The world premiere of Alice Allemano’s About Leo is the opening production in Jermyn Street Theatre’s Autumn Season. This is Alice Allemano’s first play and is directed by JMK Award-winning director Michael Oakley.
About Leo is at Jermyn Street Theatre 5th – 29th September 2018.
About Leo is coming to Jermyn Street Theatre, what can you tell us about it?
About Leo is one act play inspired Leonora Carrington. She was a surrealist artist who fought hard to overcome the boundaries of her time and to live the life she wanted. The play looks at two pivotal moments in her life, one as a young woman becoming an artist, and one as an elderly lady looking back and setting the record straight. It is not a biopic but rather a dreamlike excavation into what it means to be brave, crossing time periods and blurring fact with imagination.
What inspired you to write About Leo?
I came across Leonora by chance on a spontaneous visit to the Tate Liverpool with my grandma. I found her incredibly intriguing and was surprised when I discovered how under the radar she was in the UK; if people had heard of her It was usually only as Max Ernst’s girlfriend or muse. It was clear to me that hers was a story that deserved to be told and that she ought to be written back into history. At the time I was at a crossroads in my life where I wasn’t sure what to do; writing had always been at the back of my mind but I had never taken the plunge.
Leonora’s vitality and steel resolve, demonstrated in both her work and in her life choices, inspired me to do what I had always wanted and I picked up a pen.
This is your debut play, how does it feel to be opening the Jermyn Street Theatre’s Rebel season?
It is all very surreal! I am very excited; honestly it is a dream come true. In fact, It’s almost too big that I don’t think it has properly dawned on me yet. But the fact that my 97 year old grandma is travelling down from Liverpool for it indicates something to me…
Have you learnt anything new about your characters now that the cast have started rehearsals?
The play has been through so many iterations since I started writing it two and half years ago, that I feel like the characters already have a life of their own. Watching them be brought to life finally has been an exhilarating experience and I am so pleased with what our cast and brilliant director, Michael Oakley, have created.
The process has been a bit like what I imagine sending your kid off to university must feel like. You’re anxious, but you have to trust that you’ve done a good job so far, that they’re in good hands and that they’re going to turn out alright. Then they come home to you with a first-class degree and as a sparkling, well-rounded human being!
What do you hope audiences will take from About Leo?
I believe that it is important to address the imbalance of our artistic heritage and to hear current female voices. I hope that the audience feel penetrated by nuanced and complex female characters, and that we start to build more of them into our cultural oeuvre. And I hope that the character of Leonora inspires people as much as she inspired me.
