Profiles

Michael Pinchbeck grew up in Nottingham. He studied Theatre and Creative Writing and on graduating in 1997 co-founded the Metro-Boulot-Dodo Theatre Company. Michael left MBD in 2003 to pursue a solo career in Live Art. He is currently undertaking an MA in Performance and Live Art at Nottingham Trent University. The White Album is his first full-length play.

I'm told this is the first work on this scale to be put on by the Nottingham Playhouse from an emerging local writer. A three week run. Wow. How did you go about getting the gig?

It was serendipity that got me the gig really. I met Giles Croft at a press launch when I was writing for an arts magazine and I had a book about the White Album in my hand. I was supposed to interview Giles but we talked about The Beatles. I said a Beatles album would make a good play. Two years later he saw the book in a bookshop and rang me. I also came into it with a lot of respect for what Giles has done as a director and I think we share an interest in the same styles.

The White Album is your first full-length play. Did it take long time to write?

Difficult to say because at the moment I'm still rewriting it. It sounds really corny but it sort of wrote itself. The play works like the record – in songs not scenes, sides not acts – the interval happens when you change discs. In that respect it never felt like writing a play, just one scene at a time.

Michael Pinchbeck

I wrote text for each song trying to fit its duration and capture its atmosphere. The play follows the needle to stories that inspired the album such as the Beatles in India, or stories it inspired like The Manson Family in LA. After six months I realised I had material I was happy with for each song but it's about 18 months since the commission came about.

Has it been hard juggling it with your MA?

Because the play was written before the MA started it's not been too bad. Working on The White Album has never felt like a job with a capital J – I've loved writing it and it's exciting now because my job is nearly over and it's up to the director to make it work. It's a very organic process. I'm happy to make changes.

You co-founded Metro-Boulot-Dodo (MBD) straight out of University. The company's described as disregarding theatrical convention. Does The White Album follow the same innovative theme as your earlier work?

That's a good question. I think and I hope so. Because of The White Album's fragmented structure, and also the different styles of the songs, it operates like the abstract work I was involved in when I was in MBD. The cast of seven play about 20 different characters – the location shifts all the time - the story chops and changes – the play begins at the end etc. A lot of films share these traits so I think it can be innovative and still appeal to a wide audience. When I was in MBD we stole sets from skips and performed to eight people in Preston. The difference is that The White Album is playing a large scale venue with 35 people working on it and a set budget bigger than Metro-Boulot-Dodo's first ten shows put together.

What can we expect from the show? A lot of Beatles music? A lot of multimedia production?

We have to be careful with the copyright issues surrounding The White Album but there are moments where we can echo the music. It's important to say that this is not a musical, more an interpretation of the album and one man's obsession with it. The set is stunning – a white box with shifting walls - and the designer has brought in visuals to create atmosphere. I think this is total theatre.

I understand the original concept was The White Album director Giles Croft's. Now you've written the piece what input do you have?

We talked about the story of a man who was attached to the album. It was Giles' idea to make the play operate like the record structurally, the content was my responsibility. I chose to make it a love story etched in vinyl. I'm the writer so Giles runs any changes by me but he's the director so unless I'm needed my input now is minimal. That's quite liberating – to be detached from it. I'm very excited about seeing the result of what's been a fascinating process.

A few of the Nottingham Playhouse productions, such as The Rat Pack, have gone on to the West End. Is that a possibility for The White Album?

Who knows? Obviously it would be great and I think it's a story that would travel well – a universal tale of love, loss, music, marriage, madness and Manson. I can see it on the posters in Leicester Square already. And down the road there'll be a musical of The White Album stealing all our audience.

Has Nottinghamshire got a reputation for playwrights?

I think there's a difference between coming from Nottingham and writing about Nottingham. I don't want to be too parochial – writing about lace or coal – but I like the fact that I write here. I feel more Nottingham than Nottinghamshire but then I'm a Forest fan. I also feel more like a writer than a playwright but then I've never written a play before. In MBD we used to make it up as we went along.

The future. You left MBD to pursue a solo career in Live Art and you're now undertaking an MA in Performance and Live Art at NTU. What next? Do you now want to concentrate on writing or are you keeping all avenues open? Any chance of another appearance at the NOW Festival?

I think I'm an artist who doesn't really know what to do when he grows up. I'd like to be a jack of all trades and a master of one but I don't know what that trade is. Maybe it's writing but I miss performing. For my MA I'm writing two new plays for a group of students and an amateur dramatic society. Both are set at a wedding reception and both groups play half of the characters. I'm going to perform in the student one. I'm filming both shows and then showing them at the same time. I don't know if the NOW festival would be interested – I'm not in my pants!

The past. What part of Nottingham did you grow up in? Fond memories? What got you into theatre?

I grew up in Rise Park and went to Top Valley Comp and then High Pavement – now a housing estate. Very fond memories. I think I had a Blue Peter childhood. I got into theatre by writing a short play for my English teacher. Then I was in one of my Dad's Am Dram shows at the Church on Rise Park. I don't know why but I liked it more than anything else. I never did GCSE or A-Level Drama though but when it came to university I thought I would learn about what I loved doing most.

Did you go to the Nottingham Playhouse and the Theatre Royal when younger?

All the time. My mum and dad took us to see lots of plays and musicals. I remember seeing Scrooge at the Playhouse and that feeling of walking into the theatre was like Nick Hornby describing his first trip to Highbury. The only other time I've ever felt that was when my Dad took us to Trent Bridge. I think I had a sense that shows at the Playhouse were cleverer. I didn't really like musicals that much – I thought if you can tell the story in two minutes why don't you just cut out all the songs and tell the story. The best shows I've seen were at the Playhouse.

Do you remember your first stage performance?

I played Bert Baxter in Adrian Mole at Top Valley in 1989. I was 13. They painted chest hair on me. I had to stand on a beetroot sandwich then eat it.

When did you know Live Art was for you?

When I stood on that beetroot sandwich and ate it. In theatre you pretend. In Live Art you just do it.