This spring, the Pleasance sees the world premiere of Charlotte Merriam’s Dames. Celebrating females with no filters, Dames is about the intimate and exposing nature of friendships in the true contemporary confessional – the club toilet
We caught up with Charlotte Merriam to find out more.
You’re bringing Dames to the Pleasance Theatre, what can you tell us about it?
Siberian Lights and Rachel Kraftman Productions have come together on this to make a play for a generation which is hopefully funny, original and bizarrely enlightening. If you have at any point thought, ‘What’s going on in there?’, ‘Ladies toilets are such funny places!’, or ‘Wow I wonder how what happens inside a Ladies toilet reflects our wider communities’, then look no further! It will make you think, and it will make you laugh, and hopefully you’ll leave feeling something good. That’s really simply what Dames is – it’s a closely observed, silly, honest, poignant, theatre soufflé.
What inspired you to write it?
We talked during research and development about places where women gather, honest spaces, spaces that feel communal and oddly special. The Ladies loo stood out totally so then we let our imaginations run with it. We also talked a lot about the relationship between anxiety and ambition. These are things we feel dominate the brain patterns of our peers. I personally am drawn to facets which can enhance the really important things. I’m totally obsessed by the conversations we have on a daily basis where what’s happening underneath the surface is actually a totally different complex thing. Often it’s about bonding or connecting – it’s about drawing love lines between each other, seeking each other out so we can understand what it is we’re doing here. I find women particularly amazing at bonding this way. It’s complicated and intricate. The play is broadly about happiness and connection and the release of anxiety. With a lot of extra life pathos sprinkled on top. And fun. Obvs fun.
How does it feel performing in a play you’ve written?
I’m used to writing material for myself but only solo comedy material so this is a different kettle of fish! I’m loving it. It’s bizarre to have to put aside your writer voice telling you it all sounds wrong in rehearsal and trust what you’ve put on the page. But I’m not precious about my script at all and I think that helps. I love the moments where I’m in the room and I can change things to be more accommodating or make the journey of the play easier or explain a moment. It feels so collaborative, it’s really exciting. The director Jamie Garven is so wonderful at working with me on the script and the girls in the team are incredible theatre see-ers and makers. They will tell me honestly what they think of a section.
Is it difficult to write with such honesty?
It’s really difficult to try to capture honesty. The cast are all amazing and did an incredible job of improvising whilst we were workshopping ideas for the play so I had great material to spark my imagination. What theatre does best is enhance big things in life with metaphors so for me, personally, it shouldn’t be about the ego of the actors or the production. I think and hope that what we have is not just a series of honest conversations but an entirely honest production. It’s frank and weird and ok with that – because that’s how it puts its ideas across with the set, music, lighting, direction, acting, script…
What can you tell us about the cast?
They are a mad, wonderful bunch. Four of us are the founders of the Siberian Lights company, Eleanor Heydon, Arabella Neale, Olivia Elsden and myself and then Bianca Stephens and Melanie Stevens are marvellous actors we’ve found on our journey.
This is Siberian Lights’ first full scale production and hopefully the catalyst to produce large-scale work with a large number of exciting female-identifying theatre makers. We are a small cast in Dames but we have a vision of spreading our wings to involve generations of females in the industry…
What’s the most bizarre conversation you’ve had in a night club toilet?
I think the most poignant ones always stick in my memory the most. All of a sudden three hammered ladies were discussing the meaning of life and the political climate. I looked at that them the next moment and it was just wonderful and hilarious. I had an amazing experience where three women gave a sobbing, complete stranger a pep talk about life as she sat cuddled next to the sink. It really turned her night around. The toilets are a surprisingly generous, loving, weird place.
Dames is at The Pleasance Theatre 17th – 19th April 2018.
