Charlie Hardwick (Emmerdale) and Joe Caffrey (The Last Ship, Northern Stage/UK Tour); The Girls, West End) star in Clear White Light by Olivier Award nominated writer Paul Sirett. The world premiere of this modern Gothic story, set at St. Nicholas’ Hospital in Gosforth, will take place at Live Theatre this Autumn.
Originally commissioned by Max Roberts, Live Theatre’s Emeritus Artistic Director, it is the first play at Live Theatre to be directed by its new Artistic Director, Joe Douglas, with Max and Joe working closely together to bring the play to life.
Clear White Light is at Newcastle’s Live Theatre until 10th November 2018.
Clear White Light is at Newcastle’s Live Theatre, what can you tell us about it?
About four years ago, Max Roberts (Emeritus Artistic Director of Live Theatre), and I realised we shared a mutual love of Lindisfarne and the songs of Alan Hull. Max said he’d always wanted to do a show at Live with Alan Hull’s songs but had never managed to find a satisfactory way to do it. We decided that I would have a go at trying to write something. My first idea didn’t really work, so it was back to the drawing board. Thankfully, my second idea had a lot more potential.
Where did your inspiration come from when you were writing it?
The inspiration for Clear White Light came from the knowledge that Alan had worked as a psychiatric nurse at St Nicholas’ Hospital in Newcastle in the 1960s. Alan wrote some of his best known early hit songs while he was working at St Nick’s and knowing that unlocked a way of working with the music. The key song was Lady Eleanor. When Alan was working at St Nick’s he read some short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, including The Fall of the House of Usher which was the main inspiration for writing ‘Lady Eleanor’. Knowing that The Fall of the House of Usher had inspired Alan, I decided to see what might happen if I let that story inspire the writing of my play. And so I used The Fall of the House of Usher as the template for a modern story set in St Nick’s in the present day.
How did you get involved with Live Theatre?
I first worked with Live Theatre in the early 2000s when I was working as a dramaturg on some new plays that Live Theatre was co-producing with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I had already written a few plays with music at the core (I am also a musician) and Max asked me if I might be interested in writing a play celebrating the music of Ella Fitzgerald. The result was a play called Lush Life which was produced at Live Theatre about ten years ago.
How have you been working with Max and Joe on the production?
Max originally commissioned the play and I wrote the first couple of drafts with the idea that Max would direct the production. When Max decided to move into an emeritus role and Joe became Artistic Director I was worried that Clear White Light might not make it onto the stage at Live. Thankfully, Joe liked the play and it was all systems go. Max and Joe and myself worked on eleven drafts of the play, with Max as dramaturg and Joe as director.
Have you learnt anything new about your play during the rehearsal process?
I learned a lot during the rehearsal process. Clear White Light is a quite complex play, working on several levels – the story told by the songs; the story that mirrors The Fall of the House of Usher; the modern-day story about mental health provision in the NHS. Getting the balance right was hard. There was also the question of how much we should explain to the audience about what they are watching – something that we were still experimenting with right un until press night. It is also important to note the contribution of the other creatives and the actors on the production – all of whom brought new insights.
What would you say to anyone thinking of coming to see Clear White Light?
Be prepared for something a bit different…
