Writing a Play is Like Watching a Film: Richard Sheridan Willis on ‘Boy Beatle’
The classic saying is, “The show must go on!” Well, so must the review… sort of.
With our small team at the KTA, unfortunately when one of us is struck with sickness, there’s a bit of reworking to be done. This was the case last week, just as we were about to review Theatre Kingston’s production of Boy Beatle. However, we luckily managed to work out a short interview through email with playwright and performer of the show Richard Sheridan Willis.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Could you tell me about Boy Beatle?
Boy Beatle is about a man who, as a child, once dreamt of being part of his favourite band—The Beatles. Now as a grown-up, [he’s] had various setbacks and challenges and has become filled with anxiety and is overwhelmed. His great love in life, which is music, and which he had always planned to pursue as a career seems to have slipped away from him. So he admits himself into The Haven, a kind of whimsical sanctuary filled with eccentric characters—like James, who’s convinced he’s the next James Bond, and Andrew, perpetually saving imaginary damsels from perilous submarines.
Whilst he’s there, with the help of a therapist called Faith, he embarks on a fantastical journey back to his childhood, seeking to find the root cause of his anxiety and restore the harmony that once filled his life. That’s the play in a nutshell.
It has serious elements within it but overall it is a heartwarming and hopefully unforgettable exploration of rediscovery and resilience.
What inspired you to write the show?
They say write about what you know. So my first solo show Strolling Player was inspired by Canadian immigration. To become a resident in Canada they ask every place you lived, travelled and worked since the age of 18. So in the process of remembering that, I wrote a blog on my memories. And that turned into the solo show, Strolling Player.
Boy Beatle was started 10 years ago and was inspired by my brother, who was diagnosed with a serious illness and that sparked memories of childhood. And I wanted to write about that. Because our childhood memories are so evocative for all of us and are also a huge influence on our emotional behaviours when we become adults.
I was also influenced by the children poems of Robert Louis Stevenson and by a book by the actor Dirk Bogarde about his childhood called A Postillion Struck by Lightning.
Some may think the play is biographical. I call it fiction. And as the author Barbara Kingsolver said: “Memory is a complicated thing. A relative to truth, but not its twin.”
What’s your writing process like?
My process is visual. I conjure up images, almost as if I was watching a film. There is a lot of poetry within the play because the main character has an affinity with children’s poems, and so I wrote a lot of poetry and that was intertwined with my experience with acting and Shakespeare… Can I hear the words musically, and then do the words go together when they’re being said out loud by the actor? So some of the text was written with a certain rhythm and those parts have largely remained unchanged since the first time I wrote them on the page.
Did the show change at all during rehearsals?
The play has been in development for 10 years and it has changed a lot since the beginning. It was first written for six actors, but as time went on, it became clear it would work best as a solo play. There was a shift to balance childhood memories with adult mental health in the last two years.… The drafts of the last year have remained largely the same. The fun of rehearsals was finding the physicality and voices for all of the different characters within the play.
Unique to interviews we usually have, this one is taking place after the show has begun its run. How have the first few runs been?
Extremely positive. The comments have been glowing. What is most rewarding is that the audiences have related to the universal themes within the play and their own personal experiences. I’m English, so of course I tend to be embarrassed by praise, but in this case, I am truly grateful that audiences have reacted so enthusiastically.
While you’ve written and are performing Boy Beatle, you’re also a director outside of this production. Do you feel as though these roles are intertwined, and that one can help another?
It helps me understand that as an actor, the best thing I can do is listen and keep myself open to the director, and I have a wonderful and hugely experienced director in Janet Irwin. I never understood how tricky actors can be until I started directing. If you find yourself agreeing with the first notes the director gives you or if you keep yourself open to at least exploring those ideas, then it will make your life as an actor much easier. You still have to do all the research and background work of course, the director adds the glitter and gloss. Directors can give performances focus, and, um, direction!
Is there anything you’d like to mention that I haven’t asked?
It is my first stage performance for a couple of years. I took a sabbatical for a few months last year to decompress from my six years of being artistic director at the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, and I was home in Prescott supporting my wife Heidi Reimer in the launch of her novel The Mother Act [which] came out in April this year. So we had book launches here, Toronto, and in New York City. I was also spending a lot more time with our teenage daughters, and I was also doing the cooking and cleaning and laundry—all the fun stuff [at] home.
Workwise—this year I was part of the narration team for the audio book of Anne Fleming’s Novel Curiosities, which has just been shortlisted for the Giller Prize.
I also was very excited to take part in a Hallmark Christmas movie called My Sweet Austrian Holiday, which we shot in Ottawa, Vienna, and Budapest, which starred Will Kemp and Brit Bristow… [That] movie is releasing on Hallmark Mystery channel on Halloween night, October 31st. I hope it’s because they see it as the start of Christmas season and not because my performance is too scary.
And of course I’ve been working hard on my solo play called Boy Beatle.
I’m extremely happy to be working with Theatre Kingston and the phenomenal Rosemary Doyle again. I was last here two years ago with These Deeds. The Baby Grand Theatre is one of my favourite studio theatres in Ontario. Also, I love our creative team. I have worked closely with the director Janet Irwin and [set and costume] designer Andrea Robertson for a number of years and it’s wonderful to just trust their creative input.
‘Boy Beatle’ runs until October 19, 2024. More information can be found here.
More information about Richard Sheridan Willis can be found on his website.
