Are You There Mother? opens Thursday 13th August at the Etcetera Theatre, following a struggling actor who poses as a psychic medium. Learn more about what you can expect:
1: What first inspired Are You There Mother?
A few different things, but mainly I have always been drawn to stories of co-dependent psychological relationships and stories that snowball, especially when the ending is so incredibly far removed from where we first started. I never try to manufacture it, but I do love an audience reaction based around “I never saw the ending coming”. The best endings in my head are ones that are shocking yet inevitable and I have been very fortunate that Mother in performance has led to that reaction.
2: The play balances dark comedy with grief. What drew you to that combination?
I think it’s a very Northern balance and is found a lot more in my work based in the North, then when I stray from it. I love a piece of theatre that does aim for a variety of emotions and have those emotions have distinct polarities. What is more different than comedy and sadness? The show is heavily indebted to the work of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, who often follow this balance in their work, so it would mean the absolute world if either could make any date.
3: What are the most unique challenges of creating this show?
Working on a one man show has been gruelling really – now of course this is not coal mining or underwater welding, but it’s removed much of the joy of acting and performing for me. I love rehearsal and discussion and inside jokes and working with a large cast, so with all that removed I’ve had to really drill down and focus on the task at hand. It is only now with us finally in performance with audiences and finally working with my tech and script advisor Rhian Holmes and my producer Jazz Sewsanker, that Mother is becoming a thing of joy for me. Again, thank God the audiences are enjoying it or else I wouldn’t have that either!
4: Why do stories of grief often work well alongside comedy?
Humour is the great coping mechanism and I think so much grievous and aggravating talk of political correctness and the phraseology around what can and can’t be laughed at, has been weaponised by lazy comics wanting to shock and has removed the context that humour can and should be used to look at things that upset us and even scare us. However with Mother it’s actually the other way around, instead of the comedy being used as a release from the grief, we use grief and emotionality as the curb against the comedy as the play continues. We have some pretty large characters and so empathy drives us at all times.
5: How long did it take to develop the script?
I write incredibly quickly. I think of ideas for quite a while, but the writing is often very fast, much to the chagrin of many of my other more deliberate writer friends. It’s not to say that it’s all gold of course, but I have written so much for so long that I can proudly say now that I am not only a speedy writer, but also a prolific one and thankfully a frequently well received one. However I have never wished to write or perform a one man show. I love working with ensembles and creating as a group experience, however with Philip Stokes and 412 Productions the opportunity arose for me to make my professional debut at the Lawrence Batley Theatre Huddersfield, however it had to be a one man show. Are You There Mother is a concept that has stook with me and never really found its form. It was something I used for a BBC contest that I didn’t get, then for a 10 minute play contest that I didn’t get, but it kept sticking around. So to answer your question 179 words after you asked it – I could say a week or five years.
6: What has been the most enjoyable part about creating Am You There Mother?
The show is a story and character led dark northern comedy entirely in the tradition of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, one of my biggest creative inspirations, so writing and performing in that tradition has been an amazing full circle moment. Revelling in the challenges of the form and having the play be met with such amazing audience and critical reaction has only bolstered the entire experience to be one of the most creatively satisfying of my career thus far.
Are You There Mother? opens Thursday 13th August at the Etcetera Theatre. Many thanks to Thomas Carruthers for answering our questions. Book your tickets here!
Leave a Reply