PROGRAMME
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V E
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A COMEDY ABOUT
LIFE, DEATHAND CUSTARD...
DARK LAUGHS
CAST and CREW Name: Paul “Ossie” Osborne Role: Actor Theatrical Experience: Trained as an actor in Cardiff some years ago, directed The York Realist, and Waited for Godot here in the Studio. Custard or Cream?: That would be giving away the plot! If I could have any job I’d be: Performing or writing. Least favourite Vegetable?: Marrow - in any form. My favourite actor is: Ian McKellen on stage, Ronnie Barker on television. My Favourite playwright is: Sean O’Casey Why did you agree to be in Revenge?: The script made me chuckle, and I wanted to pick up a few tips on the subject
Name: Paul Stonehouse Role: Actor Theatrical Experience: Actively involved in the amatuer theatre for over 10 years. Most recently as Estragon in Waiting for Godot at the Theatre Royal. Custard or Cream?: It depends on the purpose, I quite like both even though I am from Middlesbrough - Custard creams are however an exception. If I could have any job I’d be: Actor of course ........ or billionaire philanphropist ....can’t quite decide. My favourite actor is: Theatre = Simon Russell Beale , Film = Daniel Day Lewis. My Favourite playwright is: Jim Cartwright , Alan Ayckbourn , Tom Stoppard. Why did you agree to be in Revenge?: I was at a loose end.... oh ok I really liked the play and Sam could get famous (eventually) and then i might be able to blag a job with him (paid this time). Name: Sam Freeman Role: Director & Writer Theatrical Experience: BA(hons) Theatre, Film and TV, University of Leeds; Performed in school plays at the SJT, worked as an usher, box office, marketing person then marketing officer at YTR. Custard or Cream?: On pie, Custard. On crumble, Custard. Cold from a tin, always Custard. If I could have any job I’d be: An artistic director of a small regional studio theatre, mu ha ha... Least favourite Vegetable?: Aubergine. My favourite actor is: Gene Wilder – The man’s a genius... My Favourite playwright is: Alan Ayckbourn closely followed by Tim Firth and Nick Lane. Why did you agree to be in Revenge?: I wrote the damn thing, agreed to put it on, am directing it, and am quite excited... I brought it upon myself... But in a good way.. Name: Matt Thompson Role: Lighting Designer Theatrical Experience: BA Theatre Production, Freelance Lighting & Sound Designer & Technician across UK, Lighting Designer and Project Manager for SKL, Chief LX for NSDF, Technician at Hull Truck. Custard or Cream?: Custard on everything except Strawberries... That’d just be wrong! If I could have any job I’d be: Lighting Designer working with New Writing. Least favourite Vegetable?: Sprout. My favourite actor is: Al Pacino. My Favourite playwright is: Alan Ayckbourn, John Godber and Nick Lane. Why did you agree to be in Revenge?: I saw my name on the poster. Upon ringing Mr Freeman he confirmed firstly that there weren’t any other lighting designers in the area called Matt Thompson, and secondly that it was his round at the bar for the next 5 years or so. PEOPLE WHO ARE WONDERFUL WHO WE’D LIKE TO THANK, LOTS: Damian Cruden, Dan Bates, Jude Cloke, Paul Veysey, Pauline Rourke, Brian Morrison, Rosemary Bentley, Christopher Randall, Dave Simpson, Andy Furey, Antony Dunn, Abbigail Wright, Duncan Clarke and everyone else at York Theatre Royal who has been interrogated, submitted to questioning, helped out, read scripts or just been plain supportive. John and Marie Freeman, Donald Freed, Damian Cruden (again), Marcus Romer, Claire Bird and everyone else who has read bits of the script prior to performance and helped me develop it! Paul Butler and Dan Crawforth for taking the time to make a documentary and a trailer!
WRITER’S RAMBLINGS Hello and welcome to Revenge. Thanks for buying the programme, I hope that in the following few paragraphs I will write something deep and insightful to justify this purchase. It’s been a strange but weirdly enjoyable experience putting together Revenge. It started, like many thinks in life, by accident. I was attending workshops with the American playwright Donald Freed when he provided a space at the end of the sessions in which people could read their work. ‘Damn’, I thought, ‘I’ve not written anything for ages and not many people seem to be too eager to put anything forward, I’d better write something’. I’d been writing notes during the workshop about an idea for a scene involving two men and a dead person. So, I wandered home and during the following week, lunchtimes and evenings, promptly wrote scene one. Nervously I brought the script along to the next workshop. Cue weird moment number one. Sat on the front row of the audience was James Cromwell (you’ll know him better as Farmer Hoggart from Babe or as the US President in many American Blockbuster’s.) This was unexpected. A member of Hollywood’s A-list was sat on the front row about to listen to a short play that I had written in a week (with sections written post-pub). Fear set in. My heart started to race and why oh why was i sweating suddenly? I have a slight fear of public speaking, it looks so easy but I develop the shakes and that nervous wobble in my voice, this was going to go badly... I decided the best option would be to avoid eye-contact and not read anything. Unfortunately I was spotted by Donald who got me to the front and with the help of Damian Cruden (and his fine South Yorkshire accent) managed to get through the scene. It seemed to go well. People laughed in the right places and seemed to enjoy it! Job done, thought I.... Wrong, ‘you should write the next scene,’ someone said, ‘next scene’ I stammered back? ‘What next scene?’ And so started a weird cycle of writing, fearful reading (to various people in various places), re-writing and adjusting that lead to a complete script. Marvellous. ‘What’s the play about?’ Good question. Because of the way it was written I didn’t set out with a central theme, nor did I conduct extensive research (i’m afraid I didn’t do any research...sorry...). In the past whenever I’d tried to write a play I’d drawn colour-coded plans, written character backstories and plotted each move from the start to the finish. This had left each play feeling, for me at least, too organised, forced and sometimes not really true to the characters I was really wanting to create. Consequently pretty much all of these early plays fell quickly into the waste paper basket. Without all these plans the writing process seemed to fly. There is something nice about writing and discovering something new as you write, finding comfrontation, tension and passion without prompting and adding what is essentially elements of your own personality into a character without worrying about where you are in the plotline. It has it’s dangers too, but for that inital period it makes writing fun. Anyway, I’ve just noticed that I’m getting towards the end of my allocated box space so should probably wrap it up. If you enjoy what you have seen tonight then great, please let me know what tickled you. If you don’t really enjoy the piece, then come over and chat to me, we’ll grab a coffee, possibly some cake (I’m very fond of the triple chocolate brownie) chat about what worked for you and what didn’t. After all, I’m hoping this will be my first play of many, so the best way for me to get better is for feedback! I hope you enjoy the show! All the best! Sam
Documentary filming stills of Revenge rehearsals
WAIT A SECOND, I’VE SEEN THAT PROP BEFORE... You may have had a few double-takes... Yes, many of the props and costumes in Revenge are straight out of other York Theatre Royal productions... • Stage Grass - Featured around the set of Donald Freed’s Patient No.1. • Costume Dump Box - Used on the set of Damian Cruden’s summer production of The Railway Children. • Viking Costumes - A Midsummer Night’s Dream • Police Uniforms - A Youth Theatre Production • Panda Suit - Berwick Kaler’s Pantomime • Archie’s Jacket - Riding Lights and York Theatre Royal’s production of Three Men in a Boat • Gun - The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter • Bench - Originally from The Three Musketeers and later into A Man For All Seasons - featuring David Leonard. • Basket - The blockbuster summer production of The Railway Children at the National Railway Museum. • Hatstands - Hayfever • Gardening jumpsuit - New...
HOW I CAME TO BE LIGHTING REVENGE AND OTHER INTERESTING STORIES... By Matt Thompson
My lasting memory of working with Sam goes back to secondary school, on stage at the Stephen Joseph Theatre for Gary Futcher’s An Honest Trade when Sam, playing my brother at the time, managed to create a major plot twist by blundering his lines and confessing that in fact he had fired the fatal shot for which I was about to be hanged. After some heavy adlibbing we did somehow re-establish that I was definitely the guilty party, but it was interesting to see Sam developing his plot twists at such an early stage. (Well it’s interesting looking back, definitely not at the time!) I believe it was in our first year at 6th Form College that I actually agreed to light this show. Well, not exactly this show, I don’t think at that point Revenge had even reached Mr Freeman’s random musing point, but nonetheless I told Sam that when he finally completed a script I wanted to light it; a promise that I was held to some time after the marketing material had gone to print... Thankfully when Sam finally got round to sending me the script I laughed. Out loud. A lot! People looked at me strangely (never read a script for the first time on a train), but nonetheless I’m happy to be finally putting on the show we talked about all those years ago. I sincerely hope it’s the first of many and hope you all enjoy it.
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