In 2012 Grin Theatre Productions produced their ultimate piece of work so far, three short plays centred on women and the very different lives they can take. The three pieces starred Donna Lesley Price, Jennifer Bea and Kayla Keatley as the main focus of the stories and all three actors, writers and Grin Theatre themselves received, quite rightly, much acclaim for what they produced.
Now Grin Theatre, which was set up in 2011 by Simon James and Kiefer Williams, have taken a different direction for their new play Tongues, immersed in the horror genre, the play stars Eddie Fortune, Helen Kerr, Paul Culshaw and Dale Grant and is written by Wes Williams (Mexico, Push, Sweats). Sitting in a world away from the world of anything remotely horror based, perhaps scandalous in the price of a cup of tea, thoughts are impossible to not dwell upon the loss of one of to British Horror writing the previous day as news had filtered through that James Herbert had passed on.
Upon meeting Simon James, it is hard not to like the man who is one half of Grin Theatre. Born in Liverpool, he moved to South Yorkshire when he was two but found his way back to the city of his birth when he was 15. Falling in love with drama at school he found his way into amateur dramatics and whilst he has a full time job, it is quite obvious his love of theatre is an overriding theme of his life.
What made Grin Theatre delve into the world of Horror?
“For two years Grin Theatre has focused on very emotional works, we like witty theatre anyway. Horror is something both myself and Kiefer really like so in contrast with what we did at Queertet last year which was very upbeat, we wanted to do something different to show we can produce something quite contrasting for the theatre. That’s how Tongues was born.”
Having obviously seen the cast list which is really good, was that a purposeful decision?
“As with anything we’ve done, we’ve always conducted open auditions but there are certain people cast in the play who just shone out for us at the auditions. People like Eddie Fortune who is a very versatile and fantastic actor who’s been involved with a lot of really high profile things lately. We’ve got Helen Kerr, she’s getting involved in a lot of things, television work as well, so it’s great to have her on board. There’s Charlie Griffiths who was supposed to be in it as well but she had to pull out due to other commitments which we were really gutted about. We very much wanted people we knew who were very adaptable actors and who could do the work involved with it, the script demands a lot from them.”
Charlie’s very much in demand and quite rightly so as well.
“To get Charlie was a coup I must admit but due to Charlie’s other commitments it just wasn’t possible. When she came to the audition she was cast as the female role in Tongues, but due to a change in performance dates she unfortunately couldn’t do it.”
You say that you wanted to change direction slightly with the theatre but the three plays that you produced Of 3 Women and the subjects they were written around and performed at The Casa and Parr Street were stunning but much shorter. Is it more difficult to arrange a larger piece, especially for Horror?
“We have focused on quite small pieces so far to date, Again with Tongues we wanted to move away from them. Tongues is our very first full-scale play so it did bring many challenges with it. It’s been easy so far working with the one cast and script so in some ways it gels together more so you’ve got more time to work on that. In other ways, it does throw up more challenges as well with the complex script and to get the flexibility and to be very dedicated too. I think we wanted to show that we’re not just about 20 or 30 minute plays, that we can do more. Horror is quite tough to do to get it right. It will be interesting to see how it’s received.”
It is weird talking about it the day after James Herbert passed away and you’re doing this Horror play now. Transferring Horror to a play; sometimes is not done well and when it’s done right, it’s brilliant.
“What first strikes you about the script is that it’s been really well received by everyone who’s working on it. It’s been written in a way so it leaves more for the audience psychologically than in the visual, which is something we try to do a lot with our plays. We try not to send a message out but try to leave the audience with something to go away with. Someone might have a certain perspective on it, someone else might have another. That’s something that we’re keen to do with Tongues. It deals very much with psychological aspects to the unfortunate history of the main character involved, which is essentially what the audience should do is draw their own conclusions from. We’ve tried to stay away from strobe lights and all that which can look good but like I said, we are using a small, dark space anyway, claustrophobic in some ways. People are going to be sat very close together so to get that psychological aspect across to the audience, they are in reaching distance so hopefully we’ll have that factor in the play.”
What were your favourite Horror films or books that have gone on into inspire you?
“Personally, I’ve always liked Horror, the classics like Psycho, right through to American Horror Story which has been very successful and really grips me. For me, it’s more about the psychological side of it. People peeping out from behind a building going ‘boo’ is okay for some people but you know what really gets my attention is when you’re reading a good story or watching a good play, which keeps you enthralled, what’s going on. You have to get the audience involved with it; you get them to make the story up in their heads so they can go away and suppose what’s gone on.”
That’s why the likes of Hitchcock’s Psycho works better on film and newer films like Saw play with people’s minds.
“Those are really good examples that I’d use myself. Horror films have a huge following but so do the other sub-genres in it as well. Personally, I like the psychological concept, its one reason why Hitchcock’s films for me works better for me that the blood and gore films like Nightmare On Elm Street or ones like it. Someone wielding a machete across a screen for two hours does not do it for me, once I’ve seen one, I’ve seen them. Those ones when you’re not sure what’s going on – is it a supernatural thriller or emotional with the main character involved or any which leave you to make up your own mind about it are the films that really interest me.”
Grin Theatre – it’s quite a powerful set that you’ve made together, does that come across in the writing – the different personalities that you bring to it?
“I think so, I mean, we’ve got a varied range of plays from comedies to something like Tongues. We’re very keen to be collaborative with other companies and local writers and often put out writer’s calls. I think there’s a bit of personality from the Liverpool cultural scene as well, which is something that we’re very keen to have. The way I discuss it with Kiefer is that we are a platform for people to put on their plays. It’s sometimes very hard for a writer to get something on stage. So as a production company, we’d like to provide that opportunity to someone who can produce a script that deserves to be seen. We’ll say we’ll get you on stage; we’ll get you the actors, directors and let’s get on with it. It’s how we wanted to start off and we’ve done really well particularly with Queertet last year because of all the different writers and directors, different casts for each play. It was a huge success for us.”
Going back to the psychological ideas, one of the 3 Women plays featured the excellent actor Jennifer Bea, she was really fabulous as Arabella, changing direction many times?
“That was probably the best received play of that bunch, particularly for that reason. I think the writing for that was 25 minutes and so it’s a short piece of theatre to get all that subject matter in and to have such a versatile actress to be able to change character as you say so quickly but succinctly as well, whilst still being believable, I think it was part of its huge success.”
Where is Grin Theatre going next?
“After Tongues we’re doing Queertet 2013, which is on in July. We’ve got a really exciting project coming up in the autumn where we will be asking people to write, audition, rehearse and produce original plays for us in the space of 24 hours. It’s a big undertaking but we’ve already received a lot of interest so we’re really excited about that. Beyond that, we have a plan in place for the next four years. Something we’re keen to do is to take one of our productions outside of Liverpool to some of the festivals like Buxton or Edinburgh.”
Tongues is on at 81 Renshaw Street on Thursday 4th, Friday 5th and Saturday 6th April
Ian D. Hall