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Interviews
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It's About Time at Latitude Corinne Salisbury talks to Joel Horwood about nabokov's production of his play at Latitude 2010 Joel Horwood is a bit of a Latitude veteran - an acclaimed young playwright whose association with new writing companies such as nabokov, DryWrite and the Bush has resulted in him having work shown at the festival for three years running and, at his own estimation, last year about five shows had his involvement. This year he is cutting back to a mere two: but his main project should make a big impact. Again produced by nabokov, It's About Time is a "play with songs", a musical collaboration with Arthur Darvill - an actor and composer previously known for writing the music for Che Walker's Been So Long, and now also, slightly surreally, recognisable as Rory in Doctor Who. The piece originated when the two were invited by nabokov to collaborate on a cross-arts creation that would weave together theatre and music for Hampstead Theatre's Daring Pairings festival in the autumn of last year. That scratch performance, 20 minutes long or so, has now been developed into a full hour-long show. The basic premise is the same: two old friends, who once played in an admittedly terrible band, reunite, with one trying to persuade the other to reform the group, and the other about to get married and trying to settle down and be a real adult. We follow them for the two chaotic, debauched days leading up to the proposed "big reunion gig", to be held, of course, in the theatre tent at Latitude. Says Horwood, "It's a lot darker than the premise might make it sound: really, it's about the grimy dirt of trying to salvage a friendship when two people have been growing apart for a while… It gets pretty thoughtfully into the depths of the idea of friendships being stretched." "I think in some ways, for me, I Caught Crabs in Walberswick (his play for Eastern Angles, which toured and played at the Bush in 2008) sort of ended at adolescence, now here's the grown up version of the same story, what it's like to try and break up a friendship." It's also a bit of an off-kilter romance, with the straightlaced main character getting reunited with his old flame. However, "what I wanted to do was complicate those stories: I wanted to set it up as though it could be one of those classic love stories, but actually I wanted to tell the modern version of one of those, so it's much more baggage-ridden and complicated and stupid and clumsy and awful and awkward." I ask how he thinks audiences will react to a show that turns out to be not the light-hearted musical they might have thought it was. He's happy to be defying some expectations - "I'm trying to put the audience on stage in a way - to put familiar characters on stage in front of a load of Latitude theatre-goers - and tell a story that's perceptive, that a late-20s/early 30s festival-going audience, who might not have necessarily seen much theatre before, will respond to, because they recognise themselves up there." Though they might not like everything they see: "the play is partly trying to investigate why we go to festivals and get hammered and shit-faced and then go back to work - why it's the sort of acceptable side of our binge culture." Horwood feels that concern over what a festival audience can take or will respond favourably to shouldn't put writers off trying to deal with some serious themes. "It's very easy for the theatre tent to become kind of just another cabaret tent. Whereas what I loved about doing Sudden Loss of Dignity (the Bush's compilation show at Latitude last year) was that it made you realise you can't just do a sketch show: it has to be funny, but also people want a bit of story, that's why they come in there and don't just go to the comedy tent." So with It's About Time, he aims to "give them a lot of shiny things and a lot of fun, humour etc, but also something with a bit of meat on it, so they go back out into the festival with something to think about; and hopefully enjoying the rest of the festival more, because the show's meant to be ultimately quite uplifting." And the music - how is it being woven in? Horwood and Darvill are actually taking their inspiration from the classic musicals such as West Side Story, where the songs are placed at the most dramatic moments in the narrative, so that they have the job of exposing the key emotions of the characters, and moving the story along. So, says Horwood, "the music is heightened dialogue really. …And then there's a few bits of diegetic music, as in the songs are actually happening in the world of the play, because of course in the story they're working towards a gig." The director, Hamish Pirie, is "a real bright spark", says Horwood. And of course, Darvill's involvement this year might also have some strange side effects - what would he think if some Doctor Who fanboys showed up? "I think that'd be brilliant" he laughs. Horwood's other piece at the festival is a contribution to DANCE:RADIO - the latest show from innovative company DryWrite. This year they've challenged several playwrights to write a short radio play that will act as a "soundtrack in words", to accompany a routine by an internationally acclaimed choreographer. So the dancers dance to the words rather than to music; and so a story emerges to explain their movements. As well as this, though, Horwood's keen just to take in the festival as a whole: particularly all the theatre that this year is spilling out onto the outdoor stages as well. It's About Time is taking its final shape over the next few weeks, with a series of read-throughs and re-writes - "so it will gradually set like awful jelly", Horwood grins. We've been warned, but I don't think he'll be able to put us off.
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