AGE rage is something that playwright James Robson feels qualified to talk about.
And that’s pretty much what kicked off the idea for a piece, Scribbler and Spouse, which is being staged late next week in the Cellar space at the Lawrence Batley Theatre.
Yellow Leaf Theatre are regular visitors to the LBT and are fast earning a reputation for staging small-scale new work, often with an anti-ageism theme.
It’s something that James, now 63 and with a 30-plus year career in drama, feels pretty strongly about. Last autumn, a script that he had written and submitted for possible production on radio was returned after four months with a note which said: “Sorry, we are only looking for plays about people aged between 35 and 45”.
That rejection, and the manner in which it came, had something to do with him sitting down to write Scribbler and Spouse.
“Actually I don’t think that it matters why you write as long as something gets the creative juices flowing and age-rage is as good a spur as anything else,” he said.
Over the least three decades, James has written scripts for most kinds of drama, from scripts for the Royal Shakespeare Company to TV’s Emmerdale and Heartbeat, plus long-running radio serial The Archers.
In this new piece, the Scribbler of the title inhabits this world and has been there, seen it, done it and probably written it. He’s survived the hangovers, has the scars and is now ready to tell all.
The three co-founders of Yellow Leaf ware all involved in this new show which opens at the LBT next Friday for the first of two evening performances (7.30pm). There is also a Saturday matinee (3pm).
Alan Meadows, who has directed all the company’s previous shows, is centre stage this time around as Scribbler.
“I knew as soon as I read it that this could have been written for me. But all our decisions are joint ones. Fortunately, my colleagues agreed to let me loose on the stage,” said Alan.
Vanessa Rosenthal, who recently starred in her own play, Modelling Spitfires, joins Alan to play the Spouse and Chris Wilkinson, who lives in Cowlersley and has taken leading roles in the company’s last three productions, is this time cast in of director.
The play fits perfectly with the company’s good quality, go anywhere policy. It’s fairly simple to stage but its impact is far from simple. Scribbler will inform, entertain and move audiences in equal measure.
Box office is on 01484 430528.
