A.
My friend Nick
Wyschna came to me a few months ago with an idea for doing a show in the Back
Room at Guildford town centre pub The Star Inn.
We met one lunch time to go see the place and I could immediately see
the possibilities.
So we formed the
company, chose
The Last Five Years as our first production, and we have a
number of exciting things planned for the coming months.
Q. Why did you choose The Last Five Years as your launch
show?
A. It’s a terrific show.
It only has two in the cast, so it’s a very intimate show and is perfect
for a small venue like ours. The story
is about two people, Jamie who is a novelist and Cath who is an actress, and
their five year relationship. Jason
Robert Brown, who wrote the show, chose a clever way of telling the story: her story starts at the end and works back to
when they first met, his starts at their first date and moves in normal
chronological order til the relationship breaks apart at the end. The way that these two timelines weave in and
out of each other is rather special – no wonder Jason Robert Brown won so many
awards for it!
Q. What has the Guildford Fringe Theatre Company got lined
up for the rest of the year and do you have a game plan for 2013?
A. We have a play
booked for a week in December – but we can’t say what it is yet, until the
licence is signed and sealed. It’s
great, though. It’s a fairly new play,
about a young man who is a little unsure of how he fits in. It’s very funny – but quite sad too. Bring some tissues….
Next year, we have a month-long festival planned for the
summer where we hope to attract a wide range of theatre, music, poetry and
comedy and provide Guildford and the surrounding area a great menu of
entertainment to come to.
Q. Are there any particular musicals or plays that you
really want your company to perform in the future and what informs these
choices?
A. There are loads….!
“Doubt” by John Patrick Shanley is an amazing play.
So it’s top of my list.
“Show Boat” is one of my favourite musicals,
and if the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s estate (who own the rights to perform it)
would allow me to adapt it for a small stage then it’d be up there too!
There is another relatively new play,
recently on in London, and we’re negotiating the rights for that for our
Christmas show next year.
It’s about a
rather dysfunctional group of friends and is set on New Year’s Eve…….a great
set up for a drama….!
Useful links:
Guildford Fringe Theatre Company
Buy tickets for The Last Five Years!
Guildford Fringe Twitter
Guildford Fringe Youtube
Niall Bailey
