How to bring Shakespeare’s plays to life for young people

May 17, 2023May 17, 2023 / nickhernbooks / Leave a comment

Working on Shakespeare’s plays can be a transformational experience for young people. His stories resonate with everyone, whatever their age or background. His language may be challenging on the page, but it comes to life when spoken aloud; we use it in our daily lives, often without even realising it. Here, arts education consultant ALANNA BEEKEN offers three key principles for introducing Shakespeare to young people, based on the work of educational charity Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation – plus some sample games from her new book, Drama Games for Exploring Shakespeare…

Shakespeare sticks. His words are more than four hundred years old, but his stories continue to be told on stages and in classrooms, on screens and in books across the world. No matter the time and distance between us and when he was writing, Shakespeare’s work says something about the human condition that keeps us coming back for more. He wrote characters grappling with life’s biggest questions and the myriad complications of relationships, emotion and power. He created language so beautiful, funny and interesting that it has been assimilated into our everyday speech – when is the last time you were in a pickle? Or on a wild goose chase? What about swaggering, puking or ranting? Since he first put quill to page, in every era, all over the world, Shakespeare sticks.

Cultural education charity Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation (CSSF), with whom I’ve worked for some years, uses these iconic stories and brilliant words to inspire new generations, empowering children of all abilities through workshops, classroom resources and the unique opportunity to perform on a professional stage. CSSF runs the world’s largest youth drama festival, the annual Shakespeare Schools Festival, and works with hundreds of schools across the UK each year, training teachers to direct abridged Shakespeare plays for performance in a professional theatre.

Shakespeare is an inspiration and an icon, but he is not the whole point of what CSSF does. We use Shakespeare’s work as a vehicle for fostering the skills needed to survive in an ever-changing world – communication, resilience, confidence and teamwork. In my eight years of working with the charity I have borne witness to hundreds of young lives transformed by the challenge of performing Shakespeare.

‘Shakespeare’s work can be a vehicle for fostering the skills needed to survive in an ever-changing world.’ Photo by Splaat Photo/Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation

Some Guiding Principles

Decades of working with students and teachers of every background and ability has shown us how to use Shakespeare to inspire and challenge everyone. Here are our guiding principles, which may be useful to you when working with your own young people.

1. Shakespeare is for everyone

‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.’ As You Like It

Shakespeare is for everyone, no matter their age or culture, background or ability. In his time, Shakespeare wrote for all of society – his casts of characters range from commoner to king, and his words worked as well (if not better) for the groundlings at the actors’ feet as for the lords and ladies in the seats.

At CSSF, we work with a diverse array of people including those with profound physical and educational needs. Often the most inspired and creative choices in performance are born from the challenges faced in the rehearsal room – what could be perceived as a disability inspires a brilliant piece of stagecraft, or a very large cast creates a fantastic ensemble world together. I have lost count of the nights I have sat in the CSSF audience, captivated by a piece of theatre that was fantastic because of (and not in spite of) the challenges faced by its actors.

‘The most inspired and creative choices in performance are often born from the challenges faced in the rehearsal room.’ Photo by Splaat Photo/Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation

2. The power of play and kinaesthetic learning

‘Joy’s soul lies in the doing’ Troilus and Cressida

Shakespeare’s stories resonate with young people (and everyone) because they are playful, magical, funny and silly, as well as moving and thought-provoking. So many are turned off Shakespeare because they first encounter his work on the page, silently read and never spoken. Shakespeare wrote for actors and audiences, not scholars and academics, and his words were meant to be spoken aloud and played with. His spirit of mischief and play dances through even his most serious tragedies – and play is the most important part of our process too.

Years of working with actors of all ages has shown us that most people learn best through doing. Moving, speaking and playing with Shakespeare brings it to life in a way that sitting at a desk, struggling to read the unfamiliar and complex language never could.

‘Moving, speaking and playing with Shakespeare brings it to life in a way that sitting at a desk never could.’ Photo by Splaat Photo/Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation

3. Shared ownership

‘Now let’s go hand in hand, not one before another.’ The Comedy of Errors

Our years of trial and error in classrooms and on stages have led us to our own definition of a director – we see a director as a facilitator. A facilitator will inspire and harness the creativity of their actors, rather than create a show to serve their own vision. We want young people to feel that Shakespeare belongs to them, and to find a connection to the words that resonates for them in their own time. This means that we are often irreverent in our approach, cutting up scripts (sometimes literally), experimenting with language and playing with characters and ideas. Many of the drama games in our process focus on this, mining the script for connections to the players and seeking opportunities to inspire them.

‘We see a director as a facilitator who will inspire and harness the creativity of their actors’ Photo by Splaat Photo/Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation

Putting Principles into Practice

The approach outlined above is the basis for our new book Drama Games for Exploring Shakespeare, which is out now. It offers dozens of games to make Shakespeare fun and accessible for anyone, no matter their prior knowledge. See below for some sample games taken from the book, as a taster of what you’ll find inside.

You might be a director or a teacher, a student or an actor. You might be tackling Shakespeare for the very first time or be well-versed in his works. You could use the book to support your direction of a Shakespeare play, bringing playfulness to your rehearsal room, or you might be an English teacher wanting to bring the text to life in the classroom.

CSSF trains directors and we have structured the book as though you are working towards a performance. If you are directing a Shakespeare play, with a cast of any age and experience, we hope it will give you a structure and momentum for your rehearsals.

However, you could just as easily pick it up and flick through it for one-off games to enliven a lesson, support a monologue or introduce Shakespeare to your drama club. We have tried to make our games as inclusive as possible, and in some cases have suggested variations or extensions to suit different ages and abilities. However, every company is unique, and you know your actors best, so feel free to find your own adaptations.

If you have any doubts about your actors’ ability to tackle Shakespeare, or indeed your own, use the book to banish them. Shakespeare gives us the opportunity to surprise ourselves and everyone else with what we can do.

‘Shakespeare gives us the opportunity to surprise ourselves and everyone else with what we can do.’ Photo by Splaat Photo/Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation

Here are two sample games taken from Drama Games for Exploring Shakespeare. The first, Iambic Pentameter Made Easy, is a clear, physical introduction to iambic pentameter, while the second, Mystery Party Guest, is a fun improvisation game to help actors get into character. I hope they’ll prove useful, as well as fun to play. There are plenty more in the book!

SAMPLE GAME 1: Iambic Pentameter Made Easy

The Aim of the Game

The words ‘iambic pentameter’ strike fear into the hearts of many young actors (and adults too). This simple exercise will demystify the verse form, proving to your cast that it will actually help them decode and perform Shakespeare’s texts.

How to Play

A line in iambic pentameter has ten syllables and creates a rhythmic pattern that sounds like this:

we STRESS the WORDS we WANT the WORLD to HEAR.

Ask students to tap this sentence like a heartbeat rhythm on their bodies – a light tap on the shoulder is followed by a firm one on the chest. Ask them if it reminds them of anything? Reflect that the rhythm is like a heartbeat beating through the text.

de-DUM, de-DUM, de-DUM, de-DUM, de-DUM.

As a group say this line in time with your tapped-out rhythm. Ask your students what they noticed, where does the heavy beat fall?

Present this line of text to your cast visually by arranging five participants into a line.

Quietly give two words to each participant and then get them to say them out loud down the line

Student 1: We stress
Student 2: the words
Student 3: we want
Student 4: the world
Student 5: to hear.

Get them to stress the ‘wrong’ way first: Ask them to stamp their foot and stress their FIRST word and speak the second word normally. Reflect on how this sounds, and how it seems unnatural.

Next, create the ‘right’ (iambic) stresses: Repeat the line, this time stressing their second word. What do they notice? You will find that it sounds much more natural – the way the stress falls is the way we naturally speak in English. Notice also that the stressed words are the important ones – these are the words that carry the meaning and need to be clear to an audience.

Ask the line of players to only say the stressed words – you can get the sense of the line from this alone, e.g. ‘Stress – words – want – world – hear’.

Try the same exercise with a Shakespearean line that fits the Iambic pentameter, e.g. ‘a HORSE, a HORSE, my KINGdom FOR a HORSE’. This should show your cast that Shakespeare’s verse structures sound quite natural – the way that we would naturally stress the words in everyday speech is also the way that the poetic stress falls.

SAMPLE GAME 2: Mystery Party Guest

The Aim of the Game

Shakespeare wrote some of the most iconic and recognisable characters in literature. This game is a playful, low-stakes way for the actors to engage with these characters and identify their defining characteristics, honing their body language and mannerisms.

How to Play

Tell your cast that they are going to a party. Ask them what they do at a party and take some suggestions, e.g. have drinks, dance, eat, chat to friends, play games. Now tell them that on the count of three you want them to turn the rehearsal room into a brilliant party. Let that play out for a few seconds and congratulate them on their work.

Divide the group in half. One half of the group will stay in the room and continue to enjoy the ‘party’ – they don’t have to stick to one action, they can just move around as they would if they were at a real party. The other half will leave the room and enter the party, one by one, in character as someone from a Shakespeare play. They can choose any character they like – they should not tell the others their choice and it doesn’t matter if several people choose the same character. Tell players to think about what their character might say and do on entering a party.

When they are ready, the first person should knock on the door, enter and greet the other guests. Give them about ten seconds to improvise their character’s behaviour at a party, e.g. Malvolio may start to serve drinks to others, but in a very haughty and imperious manner; Lady Macbeth may start to behave as though she is the hostess and go around graciously greeting guests (while staring murderously behind their backs). The group in the room have three guesses as to which character it is. If they are stumped, they could ask the actor to perform a specific action in character, e.g. could you pour yourself a drink in character?

Once they have guessed correctly, the actor should stay at the party in character. The next actor to enter the room does the same thing but can also interact with the first character. The game continues until everyone is in the room.
Swap the groups over so that everyone has a chance to enter in character.

Variations and Extensions

If players are nervous about being the centre of attention, you could try asking actors to get into pairs and agree a character between them. They would then enter the room together, both in character.

Alternatively, all the guests at the party could mirror the character coming in – not copy exactly what they are doing but take on the vocal quality and characteristics, e.g. Iago comes in and greets everyone in a shifty manner, everyone in the room will become shifty.

This is an edited extract from Drama Games for Exploring Shakespeare by Alanna Beeken and Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, out now. Save 20% when you order your copy directly from our website here.

Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation’s mission is to transform lives through the unique power of Shakespeare, principally with its flagship project, the Shakespeare Schools Festival. Alanna Beeken works in arts education, including with CSSF for many years.

Discover the Most-Performed Plays of 2022

January 31, 2023January 31, 2023 / nickhernbooks / Leave a comment

Every year, we license thousands of amateur performances of NHB-published plays, helping amateur groups, schools, youth theatres and others create their own brilliant productions.

With over 1,500 titles on our list, there’s no shortage of options to choose from. However, there are certain shows we see companies are drawn to time and time again. We’ve looked back at the stats from the past twelve months, and put together a list of the shows we most often licensed for amateur performance in 2022. Can you guess which plays might feature? Read on to find out…

**10. Wendy & Peter Pan by Ella Hickson**

Cast: 4f 17m doubling (up to 6f 22m); version for smaller cast also available

Wendy & Peter Pan, performed by Bedford Girls School in July 2022

First seen at the Royal Shakespeare Company, this delightful version of J.M. Barrie’s much-loved story puts the character of Wendy firmly centre stage, in an adaptation that is refreshingly modern but never loses the charm of the original.

With large and smaller cast versions available, it’s perfect for any theatre company or youth group looking to stage a classic tale, full of magic, adventure and strong female roles.

Loved this play? Take a look at: Swallows and Amazons, adapted by Helen Edmundson (with songs by Neil Hannon) from the novel by Arthur Ransome

**9. Philip Pullman’s Grimm Tales, adapted for the stage by Philip Wilson**

Cast: first set: 4f 4m, doubling; second set 8f 8m doubling (entire script offers roles for 42f and 100m)

Philip Pullman’s Grimm Tales, performed by Chichester Festival Youth Theatre (photo by Johan Persson)

Full of deliciously dark twists and turns, master-storyteller Philip Pullman’s version of the classic tales brings them life in all their glittering, macabre brilliance. They’re a delight for children and adults alike.

The script offers dramatisations of twelve different tales arranged in two complementary groups – enough material for two complete productions – with the option to license as many as you want for your production.

Loved this play? Take a look at: Arabian Nights, adapted by Dominic Cooke

**8. Machinal by Sophie Treadwell**

Cast: 10f 14m, doubling

Machinal, performed by Boston Conservatory of Music in February 2022 (photo by Max Wagenblass)

First seen on Broadway in 1928 – with numerous major professional revivals since – this is a powerful expressionist drama about the dependent status of women in an increasingly mechanised society. The author was a campaigning journalist in America between the wars, and this play is based on one of her assignments: a sensational murder involving Snyder, who with her lover, Judd Gray, had murdered her husband and gone to the electric chair.

In addition to the full-length version, authorised one-act and ten-minute abridgements of the play are also available for performance.

Loved this play? Take a look at: The Thrill of Love by Amanda Whittington

**7. Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons by Sam Steiner**

Cast: 1f 1m

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, performed by ADC Theatre, Cambridge, in October 2022 (photo by Tian Chan)

The average person will speak 123,205,750 words in a lifetime. But what if there were a limit? A huge hit every year with student companies, this clever, funny play about language, relationships and connection is the perfect easy-to-stage, easy-to-love studio show for any group.

First seen at Warwick Arts Centre and the National Student Drama Festival, it has gone on to draw sold-out audiences at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in London and elsewhere – with a West End transfer, starring Jenna Coleman and Aidan Turner, opening in January 2023.

Loved this play? Take a look at: Lava by James Fritz

**6. The Hound of the Baskervilles, adapted by Steven Canny and John Nicholson from the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle**

Cast: 3m (playing various roles)

The Hound of The Baskervilles, performed by Stockport Garrick Theatre in March 2022 (photo by Ian M Butterfield)

Packed full of verbal and visual ingenuity, this gloriously funny makeover of the most celebrated Sherlock Holmes story always ranks amongst our most popular shows for amateur performance!

It’s easy to see why: with three actors playing multiple roles, and offering abundant opportunities for silly comedy and slapstick, this perennially popular show is a guaranteed good time for groups and audiences alike.

Loved this play? Take a look at: Jeeves & Wooster in ‘Perfect Nonsense’, adapted by The Goodale Brothers from the works of P.G. Wodehouse

**5. Nell Gwynn by Jessica Swale**

Cast: 5-7f 7m

Nell Gwynn, performed by Mountview, London, in March 2022 (photo by Steve Gregson)

London, 1660. King Charles II has exploded onto the scene with a love of all things loud, extravagant and sexy. And at Drury Lane, a young Nell Gwynn is causing stirrings amongst the theatregoers. This exhilarating play charts the rise of an unlikely heroine, from her roots in Coal Yard Alley to her success as Britain’s most celebrated actress, and her hard-won place in the heart of the King.

First seen at Shakespeare’s Globe, London, later transferred to London’s West End – where it won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. It’s been beloved by amateur groups ever since its release.

Loved this play? Take a look at: Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton

**4. Brainstorm by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim and Company Three**

Cast: flexible – as big or small as required

Brainstorm, performed by The Ivy Players, Croydon High School, London, in September 2022

Created by an award-winning youth-theatre group in collaboration with neuroscientists, this is a unique theatrical investigation into how teenagers’ brains work, and why they’re designed by evolution to be the way they are. The play is designed to draw directly on and incorporate the personal experiences of the young people taking part – meaning no two productions are ever the same!

The published version contains a series of exercises, resources and activities to help your school, youth-theatre group or young company create and perform your own, unique Brainstorm. It also features the complete script of Company Three’s original production which played at Park Theatre and the National Theatre, London.

Loved this play? Take a look at: The Changing Room by Chris Bush

**3. Around the World in 80 Days, adapted by Laura Eason from the novel by Jules Verne**

Cast: 3f 5m, doubling (very large cast possible)

Around the World in 80 Days, performed by Weymouth Drama Club’s Curtain Raisers in October 2022

Join fabulously wealthy Victorian gentleman Phileas Fogg and his hapless valet Passepartout as they set out on a dazzling, dizzying journey around the globe – from the misty alleys of London to the exotic subcontinent and on to the Wild West – on a succession of trains, steamers, a wind-propelled sledge and an elephant.

Packing in more than fifty unforgettable characters, this imaginative version of the classic novel was originally written for an ensemble cast of eight, but can be performed by a much larger cast – making it perfect for any theatre company or drama group looking for a high-spirited adventure.

Loved this play? Take a look at: Dracula: The Bloody Truth by Le Navet Bete and John Nicholson, adapted from the novel by Bram Stoker

**2. Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale**

Cast: 8-10f 8-14m (plus 2 extras)

Blue Stockings, performed by Altrincham Garrick Society in October 2022 (photo by Martin Ogden)

A regular fixture near the top of our Most-Performed list, this is a moving, comical and eye-opening story of young women fighting for education and self-determination against the larger backdrop of women’s suffrage. Set in 1890s Cambridge, the play follows the course of one tumultuous academic year as Tess and her fellow first years at Girton College battle for the right to graduate – and overcome the hurdles in their way.

First seen at Shakespeare’s Globe, London, Blue Stockings is regularly performed by amateur groups, schools and others around the world. Accompanying music by Laura Forrest-Hay is also available for companies to license.

Loved this play? Take a look at: Emilia by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

**1. Ladies’ Day by Amanda Whittington**

Cast: 4f 1m (doubling, or up to 6m)

Ladies’ Day, performed by Bartholomew Players in May 2022 (photo by Cereta Drewett)

This exuberant comedy, about four likely lasses from the Hull fish docks on a day trip to the races, has been a permanent fixture on the amateur-theatre scene for fifteen years now – and returned to the top of our Most-Performed list in 2022.

Audiences and groups have long loved following the exploits of fish-filleting foursome Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda – and in addition to the hilarious sequel Ladies Down Under (which also ranks in our top 20 most-performed shows!), a third play in the series, Ladies Unleashed, is now available for performance.

Loved this play? Take a look at: Di and Viv and Rose by Amelia Bullmore

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A word from NHB’s Performing Rights Manager, Tamara von Werthern…

Nobody loves a Top Ten more than me, but this one is especially exciting for a number of reasons. Firstly it rounds off the first year since the lockdowns of the pandemic and gives us a clear indication that amateur theatre is back and thriving. Secondly, it’s such a wonderful selection of plays, which shows off the variety and range that exists in the amateur community.

From fairy tales to neuroscience, slapstick humour to state-of-the-nation, historical drama, to finger-on-the-pulse present-day commentary, there’s something here for everyone. Thank you to everyone who staged one of our plays in 2022! It’s been a pleasure working with you, looking forward to hearing from you in 2023.

Congratulations to all of the NHB authors whose shows made our Top 10 Most-Performed plays. To see the full, extended list – featuring lots more well-known names, plus some exciting new entries – head to our website.

Thanks so much to all of the ambitious, passionate amateur companies whom we helped create fantastic productions in 2022. We’re always inspired to see your incredible work, and can’t wait to help you stage more brilliant shows this year, too.

VAULT 2023: the best new work at London’s VAULT festival

January 25, 2023January 25, 2023 / nickhernbooks / Leave a comment

Vault festival

VAULT Festival, London’s biggest arts and entertainment festival, is now underway in Waterloo, where it runs until 19 March. With hundreds of events taking place throughout the eight weeks of the festival, including theatre, comedy, cabaret, immersive and VR experiences, family shows, late-night parties and more, there’s something for everyone. And to celebrate the publication of Plays from VAULT 6, an exciting collection of five of the best plays from the festival, we asked the authors whose work is featured in the anthology to tell us a bit about their play, and what VAULT means to them – plus, at the bottom, a few handy tips on what to see at this year’s festival…

Joe Sellman-Leava on his play Fanboy:

I’ve always loved Nintendo games. And superheroes. In my early teens I got into The Lord of the Rings and Warhammer in quite a big way. For some, such childhood obsessions fade away, but I continued to be very into one or other of them. In late 2019, I started to wonder why this might be. Why was I so readily giving my time and money to play, watch or read the things I loved as a kid, or the various remakes, reboots, spin-offs and adaptations of them? Why were so many other adults doing the same? Why was talking about these things, with such passion and in such depth, the closest thing men like me got to discussing our feelings with one another? And why did those discussions so often become hateful or abusive online?

Fanboy tries to answer some of these questions. It begins as a sort of fan letter to all the things I love to geek-out about – Star Wars, The Muppet Christmas Carol and Donkey Kong Country, to name a few – and then asks why my generation is so obsessed with its own childhood. It examines the force of nostalgia, not just in entertainment but in our politics too (‘Take Back Control’ and ‘Make America Great Again’ are both slogans that invite people to think back to an imagined vision of the past). It also examines heroes, why and how we worship them, as well as loneliness, mental health, and male friendship.

Fanboy is a solo show – with a twist! I don’t want to spoil anything (I hate spoilers), but there’s a device in the show which is used to play with our experience of time and the theme of nostalgia, and the creative team and I are really proud of it.

It means a lot to bring Fanboy to VAULT Festival, because this is where the show first found its feet. It had a series of work-in-progress performances at VAULT 2020, before that festival had to close due to Covid. The team and I were busy tweaking things during the day, performing in the evenings, then chatting to audiences afterwards over a pint – it was a great way to learn more about what worked in the show, and what needed further work. Like lots of others, we had to pause development on the show. The festival has been sorely missed over the last few years, so it feels great to bring the finished show back here for VAULT 2023.

Click here to book for Fanboy, 7–12 March

Fanboy

Saul Boyer and Eloka Obi on their play Five Years with the White Man:

Five Years with the White Man is the first theatrical adaptation of the life and work of Augustus Boyle Chamberlayne Merriman-Labor (or ABC), a Sierra-Leonean satirist who came to London at the beginning of the twentieth century to make his name as the greatest writer of his generation. Navigating heartbreak, prejudice and financial destitution, he published the deliciously urbane and gloriously funny Britons Through Negro Spectacles in 1909, detailing his experiences in London. His observations about British culture and all its contradictions feel as prescient now as ever.

Saul first stumbled across ABC’s story while researching an original TV project set in Edwardian Soho. The story seemed too big to play a bit-part in that original project – it demanded a starring role. So Saul brought the story to the team. At that point, ABC’s book Britons had not yet been marked for republication by Penguin – and we all felt this real sense of injustice. Here was a comic work, a witty work, by such an urbane and confident voice, dealing virtuosically with first-hand experience of structural and economic racial injustice, gender-based prejudice – frankly, ignorance in all its forms. And it had been forgotten. Lost to the record. Invisible to the canon. It really felt like the authorial perspective was a twenty-first-century one – which was striking, particularly given the edition of the book that we had then was published by Forgotten Books, which specialises in the publication of obscure and out-of-print works.

That discovery was the real jumping-off point. It led us to Danell Jones’ wonderful biography of ABC, and then to research his other works. As we began to write the play, we quickly realised that our take on ABC’s story could never be a straightforward, biopic-style adaptation – his work is far too mischievous and genre-defying for that. We felt strongly that we wanted to do something innovative – something that spoke more directly to the present. We discussed a lot of genre-defying shows – seven methods of killing kylie jenner and many others – and felt there was room for a little metatheatricality in the storytelling. We wanted some kind of modern mediation of these complex themes – it seemed only fair to the wonderfully variegated source material. Competing with the bravura comic style and emotional depth of Merriman-Labor is a challenge – one that forced us to dig deep as writers. Our play begins as a straightforward story, but as the piece progresses we see another layer emerge: that of the performer himself. Soon these two stories – one modern, one historical – begin to respond to and coincide with each other in unexpected ways. The play is like an epic in miniature, touching on deep themes of love, loss and identity. It’s certainly a challenge for the performer, really putting them through their paces!

VAULT festival has always been such a vibrant exhibition of emerging voices in our national theatre ecology. The sheer energy, excitement, and progressive quality of the work makes it a bubbling cauldron of creativity. You feel that the spirit of fringe theatre is alive and well. The work feels fresh, artistically engaged and on the experimental side. In short: it’s a destination for the curious. A place to be inspired. Artists at VAULT are genuinely experimenting and pushing the envelope, in terms of form – and the kinds of stories platformed and told are ahead of the curve. As a company, we discussed long and hard where would be the best place to showcase this work on its very first outing. In the end, there was no other choice – and we can genuinely think of no better place for this show to debut than at VAULT!

Click here to book for Five Years with the White Man, 28 Feb–5 March

Five Years

Zahra Jassi on her play Honour-Bound:

My play Honour-Bound is a solo show about honour-based violence (HBV) and anti-Blackness in South Asian communities. It follows Simran, on her way to City Airport because she’s fleeing HBV, and the journey she’s been on over the last two years from meeting her now-boyfriend, her relationship with her family, and the friend she lost to HBV.

I was inspired to write the play during my time at drama school, after my teacher asked us to write 10-minute solo shows over Christmas. I enjoy making theatre that focuses on race and culture and working with Black and Brown artists, and this was difficult to do within the curriculum as the only student of colour on my course. So Honour-Bound was born and was, for me, an exploration of a South Asian issue, even though HBV and anti-Blackness occur in other communities.

I feel very grateful to be at VAULT 2023. Having such a fantastic opportunity straight after graduating has been incredible and has allowed me to keep up the creative momentum from drama school that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to. I feel very privileged to be at the festival among 500+ fantastic shows, and hopefully this experience will allow me to connect with artists, especially Black and Brown artists, also bringing shows to VAULT.

Click here to book for Honour-Bound, 7–10 March

Honour Bound

Elisabeth Lewerenz

Elisabeth Lewerenz on her play How We Begin:

My play How We Begin is about two women, Helen and Diana, who’ve been friends since uni, have settled into their adult lives – and then fall in love with each other. Neither of them expected that to happen, and Diana already has a boyfriend, so they kind of try to explore that new part of their lives in secret – which, as you can imagine, does not go entirely smoothly.

It’s not strictly speaking an autobiographical play, but it’s based on a situation from my own life. I’m bisexual myself and I didn’t figure that out until my mid-twenties. I think that’s not uncommon for queer women, but it’s not spoken about that often, so I really wanted to dig deeper into what it means to come out (to yourself and to the people around you) when you’ve already settled into your adult life a little bit – and how it throws things off-balance for a while.

I wrote the first scene of How We Begin when I was applying for the VAULT New Writers Programme in 2019, so it’s an absolute joy to have it programmed at the festival this year. I love the intimacy of the VAULT tunnels, so it feels like a very natural home for the play, which really relies on the performers’ connection to the audience.

Click here to book for How We Begin, 14–19 Feb

How We Begin

Louis Emmitt-Stern on his play I Fucked You in My Spaceship:

Part romantic comedy, part psychological thriller, part science fiction, my play I Fucked You in My Spaceship follows two couples: Leo & Dan, and Anna & Emily. For different reasons, they both invite a third person into their relationship. What happens next depends on how you choose to read the story. Fundamentally, I think the play is interested in the idea of abduction. Someone coming into your life and invading your home, your relationship, your sense of self. Whether that’s literal or metaphorical is up to each audience.

When relationships have to reject traditional or heteronormative ways of navigating children or sex or family or intimacy, the rule book goes out the window. There’s new uncharted territory, and we’re not exactly sure what the boundaries are yet – which can be hilarious, but also quite scary. I think these characters walk that tightrope between funny and fearful. In many ways, it’s my anti-nuclear family play. But it’s not presenting a utopian or dystopian alternative. It’s just as lonely and messy and awkward and farcical.

Live theatre wasn’t accessible to me growing up. My love and enthusiasm for drama was encouraged largely through reading plays. I so vividly remember reading Lucy Burke’s Glitter Punch in Plays from VAULT 3; the way the narrative gripped me, the twist at the end that knocked me out, the rawness and inventiveness of the storytelling that feels unique to the shows at VAULT Festival.

To have my show on at VAULT Festival now, and to be published in the anthology that introduced me to it all? Yeah, it’s pretty immense. I just feel very grateful.

Click here to book for I Fucked You in My Spaceship, 7–10 Feb

I Fucked You

What to see at VAULT Festival 2023…

With the festival opening this week, we asked our authors which shows from this year’s programme they were most excited to see. Check out their picks:

Joe Sellman-Leava: I’m excited to see lots of other things at VAULT 2023. Particularly the other plays in Plays from VAULT 6, as well as Liv Ello’s Swarm (7–10 Feb), Joz Norris’ Blink (3–4 Feb), and Hexenhammer (10–11 Feb).

Saul Boyer and Eloka Obi: There are so many shows to pick from, but a few honourable mentions: we’re really looking forward to Strange Fruit Cabaret, written and performed the wickedly talented Black Venus in Furs and Mars De Lite (11 Mar), Wonder Drug written and performed by the brilliant Charlie Merriman (15 Feb–3 Mar) and Hildegard Von Bingen by Kristen Winters and BoundByTheatre (21–26 Feb).

Zahra Jassi: I’m excited to see Right of Way by Beth Bowden (21–26 Feb), Hear Me Now by Burnt Orange Theatre (14–17 Feb), Under Heaven’s Eyes by Resistance Theatre Company (7–12 Feb), Asian Girls in Therapy by Gurjot Dhaliwal and Megan Soh (28 Feb), The Ballerina by Khaos (31 Jan–5 Feb), Patient Vultures by Daydreamer Productions (14–17 Mar), Maud by Sic Theatre (21–25 Feb) and For A Brief Moment and Never Again Since by Judi Amato (28–29 Jan).

Elisabeth Lewerenz: I’m super-excited about all the other plays from this volume, what a selection! My friend Matt Neubauer, who did the VAULT New Writers Programme with me, is bringing his genre-bending western play Spur to the festival (4–9 Mar), which I can’t wait to see. And as a lover of drag, I’m also excited about drag king collective Pecs’ Icons (25 Feb) (shoutout to my drag dad, Loose Willis!) and the drag wrestling show Fist Club – Beyond Vaulterdome (26 Feb). And so, so many plays, including SNAIL by Bebe Sanders (28 Feb–5 Mar), in Good Spirits by KT Miles, Ana Smoleanu & Greta Rilletti-Zaltieri (18–19 Feb) and Thirsty by Stephanie Martin (31 Jan–5 Feb).

Louis Emmitt-Stern: Aside from the other four fantastic plays included in Plays from VAULT 6, I’m excited to see the work of this year’s Tony Craze Award shortlist: GUSH by Abby-Vicky Russell (7–12 Mar), and Mwansa Phiri’s new play Waiting for a Train at the Bus Stop (29 Jan–5 Feb). James McDermott returns to London with his new show Acid’s Reign (14–19 Mar), a drag-cabaret about climate change and the queerness of nature. Actor and writer Sanjay Lago’s debut stand-up show Love Me like a Chai Tea Latte (7–8 Feb). Finally, Con-Version (14–19 Mar) by Rory Thomas-Howes, the multi-hyphenated and multi-talented actor-writer-producer who is going from strength to strength at the moment.

Plays from VAULT 6, containing five of the best plays from this year’s festival, is published by Nick Hern Books. To buy your copy for just £13.59 (RRP £16.99), visit our website now.

Collections from previous VAULT Festivals are also available on our website here.

VAULT Festival 2023 runs from 24 January – 19 March at the Vaults, Waterloo, London. Visit the festival website here.

Thank you to the authors of Plays from VAULT 6 for their contributions to this blog.

‘Make sure you’re always ready to work’ – how to build your personal acting toolkit

January 17, 2023January 17, 2023 / nickhernbooks / Leave a comment

Whatever situation you find yourself in as an actor – whether you’re currently on a job, or juggling resting jobs whilst waiting to audition – there’s always something you can be doing to ensure you’re prepared when that life-changing opportunity comes your way.

Here, in an extract from their book The Jobbing Actor, accredited coaches Anita Gilbert and Letty Butler – who have between them over forty years’ experience in the business – share how to keep yourself in that state of readiness, along with an exercise to help your professional development…

Actors spend their lives waiting. Waiting to audition. Waiting to hear the outcome. Waiting for someone to grant them the opportunity to be an actor.

Er, WRONG!

If you do something every single day that makes you an actor, you are an actor. You’re always an actor whether you’re working or not, but it’s up to you to make sure you are always ready to work. YOU ARE YOUR BUSINESS. It’s as simple as that. You have to make sure every part of your business is in good working order at all times – your voice, your body, your brain and your ‘toolkit’ (i.e. your skillset).

As Paapa Essiedu says: ‘90% of this job is not acting, but making sure you are ready for it.’

Paapa Essiedu | © Financial Times

You can help yourself maintain a constant state of readiness by paying particular attention to your toolkit. There is nothing worse than feeling unprepared when a last-minute, potentially life-changing audition comes in. Putting a little time, effort and yes – occasionally money – aside to build on or refresh your skills is essential (not to mention tax deductible). The readier you are, the more confident you will feel in the room. The more skills you have, the more findable you are in a Spotlight search and ultimately, the more chance you have of landing a job. It’s simple maths.

If a part requires horse-riding and you haven’t so much as sat on a donkey, you’re not going to get seen for it. It’s equally futile to have a chokka-block toolkit full of rusty spanners. Going to an audition claiming you’re fluent in Urdu when you haven’t spoken it for twelve years is only going to result in embarrassment – not just for you, but the casting director who’s suggested you. Do you think they’ll ever bring you in again? No. You wouldn’t employ a plumber who once showed up with a banana to fix the shower would you?

But we get it. As a performer, you’re most likely juggling resting jobs whilst waiting for that audition, or perhaps you’re in the midst of a tough theatre tour with scant spare time to learn how to skateboard. But in the words of Coldplay, ‘nobody said it was easy’. The two biggest factors in creating change are persistence and effort, in addition to tiny habits and a growth mindset. The trick is to start small and believe you can do it. We’re not asking you to sign up to do a ten-week intensive clowning course, just ten minutes of focused work on acquiring or maintaining a skill every day can make all the difference.

You don’t need to do a ten-week intensive clowning course to keep developing as an actor | Photo © Suki Dhanda for the Observer

Let’s try an exercise. Get a piece of paper, some pens and give yourself at least half an hour for this. Make three columns: Existing, Tactical and Curious (ETC).

Existing

What skills have you already got? List them all. Languages, sports, instruments – even weird and wacky things you might not deem relevant. You never know what a job might require.

Underline the ones that need work and put a star next to any that you are already skilled at.

Tactical

List any skills that might enhance your professional appeal. Accents? Audio narration? Motion capture?

If you need inspiration, think about people in your life and all the things they can do. We tend to forget that characters are based on real people, with real skills. Yes, you might be required to whip out some stage combat or historical dance for a theatre audition, but what about commercials, TV and films? It’s more likely you’ll be reading for a character who can play golf, ride a motorbike or shuffle a deck of cards, so look at contemporary, everyday skills in addition to traditional ‘drama school skills’.

Once you’ve done that, think about films, TV series or plays you’ve watched and what was required of the actors in them. A specific accent? Underwater swimming? Pancake tossing? Doesn’t matter how irrelevant it seems, get it down.

Curious

Make a third list of activities or things that interest you. Dig deep.

If you’ve always harboured a deep fascination with taxidermy or skydiving or becoming a croupier, get it on the list. We can’t emphasise enough that you never know what casting directors or producers are looking for, so nothing’s ever wasted. Plus, if you enjoy learning something, the likelihood is that you’ll put the work in to achieve it and you’ll always have something interesting to talk about in the audition.

Pick one skill to focus from any of the three lists and incorporate it into your targets this week. Remember to start small. Tiny habits = big changes.

Keep this list somewhere safe. Next time you find yourself ‘waiting’, decide that you’re going to use the time proactively instead and tackle your toolkit. It’s not waiting, it’s development.

Letty Butler (left) and Anita Gilbert (right), authors of The Jobbing Actor

This is an edited extract from The Jobbing Actor: A Coaching Programme for Actors by Letty Butler and Anita Gilbert, out now.

Get your copy of this innovative six-week coaching programme – filled with industry-focused and holistic exercises and challenges, plus uplifting advice, practical hints and tips – at 20% when you order direct from our website.

Ladies Unleashed: Playwright Amanda Whittington on her Ladies Trilogy

November 24, 2022 / nickhernbooks / Leave a comment

When Amanda Whittington’s play Ladies’ Day premiered at Hull Truck Theatre in 2005, it introduced the world to Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda – four likely lasses from the Hull fish docks on a day at the races. The play and its sequel, Ladies Down Under, have since been performed around the world, including thousands of performances by amateur and community theatre groups. Now there’s a third play in the sequence, Ladies Unleashed, just premiered at Hull Truck, which brings the story of the Ladies bang up to date. Here, the playwright reflects on the enduring popularity of her beloved Ladies, and why amateur performances of her work are so important to her…

It’s hard to believe it’s almost twenty years since Hull Truck asked me to write Ladies’ Day, a play inspired by Royal Ascot coming to York Racecourse for one year only. It was a huge event in the Yorkshire calendar and a pretty big deal for me, too. A youngish playwright, it was my first commission for a company I’d long admired.

Ladies’ Day opened in June 2005 and ran for three weeks to full houses. I was knocked out by the response but had no expectation it had a future beyond its first production. It was written for a specific place and time; that was part of its success, or so I thought. The characters had other ideas.

The play dramatises a day at the races with four friends who work side-by-side at a Hull fish plant. Swapping overalls for Sunday best, Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda set out for Royal Ascot and get lucky on the Tote. But what Ladies’ Day is truly about is friendship, relationships, hopes, dreams and disappointments. They’re ordinary women in the best sense of the word.

Hull Truck production of Ladies’ Day by Amanda Whittington, 2005 (Photograph by Adrian Gatie)

A year later, Hull Truck took Ladies’ Day on a UK tour. I’d hoped the Ladies would be recognisable to a Hull audience but we soon found they were just as relatable across the country. There was also a growing curiosity about the next chapter. The end of Ladies’ Day – a big win for the workmates on the horses – felt like a new beginning.

Ladies Down Under caught up with the gang a couple of years after the win. I hadn’t conceived the story as a sequel, but it was wonderful to write in response to the impact the Ladies had made. The much-loved Hull Truck cast reprised their roles on a once-in-a-lifetime tour of Australia, which soon becomes a metaphorical journey of discovery.

Hull Truck production of Ladies Down Under by Amanda Whittington, 2007 (Photograph by Louise Buckby)

In 2008, Ladies Down Under returned from a UK tour to join the final season at Hull Truck’s legendary Spring Street theatre. It felt like a fitting end to our four-year run. I imagined the characters would forever stay in that magical bubble of time. Not quite. Nick Hern Books had published Ladies’ Day and Ladies Down Under, and pretty soon, new productions were springing up in villages and towns across the country.

Wolverhampton Grand production of Ladies’ Day by Amanda Whittington, 2018 (Photograph by Graeme Braidwood)

As a playwright, you learn to let go of your stories. At the end of a run, there’s no guarantee you’ll see your characters again. Yet thanks to amateur and community theatre, these ladies – and the gents in their world – are very much alive. Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda have been played by hundreds of actors in thousands of performances.

Words can’t express how grateful I am to each and every company that programmes my work. I read every licence that comes in, and note all the villages, towns and cities the Ladies are heading to next. I love to hear from you, see your photos and answer your questions on the plays. It’s always a joy to meet you and and talk Ladies. By programming new work, the amateur sector not only keeps plays alive but sustains careers. Every ticket sold in a local theatre, church hall or school is an investment in a writer’s future work, as well as our past

Four out of the thousands of amateur productions of Amanda Whittington’s Ladies plays. Clockwise from top left: Hyde Heath Theatre Company; Tanat Theatre Club; Dudley Little Theatre; Nantwich Players

Which brings us to Ladies Unleashed.

I’d made up my mind not to do it. The first Ladies play achieved more than I’d dared hope. The sequel came hot on its heels. Fifteen years passed, but a question kept popping up from actors, producers and audiences: ‘When are you writing a third?’

It was a great compliment, but I really wasn’t sure. I think I was torn between love and fear: your love for the characters, and my fear of failure. Yet I was curious too, and self-doubt is a voice writers know very well. We learn to live with it, channel it and, ultimately, fly in the face of it. Which I finally did in 2018, onstage at Nick Hern Books’ Amateur Theatre Fest, announcing the trilogy so then, I couldn’t not do it.

At the same time, I was talking to Artistic Director Mark Babych about a new play for Hull Truck. We had various ideas but the conversation kept coming back to the Ladies. Mark loved the characters and was interested in the idea of ‘where are they now?’ In 2019, I wrote a first draft set in the present day on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, Northumberland. Then along came Covid. We all know that story. When theatres reopened and I returned to the play – now programmed for Hull Truck’s 50th-Anniversary season – the world had changed, so I started afresh.

Ladies Unleashed is the third in a trilogy but, like the first, it stands alone as a play for today. I didn’t want to repeat whatever formula there might be in the first two. Pearl, Jan, Linda and Shelley are a generation older, and so am I; the 30-something writer of Ladies’ Day wouldn’t and couldn’t have written this play. I set out to push the boundaries the first two plays had set. Yet in draft after draft, the characters came back so strongly, I knew they’d never quite left. It’s like meeting old friends. I do hope you’ll feel the same.

Gemma Oaten (foreground) and Fenella Norman, Sara Beharrell and Allison Saxton (background) in the Hull Truck production of Ladies Unleashed by Amanda Whittington, 2022 (Photograph by Ian Hodgson)

To mark the publication of the trilogy, I’ve set up a Facebook group for companies producing the Ladies plays. Share your thoughts, questions, photos, dilemmas and discoveries with us on Ladies’ Day, Down Under & Unleashed. I look forward to seeing you there!

LadiesPlays_1352x700

Amanda Whittington’s play Ladies Unleashed is out now, published by Nick Hern Books. To buy a copy of the playscript with a 20% discount (~~£10.99~~ £8.79 plus p&p), visit our website.

The playscript is also available as part of an exclusive three-book bundle deal: buy all three plays in the Ladies Trilogy – Ladies’ Day, Ladies Down Under and Ladies Unleashed – at a time-limited discount: ~~£32.97~~ £24 plus p&p. Only available on our website here.

Amateur performing rights are now available for all three plays. For more information, visit the relevant page on our Plays to Perform site: Ladies’ Day, Ladies Down Under or Ladies Unleashed. It’s important that you apply for performing requests before any commitment is made.

Author photo by Elizabeth Baker Photography

‘My happy place is where Art meets Activism’: Julie Hesmondhalgh on why she feels at home with political theatre

November 16, 2022November 16, 2022 / nickhernbooks / Leave a comment

Julie Hesmondhalgh is one of those rare human beings: an actor who is instantly recognisable from her performances in popular TV dramas such as Broadchurch and Happy Valley, and as Hayley in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street; but at the same time, one who remains grounded in a politically engaged, compassionate, activist, grass-roots theatre practice in her native Lancashire. Here, in an extract from her new book, An Actor’s Alphabet: An A to Z of Some Stuff I’ve Learnt and Some Stuff I’m Still Learning, she explores the roots of that activism in her childhood, and in the inspirational figure she encountered at drama school.

A is for… Activism

I blame the Baptists.

And my brother.

And Brian. Especially Brian.

So maybe this section should come under B, actually.

Let me explain. When your childhood soundtrack is a mash-up of stirring old-school hymns, happy-clappy gospel songs and Never Mind the Bollocks (with a bit of Paul Robeson thrown in for good measure); when you know the security of ‘FELLOWSHIP’ and ‘COMMUNION’ and the thrill of ‘BEARING TESTAMENT’; when Jesus is your poster boy and your big brother buys you Billy Bragg EPs and sneaks into your room after the pub to teach you about ‘IMPERIALISM’ and ‘RACISM’ and ‘CLASS’, it kind of sets your stall for a life of some sort of evangelism. And when you later become aware of some of the more problematic parts of organised religion (‘Hello, homophobia! Hey, The Patriarchy! How ya doin’?’) and become at worst agnostic, at best Buddha-curious, you find you never really lose that bit of yourself that wants to heal the world and storm the barricades at the same time.

I always loved acting, but when it came to deciding about careers, I was so consumed with the idea of being of service to the world (insufferable right-on god-botherer that I was) that to go into the arts felt frivolous to me, and at odds with what I believed was my purpose on this earth. (Evangelism and grandiosity often go hand in hand.) I wanted to help people, goddammit! Like Jesus! I thought I should go into social or probation work instead – after a stint of volunteering ‘in the third world’, of course – and be of use to society. It never occurred to me that I could try to do both. Be an actor and try to be a useful citizen. I had no sense that art could actually have a purpose beyond pure entertainment.

It was my brother Dave who persuaded me to audition for drama school and to take a different path than what might be expected of someone from Accrington. And because I do everything that my brother tells me to do, I did, and I got in!

When I started at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), I met Brian Astbury, who became one of the most important and influential figures in my life. Brian was a white South African who set up The Space in Cape Town in the early 1970s, along with his wife, the actor Yvonne Bryceland, and playwright Athol Fugard. The Space was the first multiracial theatre of its kind, and was operating at the height of apartheid. Police raids were par for the course in a country where it was illegal for black and white creatives to work together. There is a story that I love to tell to tired actors (oh god, so many tired actors) about the black actors at The Space working all day as manual labourers, then turning up at the theatre to rehearse into the night, in a room where brooms were strategically placed against the walls, ready to be grabbed the moment the police inevitably turned up. Because if the black people were sweeping the floor they were allowed to be there, of course.

Yvonne Bryceland, Brian Astbury, Athol Fugard

Brian Astbury (centre) with Yvonne Bryceland (left) and Athol Fugard (right) at The Space in Cape Town, South Africa

To put on the plays they were producing – plays like Athol Fugard’s provocatively titled Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, about an illegal love affair between a man of colour and a white woman – was an act of huge resistance, and also of courage. Brian and his colleagues at that theatre were in real danger of arrest and imprisonment for making art that spoke truth to power. As the apartheid regime became more and more brutal, many people were forced to either take up arms or leave the country. Brian and Yvonne, lifelong pacifists, left.

Statements

Everything that Brian taught us at LAMDA was imbued and inspired by his first-hand experience of seeing the power of art and of theatre to be a force for change, even when that change doesn’t happen straight away. He believed passionately in our responsibility as artists to engage with injustice, to start conversations and to tell stories that help us make sense of the world and hold the powerful to account. He kick-started in me a lifelong passion for making work that challenges convention and that has something to say. And under his mentorship, I started to understand who and what I wanted to be. I discovered that my happy place is in the crossover point of the Venn diagram that has Art in one circle and Activism in the other. Like Brian, I believe that to be apolitical is a place of absurd privilege. How can you live in this world and not question the greed, the poverty, the inequality? It can only be if you’re unaffected by it, or worse, if you benefit from it.

For the last seven years I’ve co-run a political theatre collective in Manchester called Take Back. We have made a lot of work: some immersive and installation-based stuff, including collaborations with the university and bigger theatre spaces, about migration, refugees, and, more recently, sex work. But we’re best known for our award-winning script-in-hand responses to social and political events: joyful evenings of FELLOWSHIP and COMMUNION where we’re in a room together, starting conversations and emboldening each other in the face of unbelievable amounts of despondency and apathy out there.

Take Back Our Girls, Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester, October 2018

Our model is simple: we ask ten or more writers to create a short piece on a theme, then we come together in a space to share them with an audience. Our first was Ten Takes on Hope in 2015, at a time when things looked like they might be on the up – if you can imagine such a thing! We took over a room above a pub at no cost, set up ticket sales on Eventbrite, sold out twice in one night, and had enough money in the account to hire a bigger venue for Ten Takes on Capital a few weeks later. Other shows have included Take Back Our Bodies, Take Back Our Girls, Take Back America (on the day of Trump’s inauguration) and Take Back Togetherness (after the Brexit referendum).

Some shows have been more successful and nuanced than others; some evenings have needed a serious edit (Take Back Our NHS, I’m looking at you…). Of course, we have never been so naive as to think that we might effectively heal the deep divisions in our country caused by Brexit, or that we might topple the Trump administration with a bit of cleverly curated spoken word at The Comedy Store. But what we have done, I think pretty successfully, is bring together a group of artists who broadly share a worldview – a worldview that feels a bit out of step with the spirit of the times – and who have a hankering to exist in the overlap of that Art/Activism Venn diagram. And I believe we have had some success in helping those artists, and our audiences, to feel less alone in it all, and sometimes even feel, dare I say it, empowered by the experience.

Last year I had the privilege of producing, with Take Back, Lucy Kirkwood’s short and powerful howl of pain that was Maryland, her response to the murders of Bibaa Henry, Nicole Smallman, Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa. We brought together fifty women of all ages and backgrounds, dis/abilities and ethnicities, and rehearsed for two days over a weekend, then performed it twice on the Sunday night. The material was raw and painful, especially the sections written specifically for the women of colour in the cast. There were tears in the readthrough. And in the performance. It was overwhelming.

Take Back production of Maryland by Lucy Kirkwood at The Edge, Manchester, November 2021 (Photograph by Elspeth Moore)

But in spite of the subject matter, and the unspoken personal memories of sexual violence for many of us; in spite of (or perhaps because of) the unadulterated rage we all felt as the play reached its harrowing climax; in spite of the stunned reaction of the audience who sat in silence for ten minutes after the second performance had ended, and the difficult and upsetting conversations that inevitably took place in the bar afterwards; in spite of all this, that weekend was one of the most exhilarating and joyful experiences of my working life. I will never forget it. Because in that accelerated way that can only happen in theatre, friendships were formed, connections were made, everyone held each other steady, and we all united in the most powerful way imaginable over something that we all desperately needed to express in that moment. There is no feeling like it in the world. Using our voices and raising each other up.

As an unapologetically political group, we have been asked many times about what we hope to achieve with our work, when we are so clearly preaching to the converted in most cases. But as someone who grew up buzzing off bearing testament, and to all intents and purposes literally preaching to the converted, I can testify that there is joy and purpose in just that. Because coming together and connecting over ideas and feelings and hopes and beliefs in a room is actually a really, really important and uplifting thing, especially in this age of isolation and doom-scrolling.

I’m not sure that anyone who was part of our sharings of Maryland, as an artist or an audience member, necessarily had their minds changed about anything. That was not the purpose of making this piece of political theatre. But I feel that every single person left the theatre that night feeling as though something in them had shifted. Something deep and unsayable had been said. And we were all a bit changed by that. And the world felt a bit different as a result.

Julie Hesmondhalgh with the cast and crew of the Take Back production of Maryland by Lucy Kirkwood at The Edge, Manchester, November 2021 (Photograph by Elspeth Moore)

Actors Alphabet for blog

This is an extract from Julie Hesmondhalgh’s book An Actor’s Alphabet: An A to Z of Some Stuff I’ve Learnt and Some Stuff I’m Still Learning published by Nick Hern Books. Save 20% on your copy when you order direct from the Nick Hern Books website here.

Julie Hesmondhalgh is in conversation at Contact Theatre, Manchester, on Thursday 17 November, 7pm, when she will be signing copies of her book. Tickets available here.

She is also appearing in conversation at The Dukes, Lancaster, on Wednesday 30 November, 11am. Tickets available here.

Author photo by James Melia.

In dark times: Two Ukrainian playwrights on life in the midst of the conflict

August 18, 2022August 18, 2022 / nickhernbooks / Leave a comment

It has been six months now since Russia invaded Ukraine, but as a double-bill of Ukrainian plays – published this week and currently showing at the Finborough Theatre in London – makes clear, the conflict really began much earlier than that, when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014. For the two leading Ukrainian playwrights whose work is being staged, and who both still live and work in Ukraine, the war there is as devastating as it was foreseeable. Here, Natal’ya Vorozhbit and Neda Nezhdana (together with their translators, Sasha Dugdale and John Farndon) write about the anger, dismay and horror that has fed into their work, as well as the extraordinary human resilience in the face of outrageous Russian aggression.

Natal’ya Vorozhbit writes: ‘When I wrote Take the Rubbish Out, Sasha in 2014, the war in Ukraine had already begun. It continued in the east of the country, and it was impossible to believe. I tried to wear this war, as did my family; I wrote about my fears and premonitions and hoped that they would never come true, that humanity would be horrified and stop the war at that stage. But humanity pretended that nothing was happening and bought gas from Russia. Eight years have passed and everything that I described in the play, only much worse, has happened to the whole of Ukraine, hit all of us and touched all of you.

For eight years, neither Ukraine nor the world has coped with the evil that came without hiding. It really hurts me that this text is only now so relevant. Can it change anything? It seems that art does not become a warning and does not change the world at all. And only the human ability not to lose hope moves us further, makes us write, fight, and believe that good and truth will win.’

Take The Rubbish Out, Sasha. Amanda Ryan and Alan Cox Credit Charles Flint 2

Amanda Ryan and Alan Cox in Take the Rubbish Out, Sasha by Natal’ya Vorozhbit at the Finborough Theatre, 2022 (Photograph by Charles Flint)

Sasha Dugdale writes: ‘I translated Take the Rubbish Out, Sasha in late 2014 for A Play, A Pie and A Pint at Òran Mór in Glasgow, directed by Nicola McCartney. The war in Donbas had begun earlier that same year, so by the time Natalka wrote her short play the initial shock of war and invasion had worn off. In her lithe, funny and poignant work, Natalka looks back to the Soviet period, and the confusion of the nineties, and shows how ideas of masculinity have shifted over a period of turbulent change. With her “sly writer’s heart” (a phrase she uses in her 2017 classic Bad Roads) and her abundant compassion and humour, she depicts a family operating under all sorts of strains: the burden of alcoholism, divorce, poor health, death, financial constraints, and the various toxins of a corrupt and venal late- or post-Soviet military system.

It is a surprise when war interrupts this mess of ordinary lives and their tensions – as much a surprise to the viewer as it appears to be for the characters. They are wrenched backwards into a time when masculinity counted for something – and yet paradoxically it is women now managing, holding the fort, buying the supplies: the men turn out to be absent, shadowy or supernatural.

I have translated Natalka’s work for many years and it has been a privilege and a responsibility. Over the period of our collaboration she has documented the emerging Ukraine and its process of self-definition, through protest and uprising, into the woeful period of Russian aggression which has dominated Ukraine’s recent history. I love and relish her deft, wry dialogue and its humour, and the power female protagonists have in her writing. Most of all I love her joy in humanity, in all its forms, and I take this into my translating, often laughing aloud at her sheer cleverness and wit as I strive to find English equivalents.’

Take The Rubbish Out, Sasha. Issy Knowles and Amanda Ryan Credit Charles Flint 2

Issy Knowles and Amanda Ryan in Take the Rubbish Out, Sasha by Natal’ya Vorozhbit at the Finborough Theatre, 2022 (Photograph by Charles Flint)

Neda Nezhdana writes: ‘Since the Revolution of Dignity, I have “mobilised” my “literary soldiers”; all my texts have been related to the Maidan and the war. At the beginning of 2014, my native city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk region was occupied by Rashists (Russian fascists) for several months. My relatives managed to escape, and I wanted to write a play about it: what it is like to become a refugee. They had had their whole world stolen from them: home, work, friends, city… And the total lies of Russian propaganda – about the Maidan, Donbas, Ukraine in general – were outrageous. Nothing to do with reality. On the contrary, they called the Maidan’s international goal of association with the EU “Nazism”, and described their own aggression, terror and looting as “liberation”. Time has shown that their hybrid occupation brought only grief: tens of thousands killed, wounded, orphaned, millions of refugees, destroyed houses and destinies… And people, provoked by propaganda, became murderers, executioners and traitors…

I searched for a long time to find the right form for my play, Pussycat in Memory of Darkness. The impetus was the true story of Iryna Dovgan, a beauty-salon worker who was captured and tortured by the Russians. Her words suggested the title of the play: she saw “darkness” in the eyes of her executioner. This is what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to warn the world about this “darkness” – the impunity of criminals turning into a “tsunami” that can engulf all of us in a terrible nightmare of terror… Yet “in dark times, bright people are clearly visible,” as Erich Maria Remarque wrote. The second impetus for the play was photos of our retreating soldiers rescuing dogs, cats and parrots. Animals, whose owners had been killed or captured, sensed where they would be helped, and went to Ukrainian soldiers. I believe that humanity begins with our attitude towards animals. This is how the eventual image of a volunteer heroine who helps soldiers and saves kittens was born. White, grey and black are the three steps in the war of light and dark… Documentary stories from relatives and friends, my own memories and news, such as the shooting down of a passenger plane by the Russians in Donbas, were intertwined with fantasy. It was a cry for help: people, stop this horror before it’s too late… But millions of crimes in the Russian Federation remain unpunished, and unpunished evil is growing progressively.

Pussycat In Memory Of Darkness. Kristin Milward Credit Charles Flint 4

Kristin Milward in Pussycat In Memory of Darkness by Neda Nezhdana at the Finborough Theatre, 2022 (Photograph by Charles Flint)

Since 24th February 2022, this “darkness” has spread over the whole of Ukraine. When I wrote this play, I didn’t know, like my character, how it was to be with children and animals under fire from rockets and bombs, what it meant to be a refugee. But now I know this from my own experience in the Kyiv region, and my relatives in Kramatorsk live next to the train station that was hit by Russian rockets on 8th April… Tens of millions of people are going through this now, dozens of countries around the world are helping displaced people and the wounded from Ukraine. More than two-thirds of Ukrainian children are refugees, others are under fire, in infiltration camps, deported, wounded, killed… Now refugees are a problem for the whole world. Rashists destroy entire cities and villages, especially schools, hospitals, museums, theatres, churches, burn books… And they also “denazify” animals: horses are burned in stables and cows are blasted by “hail”… They even attack plants – mining forests and burning grain fields… This is not only the most terrible war in terms of weapons, it is genocide, the attack of barbarism on civilisation, slavery on freedom. It is important to understand: leaving the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation means condemning people to death and torture. Unfortunately, this play has only grown in relevance. I believe that such texts help those traumatised by the war and those who want to understand what is really happening. All over the Earth, which is becoming absorbed by the “darkness”. However, I remain in Ukraine and continue to write, because I believe in the victory of light. Thanks to all “warriors of light” in the world.’

John Farndon writes: ‘The ongoing Russian attack on Ukraine is a horror which no one can ignore. What can theatremakers do? The very painful answer is not much. But since the beginning of March 2022, I’ve been working with the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings project, in collaboration with Theatre of Playwrights in Kyiv, to bring the words of Ukraine’s amazing and courageous playwrights to the world by translating dozens of their plays, many written almost from the frontline – raw, immediate and powerful.

For me, the most extraordinary discovery has been the writing of Neda Nezhdana, and it’s been a privilege to translate her work. She is something of a legend in Ukraine yet her work has never been staged in English until now. It should have been. Neda has an extraordinary ability to distil the most challenging aspects of Ukraine’s situation into bold, provocative, thrilling drama.

Pussycat in Memory of Darkness is set in 2014, when Russia occupied Crimea and began its ongoing attempts to destabilise the Donbas, in revenge for Ukraine’s Maidan revolution to rid the country of Russian influence. It tells the story of the nightmare life that develops for one woman in the Donbas in the face of the insidious violence stirred up in her home town by the Russian-backed militia and propaganda. It is a beautifully crafted, yet uncompromising drama that takes us right into the heart of darkness that is Russia’s war on Ukraine. Yet the message is not just about Ukraine, but for us all.’

Pussycat In Memory Of Darkness. Kristin Milward Credit Charles Flint 3

Kristin Milward in Pussycat In Memory of Darkness by Neda Nezhdana at the Finborough Theatre, 2022 (Photograph by Charles Flint)

Cover image for blog

This is an edited version of the introduction to Voices from Ukraine: Two Plays published by Nick Hern Books. Save 20% on your copy when you order direct from the Nick Hern Books website here. 10% of the proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to the Voices of Children Charitable Foundation, a Ukrainian charity providing urgently needed psychological and psychosocial support to children affected by the war in Ukraine.

The plays Take the Rubbish Out, Sasha and Pussycat in Memory of Darkness are in production at the Finborough Theatre, London, until 3 September. For more information, and to book tickets, visit the Finborough Theatre website.

‘Write with your heart as well as your head’: Jemma Kennedy on getting started as a playwright

July 28, 2022July 29, 2022 / nickhernbooks / Leave a comment

For playwright and screenwriter Jemma Kennedy, plays are something of a paradox: carefully structured works of studied, practised craft, but also filled with unstudied, creative instinct. For a script to truly come to life, it must encapsulate both these qualities.

In this extract from Jemma’s book The Playwright’s Journey, she reflects on her own path as a writer, and how you, too, can embark on the voyage towards getting your play onto the page, and then to the stage.

Craft alone cannot make a good play.

Anyone can pick up Aristotle’s Poetics (the book every playwright is told to read) and teach themselves how three-act structure works, or take a course on the mechanics of theatrical dialogue, narrative and stagecraft. But the double bind of being a playwright is that once you’ve perfected your play on paper, its work is only just begun. A dramatist’s real apprenticeship only truly begins the moment their texts start to be performed, if not to a paying audience, then at least to a roomful of students or peers or theatre folk. Like a bungee-jumper, you leap off a platform into thin air and hope your cord holds.

For while plays are constructs, they are also made of organic matter. Thoughts and feelings, experiences, intuition, emotional intelligence. These are the things that make a play come alive, first on the page and then on the stage. You might call it spark, or voice, originality, energy – the unique DNA that is found in any individual playwright’s work, and which starts with their creative instincts. These instincts are, in a way, the direct opposite of craft, and they cannot be learned by rote. If you’re currently writing a play yourself, I’ll bet that you’re not staying up all night hunched over your keyboard or working through your lunch-break simply because you want to practise crafting a dramatic form. It’s because you have a burning desire to tell a story and communicate something about human behaviour.

I never studied theatre formally myself. I learned to write, as most of us do, by trial and error. Watching plays. Reading plays. Studying their structure. Discussing productions with friends and colleagues. And slowly, tentatively, starting to write myself. It was hard. I had readings, I got commissions, I was invited to theatre-writing groups. More often than not, the plays didn’t make it on to the stage, beyond a rehearsed reading. It took ten years from writing that first play to having my first main stage production, and along the way I have learned some pretty good lessons. Incidentally, I never made it through the first chapter of Aristotle’s Poetics. But I have sat in the ruins of the Theatre of Dionysus at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, and looked at the stage where Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, among others, debuted their plays. Thousands of bottoms have worn the marble seats smooth.

‘I learnt to write by trial and error’ – Jemma Kennedy in rehearsals for her play Genesis Inc., which premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2018 (Photograph by Manuel Harlan)

Over the last decade I’ve also taught many hours of playwriting. To BA and MA students; to adult learners; to young writers; for new-writing theatres, on residential courses, universities, up mountains and by the ocean. I’ve also run a long-running class for developing writers, which I went on to teach at the National Theatre in London – and it’s these classes which have formed the basis for my book on playwriting, The Playwright’s Journey.

The book guides you through the entire life-cycle of your play. Part 1 begins with the very first spark of a new idea, through getting that out of your head and onto the page (with guidance on technical aspects of the craft such as character, structure, constructing scenes, writing dialogue, and so on). Then, once you’ve written your play, Part 2 focuses on the practicalities of (hopefully) having your script turned into a show – including some practical advice about how to navigate this exciting but sometimes baffling process. I hope the book will encourage you to interrogate your creativity and explore your connection to your material, while finding ways to harness them to writing craft. In other words, to explore the process of playwriting via the heart as well as the head.

As a teacher, and now in The Playwright’s Journey, I offer no hard and fast rules for what a good play is, or should be, or how it should be written. Creativity is a fluid, mysterious thing, bubbling up from our unconscious minds. It can’t and shouldn’t be forced into formulaic shapes. You must allow yourself time to daydream, to feel your way through your writing process, as well as applying craft to those base materials. Then you can find and harness the patterns, rhythms and devices of theatrical narrative – and of language – in order to tell your story. Your play may be a ‘well-made play’ in the traditional sense; it may be a one-woman show or a devised piece of performance or an adaptation of a literary work or anything in between. Whatever it is, I hope to share some knowledge and experience that will help you to keep going and finish the draft that might one day make it on to the stage.

PlaywrightsJourneycoverblog_676x362

This is an edited extract from The Playwright’s Journey by Jemma Kennedy – out now, published by Nick Hern Books. Save 20% on your copy when you order direct from the Nick Hern Books website here.

Jemma Kennedy is a playwright and screenwriter. Her work has been seen internationally, including at Hampstead Theatre and the National Theatre, London, where she has been both playwright-in-residence and teacher of playwriting.

‘He was a giant in the world of theatre’ – a tribute to Peter Brook

July 4, 2022July 4, 2022 / nickhernbooks / Leave a comment

Peter Brook, who has sadly died at the age of 97, was one of the most influential and important figures in twentieth-century theatre – described by the Guardian as ‘one of theatre’s most visionary and influential thinkers’. The New York Times called him ‘a director of scale and humanity, who left an indelible mark’.

Brook’s long and extraordinary career was filled with remarkable achievements, including productions of Titus Andronicus (1955) with Laurence Olivier, King Lear (1962) with Paul Scofield, and The Marat/Sade (1964) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1970), both for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Moving to Paris in the 1970s, he established the International Centre for Theatre Research and the International Centre for Theatre Creation, producing events which pushed at the boundaries of theatre – such as his legendary adaptation of epic Indian poem The Mahabharata (1985) – and continued to direct as recently as 2019.

Brook was also a celebrated writer about theatre. NHB have been proud to be Brook’s publisher for the past twenty years, releasing new books such as The Quality of Mercy and Tip of the Tongue, plus the first-ever ebook and audiobook editions of his seminal The Empty Space.

Here, we’re paying tribute to a much-loved and respected NHB author with an extract from The Quality of Mercy, focusing on the story behind one of Brook’s first-ever productions – but first, NHB’s founder and publisher, Nick Hern, remembers his own decades-long relationship with his ‘old old friend’…

Peter Brook was responsible for my getting booed at the National Theatre. I was chairing a Q&A on the occasion of the publication of The Shifting Point [in 1988] and had had to call time on a very rich session. The audience, hungry for more, vented their disapproval – very loudly. It was like that whenever I accompanied Peter on a book tour. It was like being with a rock star: everyone wanted a piece of him. And rightly so, of course. Though small in stature, he was a giant in the world of theatre.

The Shifting Point was only his second book, some twenty years after his groundbreaking The Empty Space. So new was he to the business of publication that he got a fit of the giggles when I first sat him down in a bookshop to sign copies. He soon got the hang, recognising the commercial value of ‘author appearances’, and was still valiantly signing copies of his last book though nearly blind by then.

We resumed our author/publisher relationship with Evoking Shakespeare, which arrived unheralded but with a handwritten note: ‘I don’t suppose you’d be interested in publishing this – it’s very short!’ I was indeed interested, and there followed in due course three more books, all subtitled ‘Reflections’: The Quality of Mercy (on Shakespeare), Tip of the Tongue (on language and meaning) and Playing by Ear (on sound and music). Also two of his last playscripts, Battlefield and The Prisoner.

As an author and a man, Peter was always the soul of kindness and generosity. On meeting – and dining with – my wife for the first time, he inscribed her copy of his latest book: ‘To my new old friend’… I shall really miss my old old friend.

Peter Brook’s ‘Reflections’ trilogy of books, all published by NHB

This is an edited extract from The Quality of Mercy: Reflections on Shakespeare by Peter Brook.

It was not easy to leave England just after the war, especially as one needed a special permit to carry the tiniest allowance of cash that even the simplest travel needed.

I had just done my first production, Love’s Labour’s Lost at Stratford [in 1946], and was preparing to follow it with a Romeo and Juliet which I wanted to be young and full of fire. In those days, it was an accepted legend in the English theatre that only a mature actress in her forties could attempt to play Juliet. I hoped to smash this tradition by casting two very young actors as the star−crossed lovers. Above all, to get them to speak their lines with their own sense of truth. This meant being free from the established rules of verse-speaking.

My real interest was to discover the climate of the play, so my first trip was to Tangier to get a direct taste of the dust and blazing heat out of which fights and passions arise. This was an exciting revelation. The story did not belong to the polite world of Stratford and the genteel West End plays.

Next, another first. To Italy. This meant a beeline to Verona.

Despite the charm of any Italian small town, the comic side prevailed. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say ‘the commercial side’. As a child, I had been taken to Lourdes. This had left a distasteful memory of how the young Saint Bernadette was being exploited. In the narrow passage leading to the shrine, there were rows of shops each claiming to be more authentic than its neighbour and proclaiming ‘Founded by the true family of Bernadette’ or ‘We are direct descendants of Bernadette’. In Verona, it was very similar. Every corner struggled to exploit Romeo and Juliet – ‘Here is the Capulet residence’, ‘This is where the Nurse went to market’, ‘Welcome to the fencing academy where the Montagues learned to use their swords’, and ‘Visit the exact spot where Mercutio died.’

One beautiful house had a sign saying ‘Birthplace of Juliet’. I went in. It was lunchtime. I was alone, but for a very distinguished elderly Italian who was my guide. His speech was beautifully delivered as he followed me from room to room. Juliet’s bed, the closet where the Nurse slept, the famous balcony, the parents’ wing where the family dined. And then down a narrow stone stair into the cellar. Here my guide pointed to a large stone slab! ‘This is where they brought Juliet’s corpse; it was through this narrow opening that Romeo came – you can imagine the painful sight that confronted him – his lifeless bride. He clasped her in his arms.’

The guide leaned respectfully across the cold slab. ‘We have here a dagger – the actual one – and, after kissing her – ’ the guide mimed the action – ‘and taking the poison from her lips, Romeo took his own life.’

Today, Casa di Giulietta (‘Juliet’s House’) in Verona is a popular tourist attraction

It was a fine performance, one he clearly repeated day after day. He then led me up the stairs to the front door. I was so struck by his well-schooled intelligence that I could not restrain myself. ‘Tell me,’ I asked, ‘you are such an educated person. How can you bear day after day to tell these tales as though you believe them – when you know they haven’t the least root in truth? In England,’ I said, ‘we all know there were no such persons as Romeo and Juliet.’

He paused. Then with exquisite courtesy he replied, ‘Yes, indeed, it’s true. And here in Verona we all know there was no such person as Shakespeare.’

* * *

I returned to England. The journeys were over, and the practical work on Romeo and Juliet began. I had two marvellous collaborators: Rolf Gérard, who would become my close friend and designer over many years; and an outstanding Catalan−Swiss composer, Roberto Gerhard, who had just made a striking debut with a score for a radio version of Don Quixote. Both at once felt the heat and passion of the play. The set that gradually arose was little more than a blazing orange stage cloth, like a bullring.

Peter Brook’s production of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, performed at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1947 (photo by Angus McBean © RSC)

Together, with a very dynamic instructor, we plunged into rehearsal with our young cast, who were delighted to begin the day with dangerous rapier fights. We made many mistakes and learned many lessons, but when the first night came, the play unfolded to the Stratford audience on the hot orange stage. The audience were dismayed and taken aback. I was attacked for ruining the poetry and wasn’t invited back for many years.

A few days after the opening, the theatre had arranged a public question-and-answer session. When I arrived backstage, I was met by an anxious stage manager. ‘I must warn you,’ he said. ‘You’re in trouble. Prepare for the worst.’ I stepped into the arena. The good and loyal Stratford audience was there. A long silence was broken by a lady rising to her feet, clearly trembling with indignation.

‘I would like Mr Brook to explain to us why, at the opening night of Romeo and Juliet in the Memorial Theatre, there was no light – in the ladies’ cloakroom!’

This got a laugh, but the discussion was heated. And inevitably the press was damning. However, I was already beginning to discover that while praise is for a moment reassuring, the valuable criticisms are the ones that are clearly from an unbiased and intelligent mind. They make one think.

Despite the inevitable disappointment, gradually I saw all that Romeo lacked. There was plenty of fire, colour and energy – which brought us a small minority of enthusiasts. But what was missing was an overall tempo, an irresistible pulse to lead from one scene to another. I had not yet learned that this was the basis of all Elizabethan theatre, and so began a long period of discovery. The theatre of the day, based on well-made West End plays, with their two intervals, had long lost all contact with the relentless Elizabethan rhythm. Each scene had to lead to another, never letting the audience go. Each scene had to be a stepping-stone for the next – there were no curtain breaks and pauses; no new scenery to get accustomed to. And not only did this demand a constant moving forward, it also made contrasts, unexpected changes of rhythm, tones, levels of intensity. In this Romeo I had worked scene by scene, each with its beginning, middle and end.

The big revelation came later when working in opera. In music, I saw that a series of notes is a world of infinitely tiny details which only exist because they are part of a phrase. A phrase in turn is inseparable from a driving forwards. Just as in a speech, a phrase is a thought that prepares and leads on to the next one. Only an insufferable bore goes on repeating a phrase long after we have got its meaning. A play of Shakespeare’s must be played as one great sinuous phrase, never ending before the very end.

When after two years of opera I returned to Stratford to direct Measure for Measure, I found that the immersion in music had brought me a new awareness of tempo and phrasing.

There’s an old cliché that Shakespeare could easily have written film scripts. Indeed, when a film is placed in the projector – to use the out-of-date jargon of the day – and the spools begin to turn, there is a movement, and with it the interest of the viewer is held. This has to be maintained till the end of the last shot. It applies to every category: art film, thriller, Western. They all were called ‘movies’. This led to the need to be free of the locked−in nature of the scenery that seemed so necessary at the time.

I was only asked back to Stratford when the direction changed many seasons later. This exile was clearly a stroke of fortune, as my approach had been transformed by so many experiences.

Peter Brook (centre, front row) at a conference celebrating his career at the Institut Français, London, in 2019 – part of the launch of his final book Playing by Ear, published by Nick Hern Books

All of us at Nick Hern Books are saddened by the death of Peter Brook, at the age of 97. We’re honoured to have had the opportunity to share his wisdom and insights with the world. He leaves behind an incredible artistic legacy. RIP.

Photograph of Peter Brook by Régis d’Audeville.

Three plays, one cast, all at the same time: Chris Bush on her ambitious dramatic triptych Rock / Paper / Scissors

June 23, 2022June 23, 2022 / nickhernbooks / Leave a comment

For the fiftieth anniversary of the Crucible, Sheffield Theatres commissioned playwright Chris Bush to write three plays that could be performed by the same cast, simultaneously, in all three of their spaces (the Crucible, the Lyceum, and the Studio). Nothing quite like it had ever been attempted before. As the resulting plays Rock / Paper / Scissors are premiered in Sheffield, Chris explains how the idea came about…

This is a very silly idea.

We first started dreaming up these shows in February 2021. Directors Rob Hastie and Anthony Lau, designer Ben Stones and myself were making The Band Plays On at the Crucible and going slightly insane through the pressures of creating work during a global pandemic, trying to imagine a brighter future while struggling to navigate the strange new realities of the day to day. The fiftieth anniversary of the Crucible was coming up in November, and who knew how we were going to mark it, or even if the theatre would be open at all by then? While I went home to work on rewrites and do deep dives into lesser known Sheffield Britpop acts, the directors were putting together funding applications and drawing up bold new seasons with a combination of blind hope and bloody-mindedness that all theatre professionals know only too well.

One morning, Rob met me outside my digs to walk with me to the theatre. He had an idea. What if we threw caution to the wind and thought big – even bigger than usual? What if we tried to do something never attempted before – something that could more or less only be done here, within a complex of three world-class stages all only a few metres from each other? What if we took over every inch of Sheffield Theatres with three brand-new standalone shows with a shared a cast, playing simultaneously in the Crucible, Lyceum, and Crucible Studio? Alan Ayckbourn’s House and Garden had done the same thing with two plays, but no one had ever tried it with three (arguably for good reason). The concept was absurd. Would we even be open in a year’s time? What was the story? How do you even begin to plan something like this? I had no idea. Of course I said yes immediately.

Denise Black in Rock by Chris Bush at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 2022 (Photograph by Johan Persson)

We started kicking ideas around straight away. What was the hook, beside the sheer audacity of attempting it? What if each show had a distinct genre – one farce, one murder mystery, one musical, all linked by the same set of characters? What if we showed the same character at different points in their life?

A christening, a wedding, a funeral (Birth, Marriage and Death as your three titles)? Time travel was definitely discussed at one point. Then for a while we settled on the idea of two weddings, one in the Crucible, one in the Lyceum, and the caterers in the studio (working titles of Bride, Groom and Cake). What if two childhood sweethearts were now getting married on the same day to different people, next door to each other, and hilarity ensued? This concept evolved into one real wedding in the Crucible, and a local am-dram production of a wedding-themed musical in the Lyceum, with all the potential for mistaken identities that might entail. I even came up with the fake show-within-a-show, Wits ’n’ Weddings, a 1980s mega-flop based on the works of Philip Larkin with a book by a young Richard Curtis… alas, it was not to be.

As fun as some of these ideas were, I was never quite sure why we wanted to tell any of these stories, beyond the technical challenge they presented. We all agreed some kind of ‘farce engine’ felt useful, but then a lot of the comedy in farce comes from the audience knowing more than the characters onstage – this is difficult when any given audience might only be getting a third of the overall story at any given time, and these shows needed to be entirely self-contained, as well as forming part of a greater whole. We were all enjoying ourselves, but I felt like I needed to go back to the dramaturgical drawing board.

Paper by Chris Bush at the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, 2022 (Photograph by Johan Persson)

What makes good drama?

All drama fundamentally revolves around conflict. All stories are about a hero (protagonist) who wants something (a goal) but there’s something or someone (an obstacle) in their way. Sometimes that obstacle is physical, or psychological, or elemental, but often it takes the form of an antagonist – a villain – a character whose dramatic function is to stop our hero from getting what they want. This might be because the antagonist despises the hero, and wishes them to suffer, but equally it could just be because they have goals of their own, and those goals are incompatible. The crucial takeaway is this: we are all protagonists in our own stories, but we could very easily be antagonists in someone else’s, whether we’re trying to be or not.

‘Main Character Syndrome’ is a contemporary term for a timeless condition. It describes someone who believes that they are the centre of the universe, and anyone else is of little or no significance. It’s a twenty-first-century form of solipsism, and something we can all be guilty of. Three standalone plays with a shared company – three distinct viewpoints on a common event – is the theatrical antidote to this. Each play would have its own protagonist(s), but said protagonist might become a primary or secondary antagonist when they step off one stage and onto another. It doesn’t mean any of these people are monsters, they just want different things. Theatre, at its best, is a machine for generating empathy – it can transport us to strange and unfamiliar worlds and populate them with characters we’ll come to care deeply for, and learn to understand, despite the fact that they might appear to be nothing like us. This simultaneous-trilogy structure offers a unique opportunity for further experiments in empathy: we can watch villains become heroes and vice versa when we watch the same events from a different angle. Our sympathies may shift entirely depending on what order we watch the shows in. A traditional ‘hero’s journey’ three-act saga can often get a bit black-and-white in terms of its morality, in part due to the necessary primacy it places on the hero’s perspective – here we can gently remind an audience, through the theatrical form, that life is messy and complicated and we rarely have the full picture.

Scissors by Chris Bush at the Studio Theatre, Sheffield, 2022 (Photograph by Johan Persson)

However, I still didn’t know what the plays were about. I wanted to write about intergenerational conflict, and how each generation might have a legitimate reason to feel uniquely hard done by. The next trilogy concept was Work, Rest and Play – a young generation of school-leavers facing an uncertain future, their parents representing the squeezed middle, and their grandparents in retirement. Was this a family saga of three spaces within the same house? The granny annex, the grown-up dinner party downstairs, the teenagers getting high in the garage? What event would throw them all into crisis? ‘No one wants to see a play called Work,’ said Rob Hastie. And a play called Play felt a little sub-Beckett. Fair enough. Keep thinking. What about a properly Sheffield trilogy, using local placenames as generational markers? Intake (the youth), Halfway (middle-aged), and Endcliffe (for the OAPs)? Was that a bit niche? Furthermore, I felt like we’d explored intergenerational family dynamics in the domestic realm quite thoroughly in Standing at the Sky’s Edge, so maybe this should move into the world of work. At this fiftieth anniversary moment of reflection, it was a chance to think about what cities are for, what civic/public spaces are for, who owns our heritage, who owns our future? Where have we come from and how does that inform where we’re going?

For all this intellectualising, we also just brainstormed a lot of three-part lists. What words went together and did any of them mean anything? How about…

Hop, Skip, Jump
Stop, Look, Listen
Ready, Set, Go
Red, Yellow, Green
Faith, Hope, Charity (the National Theatre got there first)
Snap, Crackle, Pop (almost definitely trademarked)

Then, on 3 September 2021, with time rapidly running out and a season announcement due very soon, Rob and I had the following exchange over WhatsApp (edited only for clarity).

Chris Bush, 17:29
‘I feel like Rock, Paper, Scissors could be a good name for something (and hints at three competing forces of equal strength) but I don’t know what they mean by themselves.’

Chris Bush, 17:30
‘Scissors = stainless steel, Sheffield history etc etc, Paper = office work? Or press? Rock = rock music? Teenage rebellion? Dunno…’

Rob Hastie, 17.31
‘Oo that’s quite fun’

Chris Bush, 17:37
‘Could be something in whatever they’re competing over – an inherited building, for instance – could it stay testament to industrial heritage (scissors), become a cool music venue (rock), or just bland but commercially lucrative office space (paper)?

Rob Hastie, 17:44
‘Oh that’s VERY good’

Chris Bush, 17:46
‘I wonder if then (another rethink) do we want our stages to all be different parts of the same building/complex – the factory floor, the old manager’s office, the break room or something? And lean into that idea of everyone milling around the same space in real time?’

And that was that. Of course this was still only the sketchiest of ideas, but in just over fifteen minutes something had crystalised. It now felt like we had the bones of a story (or multiple stories) worth telling. Something that spoke to intergenerational conflict, about heritage, about legacy, about autonomy, and how much any of us are in control of our destiny at any given time. What has been done here, and how does that inform what we should do next? How can we work together when no one really has enough? No heroes, no villains, just a group of people trying to survive in difficult circumstances. An exercise in empathy – which is, after all, the best reason to make theatre in the first place.

This is an edited version of Chris Bush’s introduction to Rock / Paper / Scissors published by Nick Hern Books. Save 20% on your copy when you order direct from the Nick Hern Books website here.

The plays are in production at Sheffield Theatres until 2 July. For more information, and to book tickets, visit the Sheffield Theatres website.

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‘He was a giant in the world of theatre’ – a tribute to Peter Brook

Three plays, one cast, all at the same time: Chris Bush on her ambitious dramatic triptych Rock / Paper / Scissors

Some Guiding Principles

1. Shakespeare is for everyone

2. The power of play and kinaesthetic learning

3. Shared ownership

Putting Principles into Practice

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10. Wendy & Peter Pan by Ella Hickson

9. Philip Pullman’s Grimm Tales, adapted for the stage by Philip Wilson

8. Machinal by Sophie Treadwell

7. Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons by Sam Steiner

6. The Hound of the Baskervilles, adapted by Steven Canny and John Nicholson from the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle

5. Nell Gwynn by Jessica Swale

4. Brainstorm by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim and Company Three

3. Around the World in 80 Days, adapted by Laura Eason from the novel by Jules Verne

2. Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale

1. Ladies’ Day by Amanda Whittington

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A is for… Activism

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**10. Wendy & Peter Pan by Ella Hickson**

**9. Philip Pullman’s Grimm Tales, adapted for the stage by Philip Wilson**

**8. Machinal by Sophie Treadwell**

**7. Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons by Sam Steiner**

**6. The Hound of the Baskervilles, adapted by Steven Canny and John Nicholson from the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle**

**5. Nell Gwynn by Jessica Swale**

**4. Brainstorm by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim and Company Three**

**3. Around the World in 80 Days, adapted by Laura Eason from the novel by Jules Verne**

**2. Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale**

**1. Ladies’ Day by Amanda Whittington**