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Do
you have any theatre background?
I finished a 2-year postgraduate course in playwriting at the Arden
School of Theatre in Manchester last summer, and I'm an usher at
the Lowry so I see a wide variety of shows on stage.
What
inspired you to write this play?
I wrote Bloody Mary for 2 students at Arden. They wanted to act
in a play that dealt with "relationships between women".
I wanted to write a play that was funny and had a lot of action.
What
is this play about?
The play is about Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots and Mary Tudor
- three sixteenth century queens facing very modern problems - climbing
to the top of the career ladder, overcoming sexism in the workplace,
juggling jobs with personal lives, worrying about ticking biological
clocks - and deciding what to wear for work.
Do
you find writing empowering?
The thing about writing plays is that you create all these characters
in your head, hear them speaking to you, see how they move and react
- and then you hand them over to actors and directors who might
have completely different ideas to you. Once you let go of the script
it stops belonging to you, which is quite scary. In fact, I wonder
why I don‚t write novels!
How
did you hear about 24:7?
David Slack (co-founder of 24:7) was going round all the writers'
groups in Manchester, telling us all about this chance to take part
in a new fringe theatre festival in the city.
What
do you think about the 24:7 idea?
Brilliant - it's what all the local actors and writers have been
waiting for. Audiences are hungry for something different too, especially
in the summer when the theatres shut down. We're hoping it's going
to launch a really vibrant fringe scene in Manchester - I love the
idea of trying out lunchtime theatre and early-evening post-work
stuff - if you're in an unusual space and working at unconventional
times it gives you the chance to experiment and take risks because
the audience doesn't have pre-conceived expectations. I hope I'll
be working in the future with some of the writers, actors and venues
that I see in the festival.
Is
anything in this play specific to your own experience?
I drew on my experience of office life to show some of the darker
aspects of the relationships between the queens - all that back-biting
and gossip and bitching and flirting on the phone and sucking up
to the boss. The only thing they do that I don't is burn heretics
at the stake - but that's probably because of health & safety
regs.
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What
do you want to do now?
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24:7
Daisy
Wang meets Caroline May 
Powerhouse
-Watch again
