The Play

Dumbfounded. That’s the only way to describe how I felt when I was told that the Artistic Committee had chosen my play ‘According to Claudia’ to launch Playgoers’ new season.  Suddenly, my work was to be presented on the main stage of the Dolman Theatre along with such illustrious writers as Noel Coward, Somerset Maugham, Ira Levin and Richard Curtis. It felt exhilarating – and strangely scary.

I had tasted success as a writer before. My one act plays ‘Bunkered’ and ‘Poor Yorick’ had been among the winning entries in Playgoers’ playwriting competitions and been staged at the Dolman. In fact, ‘Poor Yorick’ had come within a whisker of being published by Samuel French but they declined because they had already committed to another spoof of ‘Hamlet’.

But ‘According to Claudia’ is special as it will be my first full length play to be produced at the theatre. It began as one of many unfinished projects in my writing folder, alongside plays such as ‘Death For Beginners’ and ‘Love Songs From The Madhouse’. Like much of my writing it was compiled from several ideas that I had started and abandoned over many years. I decided to resurrect some of these jottings in a new play. I had a few scenes about a family haunted by secrets from the past, a storyline about a reformed East End crook and a breakfast scene with an elderly squabbling brother and sister. Feeling this would make a good opening I started to pull all the threads together, determined to write a play that was more than a comedy and had really meaty roles for women, as I felt these were few and far between.

Once I had written a first draft that I was happy with I showed it to my fiercest critic – my wife, Caroline. She suggested ways to improve it. After another re-write we invited members of Playgoers round for a reading. Hearing people read the lines is invaluable. They asked very pertinent questions – “What happened to my character? She had nothing to do in the second act!” – and put forward some very useful suggestions. 

Writing is about re-writing. You have to be prepared to ditch whole scenes and start again. Several re-writes later I invited the Playgoers round for a second reading. This time there were fewer suggestions for improvement and general agreement that it was a good play – and that gave me the confidence to submit it to the Artistic Committee. They not only selected it but asked Caroline to direct it – which is a bonus for me as she knows the play so well.