Lorna Irvine has an informative, and cheeky, conversation with PPP's executive producer.
Since 2004, Oran Mor’s lunchtime in-house theatre has brought A Play, A Pie and A Pint (mostly known as PPP) to packed Glasgow West End audiences. Created by ex- Wildcat firebrand, actor and writer David MacLennan, it is now something of an institution, with sold-out tickets each week and a special CATS Whiskers award to prove it.
Diversity is the key to its continued success, with work from established writers like Ian Pattison, Denise Mina and David Greig sitting alongside new blood such as Steven Dick, Sabrina Mahfouz and first winner of the David MacLennan Award for New Writing, Jenny Knotts.
Genres too are wildly varied, from broad farce to ghost stories, agitprop to classics; then, of course, there’s the celebrated satirical pantos penned by MacLennan himself, with help from fellow legendary performers Dave Anderson and George Drennan.
Now it’s back
for the 2014 Spring/Summer season. I caught up with Executive Producer, the
lovely Susannah Armitage, to find out what’s in store, and learn of PPP’s
potential world domination!
Lorna Irvine: What's the best part of working with David MacLennan?
Susannah Armitage: David is truly
inspirational to work with. He has an amazing positivity and ability to make
things happen, he is constantly looking for new ideas and projects and is
always willing to take risks and try new ideas, and to work with different
people. There is no ego at the heart of what he does: he just cares about the
work. He also has immense trust in the people that he works with and is
incredibly supportive.
LI: Have you ever disagreed on the plays which are selected (naming no names, of course!)?
SA: Yes, frequently! When we are deciding
on the season of plays we always agree on the majority of plays, but there are
also always scripts that I am championing and David isn’t so sure about, and
likewise scripts that he really likes that I am not so sure about. However,
these discrepancies are always a matter of personal taste rather than a
question over the quality of the script.
LI: What can we expect for this new season?
SA: Our Spring 2014 season is as eclectic as ever, and probably even more ambitious than last season. We have plays by well-known Scottish writers such as Liz Lochhead, Johnny McKnight and Iain Heggie, some newer writers such as Aberdonian writer George Milne and BBC writer-in-residence at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Zodwa Nyoni. We are producing three plays by writers from Commonwealth countries in response to the fact that Glasgow is hosting the Commonwealth Games in the summer. We have two Jamaican plays – Last Bloom and Voices From the Black That I Am and a play by London-based writer Inua Ellams about the barbershop culture for people from the African Diaspora.
We are delighted to be co-producing with
lots of different theatre companies this season, including Aberdeen Performing
Arts, the Traverse Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, The Tobacco Factory in
Bristol, Ayr Gaiety Theatre, Fuel and the National Theatre of Scotland. This is
the 10th anniversary year of A Play, A Pie and A Pint so we hope to
celebrate this milestone by presenting another strong season of varied plays by
the best new writing in Scotland and from around the world.
LI: Who are the best new playwrights to look out for, in your opinion?
SA: We open our Spring 2014 season with a
play by a new playwright called Stewart Thomson. Stewart has a successful
screenwriting career but is less experienced in writing for the stage. However,
his play, Frank’s Dead, is a funny and touching examination of the
relationship between two brothers. We liked it so much that we thought it would
be a strong opener for the season. We also have a dark comic farce from
Aberdeen-based playwright George Milne and we are delighted to be helping to
foster new writing talent in the north east of Scotland. We are also excited
about Thomas Eccleshare who is a young writer from Bristol, and Zodwa Nyoni
from Leeds, amongst others.
LI: Would you ever do a cameo in one of MacLennan/Anderson's cheeky pantos?
SA: Ha ha! They have never asked me!
Perhaps I would as long as I got a good costume…. You should suggest this to
MacLennan/Anderson.
LI: PPP has branched out - where is next for it?
SA: We are helping to set up A Play, A Pie and A Pint
in Sao Paulo in Brazil, are supporting the continued success of A Play, A Pie
and A Pint in Philadelphia and are supporting the plays from Oran Mor that are
going to be produced in Venezuela, Norway and Turkey. We are hoping to produce
some Russian plays in our Autumn 2014 season and to continue to collaborate
with the best theatrical institutions throughout the UK and beyond. There is also potential interest from
Australia in the concept, so watch this space!
A Play, a Pie and a Pint’s Spring season launches January 27 at Oran Mor.
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