The Man at Finborough Theatre



Sometimes it's the sheer inventiveness of an idea that generates a great piece of writing. A case in point is James Graham's The Man, brilliantly presented at a tiny theatre above a pub near Earl's Court.

Ben has to fill in his tax form and is in a panic. He's kept all the receipts over the past year, but isn't sure what he can claim as expenses.

As you file into the theatre to to take a place on tiers of padded benches you're handed a worn till receipt and told you'll be asked for it at some point in the performance.

And that's what happens. At some point in the show when you feel like it, you offer the receipt to Ben, the single actor. Sometimes it's a ticket to a show, or a CD purchase receipt, and Ben will play an extract on his ipod connected to speakers. But every slip of paper reminds him of an event. As he says, 'We are what we buy'.




The details of Ben's life, his job, failed relationships and family background build like a slowly forming jig-saw puzzle. What starts as a comedy, with jokey comments like 'Everyone lives in Tooting when they first come to London, don't they?' becomes imperceptibly darker.

Samuel Barnett, a face familiar from several TV appearances, is convincingly vulnerable as Ben, changing from cheerful confessional mood to nostaglic sadness as each receipt is read out and he recalls its significance. He engages the audience's sympathy and attention throughout the virtually one-man performance.

He's one of four actors who appear on different nights. Lizzy Watts plays an offstage sympathetic HM Revenue telephone advisor, but the lack of credibility there is no reflection on the actress.Her role is also subject to rotation.

Best of all, the £3 programme is a Methuen text of the play. There seemed to be only one receipt missing when I read it through. Fortunately it wasn't crucial. And what a great chance to study how an apparently randomly chosen sequence achieves a structure (with one or two strategic 'plants')

The Man at the Finborough Theatre:
http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/

Winchester Writing Conference and Competitions



My name must have been put on a list when I applied to attend a talk at the Oxford Literary Festival a few weeks back. Anyway, it was a nice surprise to receive the Winchester Writers' Conference brochure in the mail.

Oh good, I thought. That's not far from London.

But wait! You can't attend individual talks. That's a shame. It runs over five days and you have to opt for whole days, cheapest £80, or go for week-end packages or week-long workshops at prices to make your eyes water.

I suppose that's what makes it a conference, rather than a festival: the practical bent. The workshops look terrific, and the advantage of the venue is you can stay overnight for £32 in student accommodation.

The workshop topics include novels, short stories, dialogue, writing synopses, narrative drive, children's books, getting published - all good, useful stuff.

There's a whole battery of experienced writers, too, to give conference talks about everything from poetry to comedy scripts.

There are chances to book individual sessions with writers, for which you submit work in advance.




The prices put attendance out of the question, but I was interested to see a list of competitions. I have a lot of writing that could do with a polish and an outing.

I sent off for a booklet with winning entries for last year's competitions first, half afraid I might be put off by the quality of entries. I was, initially, but the booklet itself was good value. Apart from the entries, there was a transcript of the plenary address by John Bowen and a concluding article by Vincent McInery. Both very inspirational.


I've settled for entering a short story competition, partly because the prize is a week's writing course in Mallorca. I've chosen one I wrote in 2005 which has gone through many a polishing. Right up to the posting I was finding words to change. Even the entry fee was steep, I thought, at £9, so I restricted myself to just the one.


Well, at least I suppose there's not long to wait, unlike when I used to send stories to women's magazines and wondered for weeks and months what might have happened to them

Download a copy of the programme from : http://www.writersconference.co.uk/index.htm

Auditioning Knole

'Yes, but I didn't drive all the way out here to eat sandwiches in the car then linger in the tea-rooms- I came to see the house.' My husband gave me a 'Why do I have to be always have to be rushed?' look and laid aside his bridge book.

There was only half an hour left to see Knole so all we could manage was the Great Hall and the picture gallery that I remembered from previous visits. The Brown gallery is 88 feet long, with a vaulted ceiling and walls lined with Elizabethan portraits of aristos, churchmen and royalty who'd met with tragic ends; perfect for ghostly sightings. The threadbare chairs ranked along the walls and dim lighting were bonuses. Was that the Slighted Maid of Micklesham Manor, flitting in outline in front of the mullioned window, about where two volunteer guides were standing?

This visit resulted from a competition in my online writers' group. I submitted a synopsis and first chapter of a country-house comedy thriller I've been mulling over for a while. The competition 'prize' was a full commentary feedback for three winning writers. Although I wasn't in the first three I did have enough encouragement and advice to make me continue with the project.

The National Trust houses I've visited over the years have come together in the creation of fictional Micklesham Hall. The characters in the novel, 'On Course for Murder' are holed up at the house, cut off by snow, in Thetford Forest. (based on a real family Christmas at a Norfolk Youth Hostel)

Mickelesham Manor doesn't have Knole's extensive deer park. On the other hand, it does have kitchens, and I think these will come from Lynhydroc, a Cornish mansion I visited a couple of years back, with additional equipment from Hampton Court. The banqueting hall will be like the one at Eltham Palace ( a digression into English Heritage territory) and the library, complete with suits of armour and deer-head plaques, that will bear a striking resemblance to Sir Walter Scott's lowland fantasy retreat at Abbotsford. The main problem will be to avoid mixing periods too much, but some can be accounted for by restorations.

I'm not knocking the portraits at Knole - Gainsborough, Reynolds, Van Dycks aplenty - but I prefer the ones in the Ranger's House at Greenwich Park. Within walking distance. It means visits don't involve transport. Besides, at Knole they tend to be high up on the walls and not so easily examined.

I'll enjoy drawing a map of the fictional house and grounds, cobbled together from various brochures. £5.50, for the Knole one seemed a bit steep and raised eyebrows in the shop until I told Roy it was for 'research' It'll provide architectural and furnishing terminology. Postcards are great 'aide-memoires', too.

It seems to me that the less my research depends on a much loved but somewhat tardy companion the better.

Knole House, Sevenoaks en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevenoaks