And The Beat Goes On

I am a bit of a luvvie at heart; a night at the theatre is one of my favourite ways to while away a few hours. My friend Lizzi was the Director of The Federation of Scottish Theatre for while (which sounds far grander that it was) and I’d chum her along to opening nights across the land. We saw some amazing theatre… and some serious belters! 

For me, the best bit about theatre is you don’t need the giant budgets of London’s West End to do it well.  One of my favourite plays was three people in a backroom in Edinburgh somewhere, called Yellow Moon.  The quality of the writing and performance of the actors will always carry a play into being something worth watching, remembering and talking about.

Here in the small city, Horsecross not only acts as a venue for theatre, but it also works with small companies looking to produce original plays and bring fresh talent to the stage.  For me this is a fantastic facility; it gives young playwrights and actors a chance to hone their craft whilst bringing fresh, new theatre to the people of the small city.

One such play is And The Beat Goes On, an original production between Horsecross and Random Accomplice which is showing at Perth Concert Hall Friday 3^rd and Saturday 4^th April.   Jonny from Random Accomplice has worked closely with Kenny Miller of Horsecross and it was inevitable that they would, at some point, come together on a joint project they could call their own.

Enter Stef Smith, an award winning playwright who they commissioned to write the short 90 minute play for them.

“Jonny and I have always had a mutual love of Cher, which seems as good a foundation as any for building a friendship! We always thought that maybe one day we’d do a show with a Cher influence but like everything, life got in the way and it never came about.

When approached me about his collaboration with Horsecross I knew this was our chance.  We didn’t want to write a biopic, just use ‘Cher’ as a jumping off point. We both like dark stories, both like to surprise an audience  and once we came up with the basic plot it really flowed from there.”

Stef met up with Penny and Jonny (Random Accomplice) for collaborative meetings several times before the play was complete. I was curious as to how the creative process for play writing works and Stef explained that there are restrictions in place that don’t exist with a piece of prose. For instance, knowing there was only one set – the garage – affected how she wrote the piece and subsequently how this was explained within the dialogue. It is tiny details like this that you don’t realise when you’re sitting in audience, soaking up the atmosphere of a stage play. I have a new found respect for playwrights!

“After a few development readings I need to leave it with the producer. I trust Kenny a great deal so really, when I was popping in it was just to be nosey. After rehearsals start its much more their job than mine. 

We do keep conversation going and an open collaboration but usually these changes are ironed out at the development stage.”

I ask Stef how she knows when something is finished speaking as someone who could re-read and change a Big Personality blog about eight times!)

“I don’t know that you do know. There’s a great old saying that a poem is never finished, it’s just abandoned.   I don’t think I ever abandoned anything but I am a perfectionist by nature and so I need to get to a stage where I just put it down and say ‘I’ve done all I can.’ But things always evolve and change and I accept that.  If it needs tweaks once rehearsals start then that’s okay.”

Stef tells me she is really proud of the And The Beat Goes On piece; it opened in Glasgow last Tuesday and after three nights there came to Perth where it enjoyed an opening night on April 2^nd.

“It can be nerve-wracking. Playwriting is an incredibly private process that in one 90minute set becomes an incredibly public show.  I’m never quite prepared for that!  But the audience laughed, they were generous and it was a joyous experience for all of us.  We held hands on this one and jumped in and I felt emboldened being part of it.”

***

RG and I headed out last night to the opening of And The Beat Goes On. Having spoken to Stef I was prepared a little for the story but of course, the great thing about theatre is that it is the performance itself that will carry you along the writer’s path.

The set, as we know, was a small garage and there were no changes to this for the single act, 90 minutes show.  Combined with the fact that there were only three actors you would be forgiven for thinking this might become quite tired, quite quickly. However, the dark comedy that ran through the heart of this uniquely personal story combined with its eye-popping costumes (or lack of them when it came to Peter/ Sonny) pulls you into the tragic tale of Peter and Lily and leaves you pondering the strange things that grief will do a person.

If that makes it sound too dark, too terrible then I will apologise.  The spectacle of Peter/Sonny standing in red socks, tan Y-Fronts and Japanese style kimono is one that will remain with me for a very long time.  And Lily/ Cher’s red shiny catsuit was trumped only by her snakeskin platforms and pink and white spotty socks worn with a see-through nightie and flammable seventies dressing gown.   This is exactly what I will think of every time I hear And The Beat Goes On.

And I should really mention pregnant Joan’s crimped side ponytail and sailor dresses…. Eighties flashback-tastic!

The writing is clever, one liners peppering the dialogue and lifting a window onto a life that has been touched by tragedy and moved forward with obsessional level commitment and a compulsive desire to believe that it all might come good again.  OCD, grief, guilt, lies and obsession… all three characters have been touched the very real flaws of human nature.

I loved it; I like dark humour, that raw, human emotion that makes us laugh when we know we should be weeping.  And I am a huge fan of small, cleverly produced indie plays that abandon budget and showmanship and take an audience on a journey through a life that could happen to anyone of us.