After The Tone opens Tuesday 13th October at The Bread and Roses Theatre, exploring the complexities of a modern landscape. Learn more about what you can expect:
1: Where did the idea for After the Tone come from?
It started with a University module last year, Performance Writing. I had written many scripts before and one week before the deadline I looked at the script I had… and hated it. It lacked heart, punch or any connection to me, the writer. So I sat in a coffee shop, zero plans and wrote and wrote… and wrote. Through many sessions of stream of consciousness writing I found a common denominator in theme- our connection to mortality in the modern day. I streamlined the material and sent it off. A year on that piece was performed at Chichester Fringe Festival and after extensive rewrites, streamlining the piece and working with a new set of brilliant performers, After The Tone is ready for the Bread and Roses stage.
Maybe not the best way to sell the piece but I believe this rawness in the infancy of the work has ultimately allowed me to explore incredibly intense and emotional themes in an unfiltered and unapologetic way!
2: What made you want to explore loneliness, fatigue and human connection through theatre?
I think, in a really rather sad way, loneliness and fatigue are emotions that most of us are all too familiar with and I believe human connection is one of the few ways to remedy that. These emotions can be felt even in environments we want or choose to be in. I’m a writer and I experience these feelings on the daily but at the same time I love my own space!
Unfortunately, for the three characters in After The Tone, these connections have either never been made or fully realized and as a result, in addition to many other things revealed in the play, they decide their time on this Earth should come to an end. A feeling that is all too often felt by so many, a decision that is made every day and I don’t want to sugar coat that. However, I want to focus on how someone can be driven to make such a drastic decision and how we can make sure we stay connected, with ourselves and with others.
3: How important are seemingly insignificant interactions in our lives?
So so important! A compliment to a stranger can make them smile for the first time in months; a throw away comment can remind someone of the way they were belittled as a child, the list can go on. Small interactions can be more significant to some people than others, but there is still an effect, a change, a response.
For example, being a transgender woman, working in a town with a considerably older population, being told and celebrated for being a “Billy Joel girl” made my week and for the lady who said it, she probably didn’t think twice, but two years on I still remember that feeling with such authenticity.
4: The show’s description mentions watching someone’s thoughts rapidly fire as a kind of defence. How did you approach portraying something so internal and psychological on stage?
You’ll have to see ;). But I will say the genesis of the piece stream of consciousness exercises for a neurodiverse writer may give you a clue… Ultimately this has been one of the biggest challenges in the creation of After The Tone! After the initial script read the actors clicked instantly with the material: the change in pace, the emotional switches. Everything! You are in for a treat watching three magnificent performers in this show that I have the utmost privilege to work with!
5: What do you hope audiences take away with them after watching the play?
It’s never too late for your life to change. Embrace the chaos, feel the pain but also feel the love and talk, connect with your fellow humans because that feeling cannot be replaced, no matter how much you talk to your AI chatbot…
6: What has been the most enjoyable part about creating After the Tone?
Waking up in the middle of the night with the most random idea, writing it down, then trying to decipher it in the morning. A lot of those ideas don’t make it into the final piece, but they often lead to trails of thoughts and new ideas! I can never force my creativity, as annoying as that is but when those moments arrive, where the creative juices flow, I am so glad I have the ability to
articulate my incredibly busy brain through words, on a page.
After The Tone opens Tuesday 13th October at The Bread and Roses Theatre. Many thanks to Alice Rochford for answering our questions. Book your tickets here!
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