Zoe Cooper (Out of Water, Orange Theatre/RSC) talks about the forthcoming Pilot Theatre stage adaptation of David Almond’s award-winning young adult novel A Song for Ella Grey.
Produced in association with Northern Stage and York Theatre Royal, A Song for Ella, which won the 2015 Guardian Children Fiction Prize, tells the story of Claire and her best friend, Ella Grey, ordinary kids from ordinary families from Northumberland. They and their friends fall in and out of love, play music, dance, stare at the stars and yearn for excitement. One day, a musician named Orpheus arrives, changing their lives forever. A Song for Ella Grey is a darkly romantic tale that sings of the madness of youth, the ache of love, and the near impossibility of grasping death.
Based in Newcastle, Zoe Cooper’s recent plays include Out of Water (Orange Tree Theatre/RSC) which was a finalist for the 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and shortlisted for the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award, and Jess and Joe Forever (Orange Tree Theatre/UK tour) which won the Most Promising Playwright Award at the Off West End Awards 2017 and was longlisted for the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award.
Her new adaptation of Northanger Abbey will be co-produced by the Orange Tree, Theatre by the Lake, Stephen Joseph Theatre and Bolton Octagon in January 2024. Zoe is also writing new plays for the National Theatre, Northern Stage and Leeds Playhouse. Zoe has just been nominated on this year’s longlist for the Women’s Prize for Playwrighting for her play Cambium Layer.
A Song for Ella Grey opens at Northern Stage from 1-15 February and then tours till 23 March 2024.
You’ve adapted David Almond’s award-winning young adult novel A Song for Ella Grey for the stage, how would you describe the show?
It is always a bit dangerous to say what a show is like when you are still making it! But I hope A Song for Ella Grey will be raucous, strange, funny, as well as very sad in places. It is a play about the ritual power of sitting in the dark and telling a story.
What was it about David Almond’s novel that made you really want to adapt it?
When I first read David Almond’s novel what most struck me was that in using a classical myth to tell the story of teenage loss, he took his young protagonists and their emotions really seriously. I thought that was such a brilliant meeting of story, theme, characters and form.
I also live in the north east, and the way that he evokes the landscape up here is astonishing. He has really captured the rugged beauty of where I live.
Finally, as a queer woman I was delighted to see queer love as a central theme in a book for young people. I did not have anything like this when I was growing up. I am so glad books like this exist now, and are part of the mainstream and I was so excited to help bring it to the stage.
It’ll open at Northern Stage and then tour, what are you looking forward to most about this story being told around the country?
The reason I wanted to work with Pilot so much is their connection with young audiences. Theatre is so vital in how I understand the world and there is nothing better than being sat amongst a rowdy rabble of young people in their teens and twenties and watching something made for them.
It is also quite unusual for me to get to make something in my adopted home town with creatives and actors from up here. I am very excited to take what we make to other places.
What did you find most difficult about adapting the story?
There is so much to choose from! The novel is so rich. It was initially tricky to know what to cut and what to keep. But I won’t give too much away, you will have to come and see it.
And what was your favourite moment in the process?
I always think that the moments that your work as a writer meets the work of the other creatives, the music, the design, the performance is magical. Theatre is such a team sport and that is why I love it.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking tickets to see A Song for Ella Grey?
I wouldn’t! Because I wouldn’t want to give too much away. But I think if you like haunting music, beautiful wild design, the ritual of sitting in the dark and being told a story then you might enjoy this show. And you don’t need to know anything about classical myth or the north east to enjoy it.
A Song for Ella Grey, adapted by Zoe Cooper, opens at Northern Stage from 1-15 February and then tours till 23 March. For tours dates click here.
