‘Ill-fated Associations’ - James Metcalf writes about a life shattered by war
Rachael Parker shares three of her poems with The Yorker
The Yorker talks to three student playwrights premiering their work in the Drama Barn next term.
A poem by J Cridford exploring the imagination and quest for belonging
Rose: We realized quite early on that it was tricky to explain… but we were given ample opportunity to work it out during auditions! The play tells the story of a relationship that’s crumbling: the younger and older counterparts of one couple share the same space. The set, a hotel room, is both the younger couple’s hotel room in Paris, 1991, and the older couple’s room in a hotel off the M5 in the present day. The audience looks through the hotel window and into the insecurities and issues of the couple, and explores change over time…
Charles: I’m glad you answered that question because I would have flailed and said something like, ‘it’s about this hotel room that’s like playing two hotel rooms…’ which sounds a bit crap. So yes, I agree with what Rose said. Oh, and it’s a black comedy so it’s hopefully not as depressing as it sounds!
C: I honestly can’t remember, I’ve had the idea for the concept (the hotel room doubling up and telling a story of a relationship using 4 actors to play past and present versions) for a few years but I’m not sure where it sprang from. If I had to cite any other writers as being particularly inspiring I would probably point to Woody Allen and Edward Albee (who wrote Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf) although if our play is half as good as anything they’ve ever written I’ll be ecstatic. Also, real life is pretty inspiring: the character of Younger Cassandra (Laura Horton) is based on the most pretentious parts of everyone we know, she’s an English lit student with aspirations of becoming a writer so there’s quite a lot of us in the character as well.
R: Yes, that is certainly the longer road to where we are now- the catalyst for the shorter process was a very, very drunk conversation in the early hours at a house party last term. Charles and I were left outside waxing lyrical with our red wine and big ideas, and I woke up with a colossal hangover but a very exciting project on my hands- albeit one I couldn’t remember in its entirety!
R: It’s been surprisingly easy, and really, really fun- we didn’t know each other that well before we started writing, so it could have been a bit of a train wreck… but dividing up who was going to write what was really natural, and we both had preferences for different parts and different points so it has worked out that the play is very evenly split. I honestly don’t think the play would be nearly as good if only one of us had written it; Charles is a fantastic writer (gushing, I know, but it’s true) and I feel like we both brought really different, but equally important, things to the script. We have kind of morphed into this two-headed monster; Chose, or Rarles, we have decided. Chose is us on a bad day, Rarles is us on fire. I haven’t had as much fun working with anyone else at university, that’s for sure. Cringeworthy moment over!
C: Ditto. It’s been a great experience. When we first started I think I was waiting for there to be a moment of conflict but it literally never happened. I think we both really appreciated having someone to weed out the occasional clunking line: there was a line I wrote about ‘a sock full of doorknobs’ which will now never see the light of day, thank God. To be honest I really couldn’t have asked for another writing partner (vom).
R: That’s an example of Chose.
C: Amazing. It’s been really exciting seeing the barn morph into a hideous cheap hotel room (with the help of Betty, our marvellous producer) plus our cast are wonderful so it’s been great seeing the characters that have been cooped up in a Word document for months finally come to life.
R: It has been really cool, but also very scary… as Charles said, our cast has done the most fantastic job at bringing the play to life. They have all offered really valuable insight, and it’s been so much fun transforming the Barn into a really naff, offensively beige room!
R: It’s really hard to think of both- best because there have been loads of memorable moments. Getting our cast was a pretty great feeling, and tearing up during our first dress rehearsal was probably another… and I genuinely can’t really think of a worst. The times when I’ve been alone during prod week have been the worst, actually. I have been having anxiety nightmares all week, involving the play, line issues, tech problems and really bizarrely, Jeremy Clarkson. Weird.
C: The best part of the process for me was probably getting the cast and hearing the lines read aloud for the first time at our readthrough. Other cherished memories include Rose dancing to Deee-Lite’s ‘Groove is in the Heart’ on Vanbrugh stalls in order to drum up publicity (it had the opposite effect) oh, and painting, I find it very relaxing. My worst moment was probably when I fell through a table in front of a room full of people at recalls. It was highly embarrassing but I guess at least it broke the ice.
C: First and foremost, I would encourage them because it is a lot of fun. I would also suggest that they go and see lots of plays in the drama barn to get an idea of what works in the space and see how versatile it is. Also, if they were planning to co-write, I would get them to make sure that they are happy with their co-writer and that both of them were on the same page. I was very very lucky in this respect but for every Rose there are a number of thorns!
R: Chose. But seriously, I would encourage anyone who even thinks they have the beginning of an idea to take it and run with it- the Barn is an incredibly supportive environment to explore your talents or ambitions… and co-writing is a really great way to get started in this arena, as it can be a little bit daunting. My advice would be to…reach, for the stars! (S Club 7 are a huge influence on my writing).
Couldn't Ask For Another shows this Friday - Sunday in the Drama Barn. Tickets £3.50/£4.50 members/non-members, available at Vanbrugh Stalls 12pm - 2pm tomorrow or OTD.
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