Charlotte Bennett will direct the world premiere of Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me by Amy Trigg which will reopen the Kiln Theatre for the first time since 16th March.
Winner of The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2020, Amy Trigg’s remarkable debut play Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me is a hilarious, heart-warming tale about how shit our wonderful lives can be.
Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me directed by Charlotte Bennett will be at Kiln Theatre 21st May to 12th June 2021. Tickets are on sale here.
You’re directing Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me, what can you tell us about the play?
Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me is a one-woman tragicomedy about self-love, spina bifida, and how shit and wonderful life can be.
The play is written and performed by Amy Trigg and follows the character of Juno; a woman currently navigating how being a disabled child has impacted her now she is in young adulthood. We also meet lots of other characters along the way… This is Amy’s first full-length play and it is bloody glorious – funny, honest and surprising. As an audience we really meet Juno in that room and by the end of the show we hopefully leave feeling like she is one of our best friends.
How does it feel to be working on the production that will be reopening Kiln Theatre?
It is nothing short of a privilege. After the year we have all had and after the year the arts industry has had to be in a rehearsal room rehearsing and working up to a live performance is something I am grateful for every morning I wake up!
The Kiln rehearsal room is just lovely to work in, the team can’t do enough for you and the theatre space itself has that incredible balance of epic and intimate which will work brilliantly for this play. Last week the café opened again (they do great coffee there too so do get involved) and as I walked up the street a woman stopped me and said ‘Did you get that from the Kiln?! Oh my god I have been waiting so long to get back in there I AM RUNNING!’ Then sprinted down the street with her pram. It is exciting to be back and we can’t wait to invite live audiences back in the same way.
Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me is a winner of the Woman’s Prize for Playwriting, tell us about your connection to that, and how it feels to now be directing a winning play?
The Women’s Prize for Playwriting was founded by Ellie Keel Productions and Paines Plough in 2019 to address the (quite frankly depressing) gender imbalance in plays being written by women on our national stages. Reasons is one of two winners of the inaugural year of the prize. One of the brilliant things about staging this play now is that the play only won the award in December so to be debuting the production just 6 months on from then is really special – it shows that the prize not only celebrates incredible plays by women but also produces them and makes them happen.
What has been even more special about this production is that it has been co-produced by Women’s Prize for Playwriting, Paines Plough, 45 North (principal partner on the Women’s Prize) and the Kiln Theatre (Indhu Rubasingham was one of the Judges on the 2020 prize) so it is an epic collaboration between different organisations who have all been connected to and championed the prize since its early stages.
I was so thrilled when Reasons became one of the winners because it was a play that never left me after the first time I read it in the earlier stages of the prize – it celebrates an incredible, funny and resilient woman and debuts an astonishing new theatrical playwriting voice.
What impressed you most about Amy Trigg’s writing?
I mean firstly I just belly laughed my way throughout the play when I first read it– her humour is definitely up my street. But beyond that, Amy writes in a way that is just so truthful and honest – there are some painful moments in the play for the character of Juno and we feel every single one of them with her because she lets us into them. The character, (like Amy herself) is an amazingly generous and kind soul, so we immediately fall in love with her.
Working with Amy as a writer on the script development has also been joyful – she is confident in what needs cutting or changing and so rigorous with herself. This is Amy’s first time as a writer and I am so excited to see where this play takes her next because I know she is in this for the long haul and will continue to write incredible new plays long into the future.
Do you think there will be any specific challenges in bringing this play to the stage?
There are always challenges in every play you make which is what makes it such a fun job! I think with this play it is so about being in the room with Juno and the Kiln is set up brilliantly for this with social distancing set out in a way that feels safe but still very welcoming. Having audiences with masks on I have no doubt will be a bit of an initial adjustment and we are encouraging people to wear clear masks where they can so we can engage as much as possible! But I honestly think the play is so full of joy and heart that even with masks on she will feel an audience beaming through them.
What would you say to anyone thinking of coming to see Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me?
There will be lots of laughter and you will fall in love with someone you have never met before. Who doesn’t want that from a night out at the moment?
