An Enemy for the People

That Bad News, Good News Thing Again

2006-12-04T03:49:00.000-08:00

So after much to-ing and fro-ing to the Arts Council, and much hard work from Adele and Sarah in putting together budgets, we are not going to be funded to do a tour of the play in Wales. There had been talk of getting something up in time for the Assembly elections next spring, but that now will not happen. There we go.

After receiving this news, we let various people who'd expressed an interest in taking the show know we wouldn't be in a position to tour. One bunch of people were the Bush Theatre in London, who have been incredibly supportive and enthusiastic all along. Last week the Bush got in touch, and asked if they could take out a licence, with a view to doing their own production of the play some time in the next twelve months. While this doesn't absolutely definitely mean they'll put the show on, no-one in this business can afford to throw money away, and so the signs are good. But... what an irony that work we struggle to put on in Wales, about Wales, gets ignored here, but is taken up by London and the world beyond.

I suppose we should be used to it by now.

Bad News, Good News, and an Upshot

2006-10-02T07:14:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I mentioned that Paines Plough had decided to do a new play of mine in autumn 2007. The play is called The Waiting Room, it's about class and gentrification, and it's set in contemporary Cardiff. Paines Plough are a massively respected, world-renowned company, but they're also fairly small, and they stretch their budget by making sure they co-produce everything they do. They had been looking for a Welsh co-producer for my play, but have been unable to find one. Sgript Cymru were initially enthusiastic, but given that they're about to merge with the Sherman, and it's not clear who will be running the new company, they were unable to commit to co-producing the tour. And because there is no-one in Wales to co-produce a piece of new Welsh work, Paines Plough are not now going to do my play. It would be financially crippling for them to produce it solo: and they have plays set in places like Manchester or Liverpool or London, and find that theatre companies from Manchester and Liverpool and London are eager to co-produce those plays with them.

In contrast: I've just found out that another play I've been working on, called We That Are Left, is going to be produced in spring 2007 by the Palace Theatre in Watford, which has just been taken over by Brigid Larmour. We That Are Left is set in the south east of England, both in the present day and in 1940.

I've been a professional writer for six years now. Wales is the default setting for all my work, because Wales is where I come from, Wales is where I live, and the voices I hear all around me every day are Welsh voices, of various different flavours. But it's impossible for me to avoid the conclusion that whenever I write about Wales, I'm handicapping myself as a playwright. Because I'm writing plays for a country that doesn't really want plays. Or at least not my plays. I should probably take the hint and just, you know, piss right off.

Wales extracts vowels in psychic defence

2006-10-01T05:56:00.000-07:00

Hwre! It's working...

Global Recognition

2006-09-09T02:01:00.000-07:00

The current issue of Planet (number 178) features an extended review of Enemy, along with some lovely production shots by Kirsten. Available from your local library and all good book shops (if you live in Wales).

edit: and now reproduced here on Theatre in Wales.

yp-dêt

2006-09-06T04:00:00.000-07:00

The Bush in London and the Traverse in Edinburgh have expressed an interest in taking the show if we can put together a tour, and obviously we'd like the play to be seen across Wales and to have another run in Cardiff. So Adele and Sarah have drawn up a budget and have applied to ACW... and now we wait and see.

In the meantime I'm working on a new play for the Young Company of the National Theatre of Scotland. And here are the Young Company, in all their youth and beauty - actors Scott, Neil, Kirstin and Maryam in the front, director Steve at the back (producers Sarah and Pamela out of the picture, doing some work). Don't they look happy? Of course they do. Because they are young, talented, they are doing jobs they love; and they haven't read my script yet.

What a difference a fortnight makes...

2006-08-03T02:51:00.000-07:00

Having had time to think, David Adams has posted another review here on Theatre-in-Wales.

Review - Western Mail

2006-07-25T01:49:00.000-07:00

David Adams gave the play a lovely review in the Western Mail, which Keith Morris has very helpfully put up here, on his Theatre in Wales website.

Less helpfully, the Western Mail waited until Friday 21st of July to print the review, the play having closed five days earlier, on Sunday 16th. Gotta love the way we all pull together in Team Wales...

Review - Metro

2006-07-18T04:12:00.000-07:00

We also got this 4 star review in the Metro on the 14th July by David Baldwin:

A word of warning for any staunch Welsh patriots: you might want to steer clear of this new play from proud cynic Gary Owen. Although the nation it's set in is never referred to as Wales, the political backbiting and rants against the pathetic arrogance of its people have very obvious targets. Like a stage-bound episode of BBC satire The Thick of It, curses and accusations fly in a razor-edged script given life by a fine cast of four. Steffan Rhodri's First Minister is the standout, a man who believes in the freedom of the people but can't believe in the people themselves.

Which is great- but we did have a number of staunch Welsh patriots in who absolutely loved it!

The Cat from Porlock

2006-07-15T04:24:00.000-07:00

Oh God, I hope we get to do this play again, because I know I can make it better. Yesterday afternoon I had a long conversation with my girlfriend, who is a genius script editor and writer, and she pointed out that there is something small but important missing in the last scene. Within minutes I had a new version of the last scene in my head, almost identical to the version that exists now, just a little different but an awful lot better. And then I woke up this morning and dozed for a moment, and half-dreamed, half-imagined Sian and Terry speaking the new lines in my head. And I was just about to get up and scribble the lines down - when the cat jumped on the bed, and settled her elegant little head on my ankle. So of course I had to stay there until she'd had a twenty minute nap and no longer needed me as a head rest. And of course during that time I drifted off to sleep myself. And of course when I woke, I couldn't remember anything that Sian and Terry had been saying.

Cats are brilliant.

A review!

2006-07-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

Finally...

Our Friend in the Rhondda

2006-07-14T02:01:00.000-07:00

Leighton Andrews came to see the play on Wednesday, and took part in the post-show talk. He gives his opinion on the show here.

Opening Night

2006-07-11T02:15:00.000-07:00

Nervous, anyone?

How to cope in a declining civilisation

2006-07-06T03:48:00.000-07:00

I have a new spiritual mistress. In future, all my plays will aspire to being as emo as this.

behind the scenes

2006-06-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

Whilst managing this production is satisfying it doesn't give one much time to blog. However, safe to say the production is in full swing. I only get the chance to dip into rehearsals at the moment but it was clear from the read through that we are involved in something very exciting. The actors now have lovely office chairs to play with which I self-assembled yesterday, (I was very proud), and whilst the Production Meeting last night threw up a few health and safety issues I believe I have found a way to get everyone out in the event of a fire and not spoil Charlotte's beautiful design. The money is all in, the flyers and posters are in progress - and the image still puts shivers down my spine - all in all a good end to a full week. All I need is an office! I have bounced around from Chapter's wonderful Wi-Fi, to Sgript Cymru, to the Chapter office and theatre, the bank and even to the rehearsal room. No place to call my own though!! Well, I will be doing my DSM part very soon and, from the looks of it, the rehearsal room is the place to be!

My contribution to the blog was always going to be more of a practical nature than an artistic one I really do enjoy having that overview of the whole production. Sitting back and watching rehearsals, or listening to the cast's questions at the Assembly, the discussions on the design last night at the Production meeting. Each little thing adds more to my concept of what the finished product. I get a great satisfaction in knowing that all of the admin is running smoothly, sad though that may be, not because I care about accounts - but because I know it will allow all of the good stuff to happen with ease. Mainly, I am pleased to have a complete company as Dave, our lighting designer joined us last night for the first time bringing with him a few difficult questions and an equal amount of great ideas. I really feel we can make clear progress on all fronts now.

I don't envy Dave and Charlotte the technical drawings though!!

Our Day Out

2006-06-15T00:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the Assembly, to see a plenary session and meet Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood. Watching a plenary session, you sit in a public gallery above the main debating chamber. The AMs are obviously very aware that they're on camera when they're speaking, but equally obviously, have long since forgotten the presence of (or are completely unself-conscious about) the public in the gallery, who can see what the AMs are doing when they're not directly involved in the debate. And so they sit there, surfing the web, texting, emailing, or reading magazines.

But I'm sure a lot of very valuable work gets done as well...

Model Box

2006-06-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is our model box ladies and gentlemen, designed by our designer Charlotte Neville. I am absolutely over the moon about it as, not only does it look beautiful, but it will do many exciting things.

I'll explain a bit about the brief and about what this all means.

Firstly, as the play deals with a referendum, I was interested in incorporating the idea of democracy into the set. And I wanted the audience to experience something different and to take them away from their conceptions of studio theatre. I knew there had to be no black walls, no unambitious set and, despite our budget (!!!) I wanted to work with the kind of scale that one would attribute to great classics.

And as well as this the space has to be a number of locations: an office (which is the primary location), a park, a press conference, a living room and another park. And me and Charlotte share a hatred of people carrying sets on and off and we certainly couldn't fly anything off the stage! So we needed a structure that would allow for multiple locations without changing sets, give the audience a new experience, be large in scale (and hide black walls), beautiful to look at and symbolise democracy.

And what Charlotte has come up with is this: a modernist amphitheatre. The audience will sit along the rows as they would have in ancient Greece and so will be totally 'in' the same space as the play. It also, of course, resembles the new plenary meeting room at the new assembly building. Charlotte will, no doubt, publish something with more details and greater explanation soon....

The Debate

2006-06-10T04:10:00.000-07:00

When Gary and I were first thinking about the play we were keen to organise accompanying events that refected the issues of the play and gave the audience something else to do or see. As the play is so political and leaves huge questions about our current political climate open for the audience to make their own decisions about, we were especially keen that we organise something that gave the audience the opportunity to be heard themselves. We wanted to open up these issues so that they belonged to a public arena and, so, to ensure that the play itself was public property.

What we came up with is a public debate that will be held at 6pm on Thursday 13th June entitled 'How Shall We Live?' And here's the blurb:

Everyone from Socrates onwards has asked, how shall we live? Politicians, and thinkers all through history, have had a vision of what human life is for. And then you get to us, the most advanced civilisation there's ever been - and we duck the only question that counts. We offer people 'more and better choices'. And look at us. All those boring statistics about suicide and addiction and depression. All those boring facts about how the planet is dying.

Should the politicians offer a vision of what human life is for? Or is it ridiculous to expect the First Minister to have anything interesting to say about the meaning of human existence? Following tonight's performance of An Enemy for the People, representatives of all the main parties talk about the Big Questions of Life, the Universe, and Everything - or explain why they don't have to.

More AMs

2006-06-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

In some great news, we are meeting with Leanne Wood AM on Wednesday after a field trip we will be making to watch a plenary meeting at the Welsh Assembly! This will follow our meeting on Monday with Jenny Randerson AM who is coming to meet us to discuss what it's like being an AM. We're really looking forward to these visits and are really grateful for both for their time and what will be invaluable insight.

I think, as we're making a satirical play, we have a duty to ensure that we have done our research so as to raise debate with a level of integrity. Politicians are often people, I think, who are subject to such scrutiny and assumption that it will be fantastic, both in terms of the play and a a member of society, to meet them.

Happy Sad

2006-06-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

My boyfriend Paul read the play (at last) and so I started questioning him about it endlessly. This was followed by my determination that 'I think it also needs to be quite tragic' 'At the end?' 'Yes, but also earlier, it has to be there all the way through.'

And then I got a row because, and quite rightly, my boyfriend said 'But the play is really funny. It should have tragedy but let it pass. Don't go and lose sight of how funny and ultimately entertaining it is'. He was absolutely right.

I'm sure I'm not the only director that has this conundrum- that to justify your involvement you have to remind everyone that life is tragic and drama is about feelings and etc more than about entertainment. Of course it is, and of course there will be an awful lot of sadder and darker resonances within the play. But there is something - an insecurity- about letting pages pass by that are, well, really funny. Maybe it's just me.....

What ultimately we will need to look for is a style and tone that allows the freedom of both tragedy and comedy to be present together AND to allow each to function separately. This sounds really obvious, but it's amazing how often the two things are treated as separate entities (possibly due to my made-up insecurity of the director). It's this mix that the brilliant comedy writers and performers like Ricky Gervais and Charlie Chaplin and Armando Iannuci (to name just a few) do so amazingly.

So we've only got to be as good as them.

No pressure.

AMs

2006-06-06T03:06:00.000-07:00

I have had some trouble finding out about the day-to-day lives of politicians, which I am sure involves so many daily twists and turns, long meetings, visits etc that it would defy assumption and generalisation. And I was unsatisfied that in the rehearsal room we could legitimately say 'well, they would do this in the afternoon/ first thing in the morning' with any conviction.

But help is at hand and we have an actual Assembly Member coming in to speak to us on our first day of rehearsals so that we start out on the right foot. If we are going to make a play about the lives of politicians, then we should damn well make an effort to do so legitimately and with understanding. I'll update with info once we've met and chatted to them!

Contacting us

2006-06-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

By the way, should you feel the urge to contact us, the best email address to use is

ruthisstranger@yahoo.co.uk

If you want to add a comment on the blog, you can by clicking on COMMENT. Any offensive ones will be removed. So there.

One week to go

2006-06-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that we now only have one week to go until rehearsals start.

We've just received the latest draft of the play which is wonderful. I just had a meeting with Sarah organising the schedule. Contracts have been sent out. Model boxes are being finished. Gary is taking a well deserved break. Research is being collated. I'm on a weight gain diet to compensate for the fact that I'm going to shed weight over the next four weeks. Press releases are being written. AND we're getting a cafetiere for the rehearsal room tomorrow (a top priority).

Gary and I talked earlier on in this blog about the fact that we've whipped this together in quite a short space of time. But now it really has hit home that it's actually going ahead! It's going to be on stage in 5 weeks time! I need a drink.

Politics Rocks

2006-06-03T05:04:00.000-07:00

I was going to post a long blog about my dilemma of choosing the music for this play, and the endless internal debate* I've been having about one's personal taste over the play's aesthetic. When I asked Gary what he thought he said 'it has to be cool'. This was going to be hard. Everything I like is so cool....

BUT a solution has arisen. My boyfriend is currently composing a contemporary big band piece of the Welsh Jazz Composers Orchestra, so my life is dominated by his piece an the many other modern takes on the jazz big bands that he (and therefore I) have been listening to. So that's what I'm going to go with. Jazz is going through something of a revival of late. And I'm not talking about the insipid Jamie Cullem or any of those other simpering morons. It's more about the genuinely experimental and hyper-cool eclectics of bands like Polar Bear and guys like Matthew Herbert and most of the Fire Collective.

I think this sort of jazz will be perfect for the play. Cutting edge but consciously referencing and subverting the idea of a older 'standard' form, a great mix of bouncy tunes and doleful pieces that will help the play's journey from seeming comedy to sadness, and I will happily listen to it!

Plus Paul commented that Rhodri Morgan is a big jazz fan....

*Not so internal really- I've moaned to anyone who will listen

Grumble, grumble

2006-06-02T03:40:00.000-07:00

As hyper-sensitive as I am at the moment towards anything to do with Wales and the Welsh in the media, I was cross and tired at a glib bit of Welsh bashing in a re-run of dreadful 80s 'comedy' Up The Garden Path. One hammy lady with 'comedy' glasses and brown dress stated, for no reason, 'I've always had something against the Welsh'. She did end up snogging a Welsh bloke by the end of the episode. I've been privileged to having avoided any prejudice for my nationality despite four years of living in England, so I find it extremely startling when such flippant idiocy is thrown in my face. Actually, I think the big question here is, why the hell was I watching Up the Garden Path?

Book learning

2006-05-31T07:30:00.000-07:00

Seeing as I was 16 when the referendum for Welsh devolution got the YES vote, I obviously had better things to do with my time than take any notice or interest in it. Like become obsessed with The Beatles and form a short lived band with my friend Charlene. So I have arrived at this play with a very patchy knowledge of the whole thing.

So I have started studying from scratch, looking back at the whole history of Welsh politics from Edward I onwards. And I have also started getting a bit cross with the fact that I was never taught anything about this before in school or otherwise. Well, we did learn about Margam Park at school, but I don't think that would give anyone an insight into the overall history of one's country.

Anyway, I have found two books that I would like to recommend as an interesting start to the study of Welsh politics....

Modern Wales by K.O. Morgan.

Bought as a jokey Christmas present by my friend Jamie, it stayed on my bookshelf unlooked at for years. But it has some interesting essays on the birth of Liberalism and self-governance movements like Cymru Fydd and generally the history of independence campaigns, while remaining unsentimental about Wales' place in the UK and the World.

Scotland and Wales: Nations Again? Edited by Bridget Taylor and Katarina Thompson

One of very few books I have found that deal exclusively with the 1997 referendum. Its comparisons of the Welsh and Scottish campaigns for devolution are invaluable and it details the fascinating sociologial and political shifts between the 1997 and 1979 referendums. And it has a foreword by Ron Davies which is brilliant if you're directing a play about a fictional First Minister.

Those are my favourites so far....

Let there be light

2006-05-31T07:23:00.000-07:00

I am happy to announce the latest and last new member to the Enemy team, which is our lighting designer Dave Abra. We've just had a great meeting where I have said things like 'Oh, we can have, like, a slow motion shot like they do in films' and Dave kindly writes down my idea while knowing that it's impossible. And that he has a far better idea anyway. He's very good!

Good News! and less good news...

2006-05-30T03:07:00.000-07:00

Yay! The brilliant Paines Plough, now run by the brilliant Roxana Silbert, have decided they're going to put on a play I've been writing for them called The Waiting Room. The less good news - because The Waiting Room is set in contemporary Cardiff, they want to find a Welsh co-producer for a tour of Wales, in autumn 2007. But surely with the culture minister announcing an extra half a million for English language theatre, someone will step up and collaborate with a world-class company who want to put on a new Welsh play?

I'll see your Montenegro, and raise you a Faroe

2006-05-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

Even smaller than Montenegro are the Faroe Islands, which have a population of 47,000 and have had self-government within the Kingdom of Denmark since 1948. The Faroes are so independent, there are clauses in the Treaties of Rome specifying that the Islands are not part of the EU even though they are part of Denmark, which is.

Years ago I studied at the European Film College in Ebeltoft. People from different countries would hold cultural evenings, giving their fellow students a taste of life back home. I used to recite Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and Bob Delyn lyrics, and claim they were works of medieval Welsh poetry which I had committed to memory. Sigri and Rani from the Faroes had a Faroese cultural evening. It mainly seemed to involve carving up whalemeat and getting people to eat it semi-raw.

I didn't partake. But the canteen stank for days.

Montenegro

2006-05-29T06:12:00.000-07:00

On the 22nd May, the people of Montenegro voted for independence from its union with Serbia. The country has a population of only 700,000, and 86% of the country turned up to vote with 55% voting for independence.

I am not an expert on Welsh independence (although I am trying to get up to scratch) but it increasingly seems, well, unusual that we are not an independent country. It may be the books I'm reading, and it may be because tiny former Yugoslavian regions with populations four times smaller than Wales are confidently (despite the division of support in the country) stepping out on their own despite the economic risks involved.

Sgript Cymru

2006-05-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

In an exciting turn of events, Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard will be producing Enemy For the People in association with Sgript Cymru - Wales' national new writing company. It's a fantastic opportunity to work with a company that has such devotion to new work and who has the generosity and verve to help us on our way! We would love to extend our thanks and our welcome to the team and we look forward to working with you!

I first met Gary in my first theatre job when I was assistant director on Ghost City which was produced by Sgript Cymru in 2004. So things have kind of gone full circle!

Faceless Man

2006-05-24T03:09:00.000-07:00

A little later than planned, I thought I'd post the official image for An Enemy For The People.

This lovely image was created by the wonderful Kirsten McTernan. In creating the image, Kirsten drew upon the horrible experience she had taking photographs of town councillors for a local photographer when she started out in her photographic career! Obviously they all had faces.

Production Manager

2006-05-24T02:56:00.000-07:00

We are yet again extremely happy to welcome someone new onto the team. Sarah Dodd will be our Production Manager- horray!

Cast

2006-05-18T03:56:00.000-07:00

We are now delighted to announce the cast and some of the design/ production team for Enemy For The People....

Terry - Steffan Rhodri

Sian - Claire Cage

Glyn - Ifan Huw Dafydd

Jay - Jonathan Floyd

Designer - Charlotte Neville

Hot Chip

2006-05-18T03:47:00.000-07:00

While things are getting a bit tense in Enemy HQ (more about that again) I have been soothing away my frown lines by listening to the beats of Hot Chip. I will try and get them into the play, but unless Gary adds a scene set in an electro-lounge discotheque I fear there may not be room.

Influences 2

2006-05-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Mary Stuart at the Donmar Warehouse was definitely one of my favourite things of 2005. Astonishingly simple and elegant in its staging, the production's power came from the play's devastating intertwining of the political and the personal, and in the clarity with which Janet McTeer not only demonstrated, but made imperative, the sacrifice Mary Stuart felt she need to make for 'her' country. I couldn't ask for a better model of the loneliness of leadership and the questions surrounding the right to rule.

Gestation

2006-05-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

6 months is an enormous amount of time. If you told someone you were going on a six month holiday they would see you as insanely decadent. If you are with someone for six months it's enough time to form a substantial relationship. It's half a year for God's sake.

But in the theatre six months is not a very long time at all when you need a theatre that has an available space, a playwright with a play that is complete, a fully briefed production team, a design that needs to be realised and a set made in time for rehearsals, publicity material that needs to be at the printers before rehearsals even start, funding applied for and got, and a director who's had some time to think about the play. Most plays today do not get made in six months. And it's incredibly frustrating sometimes to hear that the project that you're raring to attack and is bound to the here-and-now is likely to be produced sometime in 2008.

So, welcome, from me, to our journey to make a play that, if anything (I say with deliberate modesty), just can't wait.

Auditions

2006-05-04T01:03:00.000-07:00

Adele reaches for her mace spray. It was something I said.

Influences

2006-05-03T10:04:00.000-07:00

I loved Armando Iannucci's The Thick of It. And what do you do when you love something? You steal from it.

Only the beginning

2006-05-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

Last autumn, Adele Thomas and I decided to put on a play. I had an idea for a very loose adaptation of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, and in the gap between Christmas and New Year I turned that idea into a first draft. My play, An Enemy for the People, is a comedy about the charismatic leader of a newly self-governing nation on the fringes of Europe. It's going to be on at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, from July 11th to July 16th.