instant classic: the story of desperate, unemployed Liverpudlian tarmac-layers seemed to speak for a nation where 3 million were jobless. It felt both urgent and timeless, its vivid, witty characters surely perfect for the stage. But Bleasdale couldn’t see a way to wrangle five episodes of screen drama into a tight-knit stage play – until 2018. That’s when director Kate Wasserberg had the super-smart idea of pairing Bleasdale with James Graham, author of television drama Sherwood and multiple award-winning political stage plays. 

All three met in a Chinese restaurant in Liverpool. “Kate introduced us and then I think she went to the bathroom for a deliberately long amount of time so we could chat on our own . . .” says Graham, with a wry smile. 

It worked. He and Bleasdale instantly hit it off. Talking to them now, the affinity is palpable – as is the mutual affection and respect. (Graham says Sherwood was hugely influenced by Bleasdale’s work). The result is a cracking, very funny two-hour stage play that keeps all the wit, honesty and pathos of the original, but reshapes it for stage. 

“I genuinely think of Alan as the Scouse Arthur Miller,” says Graham. “I think of these characters as having a scale to Arthur Miller’s Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. And coming from a similar background to Alan [Graham grew up in a mining community in Nottinghamshire], it’s very important to me that these working-class men and women are eloquent, that they observe the world and express it with wit and pain and beauty and poetry”. 

Bleasdale says that Graham was able to bring an outsider’s eye to the original and see a way of refocusing it for stage. At the heart is Yosser, who’s already lost his job and his wife and is terrified of losing his kids. He has some of the drama’s funniest lines, but his spiral towards breakdown is also desperately moving. For Bleasdale, Yosser was critical. “He had to take the show and carry it on his back. But, for me, the people he was carrying on his back were equally important.” 

“Everyone remembers Yosser Hughes,” agrees Graham. “And why wouldn’t you? He’s one of the most iconic characters on British television in the 20^th century. But we both understood that we need Chrissie’s story too. So onstage he actually gets offered a job that he just can’t bear to take because he thinks it’s a betrayal of his values. 

“The fight for Chrissie’s soul becomes almost like the fight for Liverpool’s soul and the fight for Britain’s soul. Do you go for your individualistic needs and wants – understandably in difficult times – or do you try to stay true to your values?”

Many people remember Blackstuff as a scathing critique of Thatcherism. In fact, Bleasdale started writing it in the 1970s: he could see the way the wind was blowing. By the time it was broadcast, he’d been proved right. 

“If you walked the streets of Liverpool, you knew what was going to happen,” he says. “And I think if it had gone out in 1977 or 1978 it would not have had the impact that it did in 1982 when there were millions of people all over the country in a terrible state.”

Forty years on, it shouldn’t feel relevant. But while some things have changed, what’s shocking is how true it feels. The play remains very funny, but it still hits home too for a society where people struggle with economic hardship, crumbling public services, precarious employment and the scourge of in-work poverty. 

Some specifics may have changed then, but the human cost has not. For Graham, that’s what makes the play so powerful for today: it doesn’t preach politics, it just draws a group of ordinary people, who are articulate, funny and real, and shows the impact of not feeling valued. He points to Dixie, working as a security guard at the docks. 

“I think what Dixie represents is what happens to the dignity of men when their pride is taken away from them,” he says. “In the communities we grew up in we were told that work defines you. And if the system demands that of you, but then the same system won’t allow you to work, what does that do to your dignity? What does that do to your sense of identity? It breaks my heart to watch Dixie’s decline”. 

The play has now been shown in the West End and at the National Theatre. But for both Bleasdale and Graham, it really matters that it is seen around in cities and towns all around the country. In every place, it will feel slightly different. That, says Graham, is one of the key differences between watching it onscreen and onstage.  

“You’re surrounded by a 1,000 people from your own community,” he says. “So you’re laughing together. And this show is all about community.”

The post Alan Bleasdale and James Graham on bringing Boys from the Blackstuff to the stage appeared first on Quays Life.

Can you tell us about your new show, ‘Toxic’?

Nathaniel: “It is a semi autobiographical show about two queer people in their early 30s who meet and fall in love and the polite version is they mess it up but the non-polite version is they f**k it up.

“After my ‘First Time’ show I had come out about my HIV experience quite spectacularly and I had such a great response with standing ovations. However, my personal life was not….my career life was on a high and my personal life was the complete opposite.

“I was stuck at the end of a very toxic and at the time abusive relationship and after I left that relationship I wanted to delve more into that setback and the fact it was all a lie. The ‘First Time’ was all true but obviously when you write a story you crash when it ends. But that wasn’t the end of that story, so I wanted to delve back into it and explore what had happened in my own life. I started to speak to other people and do creative workshops with other queer people and I soon found out that there were common themes and most of us had found that we were carrying extra trauma from things that had happened in our lives which was showing up in our relationships.

“As queer people we have to deal with transphobia, homophobia, queerphobia and racism in the community as well as in the country there’s misogyny and HIV stigma and extra things that are thrown in there. We watch them fall in love within all of these issues within society and see the red flags that they don’t see and they find a very powerful trauma bond. It is a very hopeful show and relatable if you have been in a toxic relationship before. The show ultimately is about queer resilience and showing that there is hope and that you cannot only survive these things, you can thrive from these things”.

What can the audience expect from this show compared to your last?

Nathaniel: “It is set in the underground Manchester queer rave scene. The minute you are in the space you are confronted by the beautiful set, lighting and visuals with original music by a local musician called Shar (Charlotte Barber), which mixes a lot of Britney Spears songs, as we can’t ignore the title ‘Toxic’ without Mrs Spears being thrown in there.

“It is a more serious play and messier play than the first one and it dares to sit in the messiness and complexity of life. It doesn’t necessarily give suggestions on how to deal with life and no answers.

“I wanted to capture the queer community as magic. They are the wittiest and kindest, most compassionate people in the world. It is because we overcome so much and that resilience is there, we have to go out into the world and say we are proud, right? We have Pride celebrations because we have to actively fight the shame that is put upon us but behind that glittery curtain of Pride I know that many people in our community still hide with all that crippling shame.

“Hopefully it’s for anyone who has felt shame in their lives or who has had these things that have impacted their personal relationships and make them feel seen and validated by that, because it is really important for us to acknowledge that LGBTQ life isn’t always Pride parades and that there are challenges that we do face”.

How do you feel about using your own experiences in your work?

Nathaniel: “I use my personal stories in this play. ‘First Time’ was easier to write as an autobiography as it was almost 15 years in the past. But with this show it was very much more recent and I was very clear from the start that this isn’t a revenge art piece against any of my ex partners or about saying they were bad people.

“One in 4 gay men will experience domestic abuse in their lifetimes above the age of 16, which is almost as high as hetrosexual women, but it isn’t something we talk about as there is a real stigma and shame attached to it. When I found myself in this abusive situation I found it difficult to label the abuse as I felt partially responsible. The longer I was in that situation the longer I felt I was potentially behaving in ways that I thought wasn’t an expectation of myself and also abusive.

“It states at the start and end that all of what happens in the show has happened to someone although it’s not all my story. All of the elements are true and have happened to someone and come from other people’s life.

“Writing and performing for my trauma is part of my therapy to share my experiences. Some people do it in private but I do it on stage. So I think it is really important to not just recreate a list of awful things that have happened to me on stage as it isn’t healthy to relive that. I wanted to use this play to show how we are going to work through that and share a message for others through the work that we make”.

What is the goal for the audience?

Nathaniel: “I really want people to come out of the show and have real compassion for themselves and to really look at some of the things that have happened in their own lives with compassion.

“In the modern Pride movement and more generally in the world there is a space with forced positivity and it’s unhealthy. I think it’s really important to have spaces to grieve, to get angry, to be rageful, to sort of pick things apart and rebuild ourselves. Hopefully people feel moved and feel less isolated if in particular they’ve experienced anything that they see in the show. The show deals with a lot of layers of different complicated themes such as HIV stigma around the time PREP came out – 2017 – when this couple met. We’re still living with that trauma and the magic.”

Why do you think it is important for your show to be performed now?

Nathaniel: “Drugs are present in the show and casual sex ,although it’s not a play necessarily about chem sex, which is a sort of slightly different issue within our community. I think what people don’t realise is that actually, you know, often we mask a lot of pain which some people don’t escape from as well. I mean you know, we’ve just seen that The Vivienne‘s family has come out and said that it was an overdose of ketamine. In London, three men die a month from overdoses at parties and those are the ones we know of.

“I think one of the things as a community we are always a little bit fearfull of doing is showing the bad things, because it gives the homophobes and the haters fuel to the fire. We try to cover it and suggest everything is fine and we’re all great, but that’s doing a disservice. So, that’s why I want to bring this up again, as it is important we don’t forget the shame this community has been through”.

Toxic is at Lowry, Salford from 16 -19 April 2025.

The post Nathaniel J Hall draws on lived experience to explore toxic relationships in his new play appeared first on Quays Life.

Could you tell us about Coming to England, and where the inspiration for the story initially came from?

Floella: “When my children were little they asked me what was it like when I was a child and I realised that there were no books which described my childhood. Living happily in one culture, then your parents leaving you behind to go to rebuild Britain. Being left with foster parents before finally coming to England to be a family again but having to face rejection and adversities when you came to the Motherland with people making you feel as though you don’t belong. Learning how to make the most of life in Britain and to feel as though you are worthy and being encouraged along the way by the love shown to you especially by your parents”.

Can you tell us a bit more about the decision to tell the story from the perspective of a child?

Floella: “We have all been children so I wanted to write the story emotionally, through the eyes of the child seeing life the way children do, those first impressions you have. Using adjectives to describe feelings, things, experiences and emotions. Childhood lasts a lifetime and the traumas you might have gone through stay with you, good ones and bad ones”.

Coming to England was originally published over 25 years ago, why do you think the story is still important now?

Floella: “There are more and more people now living in Britain from all different parts of the world and many will be going through almost everything I did 64 years ago. Trying to navigate their way through a sometimes hostile environment, facing adversity, rejection and not having that feeling of belonging. So the book Coming to England, which is in almost every school in the country, is making a real difference. As it is a comfort tool and it also open people’s eyes to what those who are different from you are going through. Also it helps teachers to approach the subject in an all embracing way”.

Do you have any theatre memories that have influenced the Coming to England production?

Floella: “I first appeared on stage 54 years ago and still love performing in the theatre as it’s a way of bringing a story to life in an emotional way and the reaction from the audience is instant. The feeling of conjuring up images and stimulating the imagination is one of the best experiences which always gives me a thrill. So I hope it will be the same for the performers in Coming to England the show is written to do just that”.

How does music feature in Coming to England?

Floella: “Music plays a very important part in Coming to England, because my father was a musician and music was played at home all the time. My dad encouraged his children to sing and to play music. So the songs in Coming to England paint a wonderful picture of family life and the atmosphere in Trinidad”.

Do you have a favourite part of the show? Are there any particular moments which stand out?

Floella: “I love the carnival scene and wrote the song ‘Play Mas’ for the show as it conjures up the excitement of carnival. But the scenes where my parents leave us to go to England always makes me cry because being left behind emotionally and deeply affected me and still does even today”.

What will the new cast for Coming to England bring to the upcoming UK tour?

Floella: “They will use their wonderful talents, singing, acting and dancing to bring the story to life in a wonderfully vibrant way”.

What is the core message of Coming to England? What would you like audiences to leave the theatre thinking?

Floella: “We all need to show consideration to one another and don’t judge others in a negative way because they are different from you. Try to be a good person, feel worthy and if others are being negative and abusive towards you for whatever reason, it’s their problem not yours because they don’t know what love is. Just keep smiling, it shows you are confident and most importantly, winners smile. So, prove to the world you are a winner”.

Coming to England is at Lowry, Salford from 5-9 February 2025. Age Recommendation 7+

The post Floella Benjamin on staging her childhood story Coming to England appeared first on Quays Life.

The show features many of Dolly’s iconic hits – Jolene, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream, I Will Always Love You, Here You Come Again and more – tells the story of a diehard fan called Kevin, whose imagined version of the singer gets him through trying times.

What can audiences expect when they come to see the show?

Tricia: “I think every audience member, no matter who they are, will find something very relatable in the character of Kevin (brilliantly portrayed by Stevie Webb). And I think they’ll find the show to be really funny, with lots of laughs, but they’ll also be surprised by how deep and emotional it is. It’s a play with music, with the side benefit of it also sometimes feeling like a Dolly Parton concert”.

What was the original inspiration for the show?

Tricia: “I’ve always loved Dolly and been able to sing like her. It was my dream to someday be able to use this ability in a theatrical way and thought the best way to do it, was to have it be another person’s journey. What developed was a story about an uber-fan’s fantasy friendship with Dolly. I wanted to show Dolly in action, to see her helping another person, versus it being a bio musical about her life”.

What was the collaborative process with Gabriel Barre and Bruce Vilanch, with whom you co-wrote the original script?

Tricia: “This experience has been one of the most harmonious, joyous experiences of my creative career. We each brought something unique to the journey. Gabriel is an expert in creating the theatrical framework and keeping us on track. He’s such a diplomat and truly a great director. I helped conceive of the basic story and I’d share how I think Dolly would say something or how I think she would behave in a situation. And then Bruce is just a comedy genius. He fleshed out the dialogue based on all of our brainstorming sessions with personal insights to Dolly since he wrote for her and the world of stand up comics since he’s also from that world. It’s been a wonderful joint effort”.

And what does Jonathan Harvey, who has worked with you on the UK version, bring to the table?

Tricia: “He is so funny. He’s a great writer, with fine-tuned taste, and the main thing he’s contributed is helping us set it in England because we had to change all of our cultural references. He’s also helped us to understand how things will hit a British audience because British audiences are different than American audiences and your experience during 2020 was a little different than ours”.

How did you set about ‘becoming’ Dolly for the show?

Tricia: “I like to say that I began rehearsing for this role when I was five-years-old, when I first heard Here You Come Again on the radio. I remember that moment vividly. I begged for the record and I memorised every song on it. I’ve always been able to tune my vocal cords to hit her vibrato and to find that cry in her voice and the musicality of her styling. When it came time to doing our show, though, I did not have her speaking voice down. I worked with a very celebrated dialect coach named Erik Singer, who helped Austin Butler prepare to play Elvis. We worked together on cracking her speaking voice and that took a bit more effort. I’ve watched tons of Dolly videos and early interviews to absorb how she does and says things, her mannerisms and everything. I just love to study her”.

How important to you is it not to simply do a Parton impersonation?

Tricia: “Very important. There are wonderful tribute artists out there doing great things to spread the love of Dolly. But in terms of a play or a musical, I don’t think that would be a very satisfying evening in the theatre. I do not think about impersonating her. I’m only thinking about what my objective is in the story and I trust that Dolly’s presence is strong enough in me to let it go”.

What did you feel was important to get right about her as a person as well as a singer?

Tricia: “Dolly is a very practical person. She’s no-nonsense and wise. I wanted to make sure that she stayed grounded and real. While we have very performative moments to the audience, I wanted to show her in a very truthful and down-to-earth way. I also wanted to show Dolly doing very humble things. I envisioned her as the kind of friend who if you’re going through a hard time would help clean up your kitchen and eat a meal with you. She’s not so rich and famous that she’s above doing those little things”.

With so many songs to choose from, how did you and the team decide what to include?

Tricia: “I love the late-70s/early 80s-Dolly, so I came up with a kind of hit list. But I have to give credit to our lawyer Thomas Distler, who’s responsible for making this all happen because he knew Dolly Parton’s lawyer and got the material to her. That’s how we got permission to be able to do the show and the rights to all her music. Tom also said ‘You’ve got to find a way to put Jolene in there’. At first we didn’t have it in the show because it didn’t really fit our storyline, but we found a wonderful way to put it in and I’m really glad that we did”.

Do you have a favourite song to perform in the show?

Tricia: “It’s like picking a favourite child and I love them all for different reasons. But I think my favourite one to perform is Me And Little Andy. It’s just so sad and strange, where Dolly does a little girl voice and it takes this painfully tragic turn. I love performing it and I love the reaction it gets from the audience. If you don’t know the song already don’t listen to it before you come to see the show!Let yourself be surprised because I want you to have the same reaction that Kevin does”.

Like Dolly, you grew up on a farm – albeit an almond farm. Do you have other things in common with her?

Tricia: “Like her, I’m very lucky to have had a happy childhood. I’m from a loving family and now as an adult I recognise how rare that is. My parents gave my brother and I a very wholesome childhood and I think this greatly shaped my outlook on life and helped me to be a positive, optimistic person. I’m also grateful for an understanding of God that brings me a lot of comfort and joy. I credit God with all good things, just as Dolly’s faith is the backbone of her creativity and art. So many of her songs reflect that in a way that’s very universal and easy for people to accept – even people who might not have a belief in God themselves. She’s able to share her faith in a very simple way that people can understand”.

How would you describe your relationship with Dolly’s music?

Tricia: “As a child I spent hours and hours walking around our almond orchard in Modesto, California singing her songs, imagining how life might be as a grown up. Singing along to her made me want to become an actress, because I loved how she told stories and how emotional her songs could be. I can’t express enough how deeply her artistry has influenced my entire life – a love of beauty and a love of storytelling, culminating in what I consider the greatest achievement of my career – creating and being in this show. It’s the honour of a lifetime”.

Why do you think she’s so beloved?

Tricia: “She grew up very poor, made it big and has handled herself with dignity and grace her whole career. Watching interviews with her from the 70s, they’re just crazy. She gets asked the most insulting and sexist questions and she never takes offence. But she never backs down either. She sticks up for herself with great humility and humour. What I also admire is how she uses her wealth and influence to donate to and bring attention to worthy causes, and she has managed to stay true to herself and her beliefs without ever taking sides. She fights for the little guy, uses her power for good and basically is one of the kindest, sweetest human beings ever to walk the earth. I’m just in awe of the life she’s created for herself and all she has given to the world”.

If you got to meet her, what’s the one thing you’d want to ask her?

Tricia: “I met her sister Rachel, who saw our show in Tennessee, but unfortunately Dolly was away shooting music videos for her rock album so she wasn’t able to come along herself. I don’t know what I’d do if I ever met her. I’d die! I would ask her first ‘Can I borrow some of your wigs for our show?’ But if I was having a real heart-to-heart with Dolly I’d want to know ‘How have you been able to navigate your life and career the way that you have?’ She really has never had a misstep”.

As well as a performer, you are also an artist and designer. How do you juggle that with theatre work?

Tricia: “I think when you love to do something you always find the energy and time for it. I’m really passionate about flower pressing and I’ve been doing it my whole life. A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to be discovered by some luminaries in the fashion and music industries. I started doing these collaborations that became very successful, such as the Óscar de la Renta collaboration which led to Taylor Swift wearing that pressed flower dress at the Grammys. Then Anna Wintour wore one of ODLR’s designs, which used my art as the pattern, at the Met Gala. It gave me the confidence to create a whole brand using pressed flower imagery in high design and now I’ve created a business. I really hope to make connections in the UK because I have a little following here of passionate flower pressers which I hope to nurture. I also hope to pick and press flowers in the UK and make a body of work inspired by the flowers of this beautiful part of the world”.

Here You Come Again is at The Lowry, Salford from 29 October to 2 November 2024. Age Guidance 11+

The post Tricia Paoluccio on writing and starring in new Dolly Parton musical Here You Come Again appeared first on Quays Life.

It is great to have Wrongsemble Theatre Company back at Waterside. What is special for you about the venue?

Elvi: “We love coming to Waterside Arts. The venue and staff go all out, and the audiences are so friendly and welcoming; everyone really gets into the festive spirit – which makes our job a joy! We’re thrilled to be back in Sale to entertain local family and schools’ audiences again this year”.

What ages is the show aimed at?

Elvi: “The show is suitable for the whole family, with some elements best enjoyed by those aged 4+. But we’re confident anyone aged 0-100 will find something they love about their trip to see this show at Waterside Arts”.

How does the show’s production mirror the message of sustainability?

Elvi: “The cast even live and travel together for the duration of the run. This is the show’s third outing in three years, we’ve been able to store the set and costumes with support from another theatre company meaning we’ve been able to bring it back three times without throwing it all away and making something completely new each time. Theatre can be a wasteful business – and we’re really trying to challenge that!”

What part does music play in the production?

Elvi: “The show has a lively original soundtrack performed live by the cast of three actor-musicians. Each character you meet has a song, and each song has its own style of music – from cabaret to calypso, and a sprinkling of Christmas songs too! The talented company sing, dance and play instruments live almost non-stop in this production”.

Why did you choose to make The Snow Queen a drag queen?

Elvi: “We wanted to make the character of the Snow Queen (Madge) a non-binary drag queen as we thought it was a wonderful way to bring a new version of this famous character to life. In recent years drag has become a hugely mainstream and popular artform delighting all ages – and Madge does exactly that in our show. As a company we also want to represent the diversity of the world we live in, and this festive season our company represents diversity and inclusion in its many forms. Everyone is welcome at a Wrongsemble show, both on and off stage”.

How important is it to you that children feel empowered from seeing the show?

Elvi: “We hope every child leaves feeling empowered, entertained and questioning the world around them like our heroine Lumi. We are here to give our youngest audience members inspirational and exciting experiences that transcend their time watching the show, and hopefully stay with them long after the curtain falls”.

The Snow Queen is at Waterside, Sale from 29 November to 30 December 2023.

The post Elvi Piper – we hope every child leaves questioning the world appeared first on Quays Life.

What inspired you to create the Noughts and Crosses series?

Malorie Blackman: “It was a book I was compelled to write. It was my 50th book and I wanted to address racism and its legacy directly. I was also inspired by the Stephen Lawrence case. I was appalled by the way the Lawrence family had been treated, especially by the police, and I wanted to write something about what it’s like to be judged based on the colour of your skin. That was the genesis of the series.

“What I thought might be one book, and then three books, eventually turned into six books and three novellas. My husband says it’s the longest trilogy on the planet”.

Did you have a strong idea of the characters of Callum and Sephy from the outset?

Malorie Blackman: “I think Callum is an idealist and believes in fighting injustice and righting wrongs. He’s explored every other avenue that the only way to get justice for the Noughts is to join what he calls a freedom fighter group. But once he joins it, he ends up doing things that are contrary to who he is innately. His point of view is that you do what you have to do, in order to survive.

“Sephy is very sheltered and naïve. She has had a very privileged upbringing and it’s only through her friendship with Callum that she realises there’s a whole other world out there that’s not quite as privileged as she is. They’ve grown up together as friends, and it’s about how their friendship turns into a love affair, but also about how she learns about the real world through her friendship with Callum and realises that she has some points of view that she didn’t even appreciate were prejudiced until seeing Callum’s responses to them and how people respond outside of her own social circle”.

Noughts and Crosses has been adapted multiple times. How does it feel to see this book adapted for different mediums?

Malorie Blackman: “Noughts and Crosses has been a radio play, two theatre plays, and series on the BBC. I feel very fortunate because I’ve been included in all of the different iterations. Each iteration has been different – as it should be, because [an adaptation] can’t just be the book, and nor should it try to be the book. But I think all of them have kept the essence of the story. And that’s, primarily what I was keen to happen. I’m not precious about my stuff and I expect it to change. That’s the nature of adaptation. But as long as they’ve kept the essence of it, that’s fine with me. And I think they’ve all done that – so I’ve been very lucky”.

Esther, when did you first encounter the books?

Esther Richardson: “Long before I was running Pilot, I had a real passion for young adult literature. I bought Noughts and Crosses and I remember I read the three books in about a week. It’s not how I normally read, but I was so gripped by the story that I then wanted to read the second one and then the third one. It was still notionally a trilogy at this point
When I got the job with Pilot in 2016, it was obvious to me that this was a show that the company should do, because Pilot has this wonderful legacy of doing work on race equity and had done a lot of work with black artists. It just seemed to me like a natural fit for Pilot.

“I knew that there was an existing version that Malorie had worked on with the Royal Shakespeare Company. But as it was almost 10 years [after that production] it was worth taking a fresh look at it with a new writer. Malorie was really excited by the idea of spoken word and that’s one of the ways in which Sabrina Mahfouz became involved in it. She’s a working-class writer, and she’s really interested in social justice, so she felt like a good fit”.

Malorie Blackman: “Sabrina is such a wonderful playwright. I had every confidence in what she was doing. And I love the direction she took it in and the lyricism she brought to it”.

Do you think the play will speak to young people today?

Esther Richardson: “Noughts and Crosses is fundamentally a love story. That’s so clear. Their relationship is the spine of the show. One of the most amazing things is watching young people who haven’t read the book, particularly girls of around Sephy’s age, watch the show. There are audible gasps in the second half. It’s the power of the story”.

Malorie Blackman: “It does speak to the times we’re in. It’s important to remember that Noughts and Crosses is also a story about class. Callum’s mum works for Sephy’s mum as her housekeeper. It speaks to where we are now in that there are those who have and those who have not and the gap between them is getting wider and wider.

“Though, obviously, it was inspired by Romeo and Juliet, and it has that vibe to it. It was very important for me to say that sometimes love isn’t enough – but, at the same time, we always have hope. Hope for the next generation”.

Noughts and Crosses is at The Lowry, Salford from 18– 21 January 2023. Age guidance 12+

The post I wanted to write something about what it’s like to be judged based on the colour of your skin – Malorie Blackman appeared first on Quays Life.

Now the characters are finding new life again as Deborah adapts the novel for the stage, with another stellar cast including Paul Nicholas, Hayley Mills and Rula Lenska. Quays Life caught up with her to find out more:

What can audiences expect when they come see the show?

Deborah: “I hope they’ll have a lot of fun and identify things in the play that they’re experiencing or have experienced themselves, then go away happier and uplifted. Hopefully they’ll be full of vim about maybe having another adventure”.

Are there surprises in store for people who know your book These Foolish Things and the film based on it?

Deborah: “Oh yes, there are. I’ve adapted it from the novel and it’s quite a different creature to both the book and the film. There are the same characters, the same dilapidated hotel and all of that, but it’s a very different experience on stage”.

Did adapting it for theatre present any challenges?

Deborah: “The biggest challenge is getting people on and off the stage because of course with a book or a film you don’t have that problem. The stagecraft is something I’ve had to work on, thinking ‘How do we keep everything in one place?’ They’ve built this amazing set for the hotel and downstage will be the street and call centre. And there’s a lovely sound system featuring the sounds of India strumming in the background, with cars hooting in the distance and people selling their wares, and that will come to the fore sometimes”.

You’ve done many adaptations of your own work for TV and film as well as that of other authors but is this your first time penning a play?

Deborah: “I did an original play called Double Take many years ago but usually I adapt my own things as well as other people’s work for the screen rather than the stage. The lovely thing about doing it is that you’re much more involved with the actors and with the process. With television and certainly with film it’s less so”.

How is it collaborating with director Lucy Bailey?

Deborah: “I completely love her. She’s incredibly imaginative and also terribly empathetic and sympathetic. She really understands actors and she has no side. She doesn’t tell anyone what to do, she enables them to create the characters themselves. She’s got a very light touch, which I love, and she’s a lot of fun”.

You must also be thrilled with the top-notch cast…

Deborah: “Oh, I adore them. I love them all! With the Indian cast I didn’t know any of their work so they’ve been a new adventure for me. It’s been very interesting working with them because, for instance, one of two of them have renamed themselves. I had too many North Indian Punjabi names for people so I said to them ‘Think up another name for yourselves’. We’ve worked on their identities together, which has been very magical. Then with the older cast, they bring the huge hinterland of their experience. They’ve lived and worked for quite a long time, so you’ve got that richness in their performances because they’re not new to the world. They’ve been around the block a few times”.

What are the key themes of the piece that you’re keen to get over in the play?

Deborah: “It’s the same as what I wanted to get over in the book in the way it’s never too late to have another adventure. 70 is the new 50 and we’re not behaving in the way people used to behave when they were so-called ‘old’. There’s been a sea change in how we view older people in that you’re not old, you’re the same person you always were. You have the same loves, disappointments, resentments and joy as you ever had, you’re just a bit more wrinkly. Parcelling them off as old people, which is what I used to do when I was young, is not the case once you get old yourself. You’re exactly the same and I wanted to write something that wasn’t seeing old age in terms of incipient dementia, death, strokes and everything, which has been the case in the past. I wanted to write something about people who are just like everyone else, they’re just a bit older. The world has changed so much. A lot of us would be dead by now but miracles of modern medicine mean here we still are. I’m living in Kent and swimming every day in the sea with my grandchildren. That’s not what people are supposed to do at this age.

Of course, you’re no stranger to the theme of starting over…

Deborah: “No, I’m not. I’ve had two marriages and two long relationships, and I’d start again with someone else with the same hopes as ever. I don’t feel like I’m putting my feet up at all”.

Do you think there are enough stories being told about the older generation?

Deborah: “Since the first Marigold Hotel film I think there are many more. They’re about people who happen to be older but whose stories and adventures need not be about being towards the end of your life. The book changed things a bit and the film changed things hugely, by altering our perception of old age. There’s much more coming out, although there’s still not enough. There are many more examples of older people having interesting things happen to them rather than them being in the waiting room or departure lounge”.

Did you ever imagine the characters you first introduced to the world in 2004 would go on to have such longevity?

Deborah: “No, not at all, and the thing is they’ve altered. There I was thinking up Evelyn all those years ago, this demure widow from Chichester, and Norman the randy old goat with his regimental tie and all the other characters. I had no idea that not only would they last this long and be played by all these lovely actors but that they would also change en route because they’ve had different identities. Evelyn was in my head, then she was on the page, then she became Judi Dench and now she’s becoming Hayley Mills. How fascinating is that? Each time she’s behaving slightly differently and different things are happening to her”.

You must get asked this all the time but is there a character in the story and play you most relate to?

Deborah: “I’ve got a bit of all of them in me. They’re all part of me because the funny thing about writing characters, novels and plays is that you’re in all of them. In a way I’m not like Evelyn at all, for example, but she speaks things about getting older which I identify with. In the play she talks about how you can remember things that have happened in the far past but not quite recently. She says it’s like putting your hand in a stream to catch minnows and they flicker away. You have to somehow grab them but they’re very elusive and that’s the nature of memory. You kind of have to catch it by surprise to try and remember what happened”.

Are you also hoping to attract younger audiences?

Deborah: “I’m longing to get young audiences in and of course an Indian audience. With a lot of the Indian characters I’ve given them bigger stories and one of the themes of the play is the meeting of East and West, the dissipating of prejudice and showing what we have in common along with the contrast between our cultures. To get young people and a diverse audience in would be absolutely great. I hope they’ll have their sympathies enlarged, not just about what they might consider old people who are past it but also about other cultures. It’s about ageing and mortality but it’s also about fun and how we can get on with each other. There are quite a lot of messages hidden in there”

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is at The Lowry from 8-12 November 2022 before touring ahead of a West End run.

Read our interview with Hayley Mills and Rula Lenska

The post Writer Deborah Moggach’s famous later life comedy is finding a new audience on the stage appeared first on Quays Life.

Fiona Mountford meets McPherson to find out what it was like to create a story around the American singer-songwriters’ iconic tracks.

On a shelf behind the desk in Conor McPherson’s agreeably cluttered Dublin office stands a row of CDs. The Beatles are in there, as are Black Sabbath and the Waterboys, but what catches the eye is a large gift box of Bob Dylan albums. It was this package, containing more than 60 discs, that Dylan’s management company sent McPherson for reference when the multi award-winning Irish writer/director came on board for the project that would become Girl from the North Country.

It was in the summer of 2017 that this gentle masterpiece, an elegiac and powerful study of family and poverty, love and loss, opened at London’s Old Vic Theatre. The acclaim was instantaneous; in my own five-star review for the London Evening Standard, I hymned the show as ‘beguiling, soulful and quietly, exquisitely heart-breaking’. It is set in a down-on-its-luck boarding-house in Dylan’s actual home-town of Duluth, Minnesota in 1934, when the Great Depression is biting hard. The stories of this ensemble of drifters and dreamers are elegantly intertwined with more than 20 songs from the unrivalled oeuvre of Bob Dylan. It makes for a potent cocktail that has wowed audiences both nationally and internationally, with productions on Broadway, in Canada and Australia.

In McPherson’s opinion, the show’s appeal is simple. It is the ‘universality of Dylan’s music, which is loved all over the world. He manages to distil his subjective experience into something people relate to. It has the strange, odd contrariness of people’s real thoughts and it’s a language which allows us to transcend our normal way of thinking’. McPherson’s aim was clear, he says. ‘We try and wrap our story around his music. Often I think of them as parables from the Bible in a way, all the little stories that are in the show. They are on a simple, human level, rather than being big political statements. It’s Dylan’s artistry that transforms it all into something meaningful’.

McPherson, known for haunting dramas such as The Weir and Port Authority, had never directed a musical prior to this and found himself revelling in the novel experience. ‘With a straight play, you have to make it work all the way through with just the people speaking. With a musical, someone says, ‘Would you like a blast of oxygen to give us all a break?’ and you go, ‘Yes, I would actually like that very much!’ Experience has taught McPherson that the first preview of a show, its debut in front of a paying audience, is of paramount importance in terms of future prospects. At the Old Vic, he ran backstage in that first interval to avoid audience chatter but found a tannoy system that relayed the ‘good energy, the alive buzz, like a hive of bees’ from inside the auditorium. ‘I knew then that we were going to be alright’, he says happily.

McPherson is being overly modest when he ascribes the success of the show solely to the music, as it is his setting and story that make for a transcendent combination. His vision, for a ‘Eugene O’Neill kind of idea’, came to him while he was walking beside the sea where he lives; it was a concept with which Bob Dylan was instantly enamoured. The Depression era is a time that continues to resonate with us, McPherson says. ‘We all wonder how we would cope when the chips are down, because that’s who we really are. When all the distractions of modern life are stripped away, people think, ‘How strong am I?’ The truth is that humans are very resilient and we don’t need a lot of what we think we need. That’s a good thing to know’.

It’s not hard to spot the similarities between this and the strange lockdown times from which we have recently emerged. How did McPherson fare? ‘I think it depends what age you were when lockdown happened’, he says. ‘I’m 50 now and I am old enough to know that I have the resourcefulness to get through something. Playwriting is a very up and down career, so I think I have discovered that although life is short, we take the long view. You have to’. When not mulling on the meaning of life, McPherson enjoyed getting stuck into Maths home schooling with his daughter.

I tell McPherson I entertain a gentle whimsy that he and Dylan are now the best of buddies, meeting up for regular guitar jam sessions (McPherson has been a keen guitar player since childhood and these musical skills proved of great use initially when he was working with the show’s orchestrator). ‘We’ve only ever communicated through his management and have never spoken directly’, he tells me. ‘We’ve had a lovely artistic correspondence and the way we have it now works perfectly. He sent me a beautiful painting of his’. McPherson has nothing but praise for the creative free rein that Dylan has afforded him, leaving the writer to select the songs he wanted to include in the show. ‘I didn’t have any preconceptions’, says McPherson. ‘I listened to everything and thought I’d see what spoke to me. The ones I latched onto I brought in. It had to be that kind of instinctive, personal feeling’. Girl from the North Country derives its unique power from strong emotional responses such as these.

How many times has Bob Dylan seen it? McPherson smiles. ‘He’s such a mysterious person. He claims he’s seen it a few times. I know that he saw it in New York in 2018 and spoke to our cast afterwards. That first time he snuck in and sat up the back with a hoodie on. I think he nips in and out and doesn’t make too much of a fuss’. Dylan sent the cast a note when the show reopened on Broadway after a Covid-enforced closure. It had originally opened in New York in March 2020 after a lengthy preview period and managed just six performances before the theatre world, and indeed the world in general, locked down. McPherson was grateful it at least managed to make it that far and he got to endure the ‘Garden of Gethsemane’ ritual that is the playwright’s opening night. ‘It’s the first night you’re not taking notes’, he points out. ‘Whatever happens, this is it. You have to let it go’.

McPherson abounds with hopes for the 2022 tour, into which he has added another two songs (‘I think we’re at our limit now!’) His aim has been to pack the cast with performers who ‘move the air when they come on’ and wants the audience to take away with them ‘an emotional catharsis, a feeling of the mystery of life as they understand it’. Although he has two new ideas for straight plays bubbling away, McPherson says that Girl from the North Country has dominated the past five years in a way that is ‘always absorbing and always interesting’. I have a strong feeling that there will be quite a few more opening nights to come and with them opportunities for Bob Dylan and his hoodie to turn up at the most unexpected of moments.

Girl from the North Country is at The Lowry from 20-24 September 2022. Read our review.

The post Conor McPherson talks parables, home schooling, and working with Bob Dylan appeared first on Quays Life.

What’s Electric Rosary about?

Tim: “It’s the story of a robot nun! We’re in a world of tomorrow and there’s a struggling convent that is gifted a new device from the council. It’s a story about faith and technology and hopefully it’ll make you both laugh and cry”.

What inspired you to write the play?

Tim: “A long time ago, I went to visit a monastery my Grandad helped build. He’d kept in touch with the monks there and they welcomed me in. I noticed their numbers were dwindling and they were having to think up solutions around this. Fast forward a few years, and I’m talking to young farmers about new technologies on their farm, and the two worlds started to collide in my head…”

Have you told your Grandad’s monk friends about the play?

Tim: “I haven’t, not yet! I’ll send them the script book though. I’ll also send one to Tyburn Convent, a religious order in Hyde Park who helped me hone some details. I hope they all see the play as a celebration of their lifestyle”.

Did you write it with the Royal Exchange in mind?

Tim: “Not originally. I wrote it whilst on residency at Pentabus Theatre Company, which is a beautiful theatre in rural Shropshire. I was given the time and space and money to write anything I liked, for no space in mind. Once I finished it, I moved to Manchester and saw loads of shows in their giant spaceship, but I could only dream of having a show in there myself one day!”

What does it feel like to have your play performed in the main house?

Tim: “It’s phenomenal. It’s a gorgeous space where you can see all the audience, so you can really engage them. It’s a huge arena too, so we get to wrestle with the play’s big themes in it.”

The play won the Bruntwood Prize Judges‘ Award in 2017. How much involvement have you had in bringing it to the stage?

Tim: “Lots! They even flew me to America to do some development on it in New York. I love how the play has grown over the intervening years – it feels like it speaks to our times more than ever”.

How does it feel to have other people take on and explore your vision for the play?

Tim: “It’s a humbling and terrifying experience to see how many people are working on it! And everyone is bringing their a-game. I’m so excited for what we’ll all achieve”.

Was there anything in anyone’s interpretation during the production that took you by surprise?

Tim: “Not really by surprise – I look forward to creatives bringing their own thoughts and opinions because I think a play becomes more rewarding when it’s an artistic melting pot. Our director, Jaz Woodcock-Stewart, comes from a devising background and brings a really fun playful energy into the room. All the best comedy moments have been concocted by her and the actors, not me!”

Do you use much AI technology?

Tim: “I’m actually RUBBISH with technology. I don’t own a functioning laptop, and I write all my first drafts by hand. I did enjoy researching AI though, I had lots of interesting conversations about what the future holds”.

What is one task you would have automated in the future if you could?

Tim: “If I could automate anything, I think I’d have a machine that makes the perfect cup of coffee…but they already exist, don’t they? Need to get myself to Argos”.

What are the plans for the play after this run?

Tim: “I’m not sure about the play’s plans, but I certainly plan to put my feet up and breathe a huge sigh of relief! I do hope the story lives on. It’s being published by Nick Hern Books so I hope it falls into the hands of inquisitive writers who are inspired to write their own weird sci-fi plays”.

Electric Rosary by Tim Foley is at The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester from 23 April to 14 May 2022. Read our review by Steve Timms.

The post Tim Foley talks about his award-winning play Electric Rosary appeared first on Quays Life.