Theatre is live and immediate

So you’ve made the decision to become writers, can you describe for us perhaps some of the challenges? How long does it take before you are published or your name is out there and people know about you?

Okay, I think I’ll answer it this way. People have already talked, you know…. one of the things we three have in common is we write plays. So I write novels and they get published and they have a name and all the rest of it. But I’ve never had a writing experience as enriching as standing up there on opening night with something you have written, and watching it happen in front of a live audience. It is just …for me, having a book published doesn’t actually match that. It’s not as exciting. And it’s not as exciting because I don’t know, I don’t see the person reading it, it’s sort of gone. And writing for television or film or whatever, I think they just lack something and because of that I’d really want to suggest you, well that it’s actually the most lucky thing in the world. Because that’s the writing you guys I know can do. Nothing, nobody is going to stop you. Nobody is going to reject you. There is no publisher in the way. There is no financier in the way. Write something for your mates, put it on, and I know schools more and more, will allow you to do that.

I totally agree with what Bernard is saying. I think theatre…. I have written for film as well and worked in TV and so on, but the one medium that is so immediate is theatre, because it’s live, and you can never ever you know…. You can’t replace that with anything else. It’s live. It’s immediate. It’s spontaneous. There is a reaction between the audience and the performers, and when you are the writer sitting there watching, it’s both absolutely terrifying. (I tell you what, I’ve always wanted to throw up before opening night of my plays, because I’ve been so nervous). It’s excruciatingly terrifying, but its also really, really rewarding because you’ve got this…. You are in this privileged situation with actors who are honouring your work, and the director who has put their blood sweat and tears into lifting it up, and taking it off the page, and putting it into a space… for an audience…it’s great.