Talent is as Talent Does
Jacqueline McCarrick's "Leopoldville"
PapaTango Theatre Company
“Between us we knew so many talented people be it writers, actors and directors that weren’t getting the chance to flex their muscles,” explains Turvey. “We wanted to try and create a forum for this wealth of talent, to have their voices heard.”
Being keen on the possibility of the actor, writer and director working together on an even keel, PapaTango was founded in 2007 by Turvey, Sam Donovan, and Matt Roberts. They wanted nothing more than to take a fresh a piece of writing and then, together as an ensemble, take it from the page to the stage.
This simple notion has earned them a rapid rise to success. With only three productions under their belt, they’ve sold out auditoriums, won awards, and have been able to grow at an enviable rate, which Turvey attributes to backing talent, no matter what their previous experience may be.
“If you are willing to take a risk, you will always finish with something interesting,” says Turvey. “I think there is such a fear in theatre, mainly due to the lack of money around, to take a risk on new writing or particularly new writers. When approaching a project we look for plays that sit best with us creatively.”
For the company, the collective thought is that if they always focused on the financial side of production, they’d surely doing very different shows than what they’ve managed to stage. Instead, their aim is to pick great writing and hope the work will sell its self. In Turvey’s mind, this is what audiences want. Or it’s what he always wants when he goes to see a show. If an audience leaves feeling excited by discovering something new, he thinks PapaTango has accomplished their mission.
“[This is why] we put huge amounts of pressure on ourselves,” says Turvey. “Our aim is for every project to be bigger than the last. So far we have achieved this goal but with every success, by the very nature of this, comes a much bigger challenge.”
Competition
There’s a history of neglect in theatre. Great scripts are written every year but never see the lights of a theatre or the eyes of a crowd. The reasons why are varied (money, space, interest), but every year more scripts are written because those who write them can’t be stopped. PapaTango recognized this fact and the fact that they didn’t know enough writers, which left them short on scripts.
Wanting to work only with new writers and feeling like they had something to offer them, PapaTango started their New Writing Festival in 2009 in order to meet the many more writers around and, hopefully, find the strongest scripts possible. So far, Turvey is delighted, thinking that the competition is working out and that they’re managing to dust off a few diamonds in the rough.
“There is such a wealth of writing talent out there whose wonderful scripts are unfortunately being neglected,” says Turvey. “Dominic Mitchell, our first winner, and Jacqueline McCarrick, this year’s winner, are two examples of unbelievable talent not getting the chances they deserve. If it wasn’t for the competition we wouldn’t have had the chance to work with talent of that calibre.”
The hope with every submission PapaTango reads is that it keeps their attention; that at the very least it is something interesting. “We don’t mind if it’s rough or completely polished just as long as it grabs us,” says Turvery. Despite the deluge of scripts contests draws in, Turvey believes, for the most part, they encounter more rays of hope for the future of theatre than the opposite. According to Turvey, the level of quality of writing in this year’s competition was so astounding they decided to produce four shows this year instead of just one.
Along with the winning script, PapaTango is also giving the top three finalists full staged productions at the Tristan Bates Theatre. Kerry Hood’s My Balloon Beats Your Astronaut ran from April 7th to April 10th. Michael McLean’s The Ducks will run April 14th to April 17th. And John Seymore’s Stuff will start April 21st and end on April 24th.
“The talent involved this year has been unbelievable and if that is what this competition attracts then we must be doing something right,” Turvey believes. “We want the competition to continue to go from strength to strength. Next year we will continue to run it as a festival allowing more new writing to get a chance to be heard.”
Leopoldville
Chosen from more than 300 scripts, McCarrick’s script for Leopoldville was the winner of 2010’s New Writing Festival. More or less an extension off a short story McCarrick wrote called “The Congo,” Leopoldville is a dark Irish play set in 1990, at the tail end of the last recession. Based on true events that happened in a border town in Ireland, a gang of young men robs a pub and as their crime spirals horrifically out of control, damaged lives are revealed and friendships are tested.
What sold PapaTango on the play, says Turvey, was simple: The quality of the writing. Despite the dark subject matter, he says there is a beauty that holds the tension throughout. “It is truly an amazing piece of writing,” Turvey exclaims. “You could tell from the very first read that it would be such fun to play with … The production has taken great shape and we are all excited to see what the audience take from it. I think it has the potential to be a very strong piece of theatre.”
Turvey said that when they started their competition they were expecting scripts from playwrights who were yet to have received recognition for their work. This year, though, they were beyond thrilled that McCarrick entered her latest “masterpiece.”
Hailing from Dundalk, McCarrick is an award-winning playwright with multiple accolades to her name. A graduate of Middlesex University and Trinity College, her first play, The Mushroom Pickers, won the 2005 Scottish Drama Association’s National Playwriting Competition and premiered at the Southwark Playhouse in London in May 2006. Her second play, The Moth-Hour, was short-listed for the Sphinx Playwriting Award, and had a rehearsed reading at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York in January 2007. Both plays also received staged readings at The Old Vic. Leopoldville was also a finalist for David Hare’s 2010 Yale Drama Series Playwright Completion.
Turvey notes that work from the likes of McCarrick’s and the other finalists are standing out thanks in large part to who they’re collaborating with in the theatre industry and the people on the judging panels. “[This] indicates the success and prestige of both the New Writing Competition and PapaTango as a theatre company,” declares Turvey. “We are working with some respected names in the industry, which is indicative of the quality of our work and the kudos we are slowly but surely beginning to achieve.”
PapaTango New Writing Festival can be seen at the Tristan Bates Theatre in London, April 8th-April 24th. For more information click here.
Dylan Hinde
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