Fringe Theatre.
It's hard trying to break through into the mainstream, very hard. Sometimes it seems unnecessarily hard - so I'm assuming there are reasons for this. I've written quite a volume of well reviewed work now in the TALES FROM PARADISE HEIGHTS series of plays (and indeed films) that tell tales for today. They work very well on their own as stand-alone tales. But, as audiences and reviewers have found out, these seperate tales are all linked by either character, location or event in the history of the community - creating a living breathing world that is continually rippling outwards with each tale. There's plenty more to come. So far so good...
But I've seen something today that has reignited a fire inside me, around certain theatre's policies or attitudes to new work - i.e. 'we only show premieres'. It's incredibly frustrating and limiting for new productions. If you're trying to make a mark as a new writer you might not want to wait 12 months or more to get your allocated 2 -3 night slot in the venue you'd love to play, you want to get your play out there and work towards that venue. But if you do that you lose the slot because you've shown it somewhere else months before. I'm a bit naive when it comes to this approach and I don't understand it. Can you imagine if cinema took the same approach? The AMC in Manchester refuses to show 'THE AVENGERS' or 'THE DARK KNIGHT RISES' because they've been shown at The Cornerhouse. 
The Royal Exchange in Manchester for instance. I LOVE THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. I would love to get in there with more than one of the TALES FROM PARADISE HEIGHTS plays - to even have a studio season there to show how the tales all work independantly but are all also linked, a season that showed say - one play a month from the series...but I can't because they have been on elsewhere. Studios are predominantly meant for new work, experimental work - and as a chance to get your work seen by regular theatre going audiences. To have a 'Oh you've done it somewhere else' (even if it was 12 months ago) approach is just non supportive. Jim Cartwright's Two has it's preview there tonight and runs till mid Feb. I'll be checking it out, it's so well known for audiences and indeed actors showcasing. I did it years ago in The Briton's Protection upstairs room whilst the city was going through a series of mini earth quakes (remember that?). I was opposite an excellent actress named Donna Henry and it was directed by the very brilliant James 'Jimmy' Foster, I love the play.
We had a problem then getting the rights, it's a long story but I ended up having a chat with Jim Cartwright on the phone and he was more than very helpful to us. I got a bit cheeky - his wife was his agent back then you see - I asked her if she'd like to read some of my stuff. She agreed. She passed them to Jim to read as well, this was before I'd written any of the plays - they were scripts for screen and TV.
He loved them. So much so that he tried to get one of them made for TV through his production company DESTINY FILMS (Strumpett, Vacuuming Naked In Paradise) that he ran with Martin Carr. The script he liked the most was a piece called MILTON WALK. This was a four part drama for TV, set in an Irish village - it was a dark and sinister tale in the vein of RED RIDING, fans of Tales from Paradise Heights will know I do dark well. PETE POSTLETHWAITE read and loved the script and was attached as lead. It looked like I was going to break through. However a new controller took over at ITV, and he discovered that around 5% of the story was a ghost story...'Ghost stories don't work on TV...' was what the new controller decided - and he pulled the plug. I think we've had quite a lot of ghost stories and supernatural stuff on since over the years...yes, it's frustrating.
It still encouraged me to keep writing, I turned to theatre and things seemed to be going well with reviewers and audiences - they still are...The Public Reviews listed Strawberry Jack as one of the top 50 shows from 2011, and they reviewed over 2,000 shows of National and International acclaim, many prestige productions in the West End....
'Gritty urban drama that cements O’Byrne’s reputation as a first rate writer/director, and the new Jimmy McGovern.'
...but I can't get Strawberry Jack into the Royal Exchange Studio, because it was seen by around 200 people in a university theatre in Salford.
The Royal Exchange aren't on their own here, The Lowry Studio (who have been FANTASTIC in their support of us over the last 2-3 years - thankyou Porl Cooper) have just adopted the same policy so we can't go there either. I'm not slating these theatre's for having this policy, both of these venues have been absolutley magnificent in their promotion and development of new work, providing the theatre going public with the opportunity of hearing new voices...but I'm moaning about is that policy. How does that help a new writer and new production? Finishing on a positive The Octagon Theatre, Bolton (who premiered Two way back in 1989, Jim Carwrights early days) have also been massively supportive of a new Bolton writer. They showed The Bench last September and there will be a Tales from Paradise Heights night there in May, exploring the ripples and links in the series and later in the year they will be showing Strawberry Jack...thanks to Elizabeth Newman.
No more moanin' now, I still love The Royal Exchange and The Lowry and hope I'm still on their Christmas card list...onwards and upwards.
God, I need a fag...
Joe x
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