London Calling with Champagne Charlie.Dateline: YOU CAN SEE THE HILLS

YOU CAN SEE THE HILLS is a coming of age one person show by Matthew Dunster that has had the critics of all three major UK broadsheets, The Times, the Guardian and the Telegraph heaping praise. That's along with audiences at London's YOUNG VIC and before it at Manchester's ROYAL EXCHANGE in the North West, where it's set - raving!

This is rare if not unheard of for a one person show that runs over two hours.

Set in the area of the UK immortalised by groups like The Smiths and the Buzzcocks it transfers that raw poetic energy to the stage. We meet our hero Adam deftly played by William Ash who TV fans know and love as a regular on sci fi classic 'Doctor Who'

Although the character is just 14, he takes us on a terrifying ride through a world around him that is punctuated by family break up, dysfunction, teenage pregnancy, and heroin addiction.

And that's all in the first act.

Ash is at least ten years older than the character he plays but within all of this you get the true voice of innocence with its houmour and sometimes stupidity.

Rescue and redemption eventually come for our character in the form of visits to the theatre and the local art house cinema he develops a love for.

They serve images of a world that he could aspire to. But for now he seems stuck in the hinterlands. Writer and director Matthew Dunster knows this world well and as he insists in his interview 'it all happened'.

So forget social workers, if you want the equivalent of life 'trailer trash' - UK style, YOU CAN SEE THE HILLS paints a good and true picture with humour, colour and style.

Champagne Charlie
When did the idea for the play 1st come into your head?

Matthew Dunster
I was on a retreat in Northern Ireland. it was at Tyrone Guthrie's house which he left for such artistic activities, it was very quiet, my room overlooked a lake. I started thinking. I started writing.

Champagne Charlie
Did you write the play in one long go or was it done in stages between other jobs?

Matthew Dunster
It poured out of me once I started. I got up each morning - a little earlier than usual - so before my girlfriend got up for work - and wrote. I really looked forward to each days writing - which is very unusual for me.
 
Champagne Charlie
What is significant in your mind about the time / place you are writing i.e. a provincial town in the North West of England in the 1980's about relative to today?

Matthew Dunster
I don't know if that's for me to say. I certainly never thought about that. I just wanted to get to the heart - the very centre of someone's nervous system. The references to the town and hills where this person lives are actually few and far between. It's a detailed life study. In my experience - these things tend to touch many people - as we all share more than we think.

Champagne Charlie
They say theatre reflects the time we are in....do you see a different kind of work emerging that reflects the times or gets us away from it?

Matthew Dunster
All I know is that every time I see or read Three Sisters I am moved.  I love the writing of people like Terrence Rattigan and Rodney Ackland - but I also like Dennis Kelly and Martin Crimp.  There seems to be a move away from writing or new writing in the search for the next great directorial flourish.  This will pass.  We need the storytellers.  We need the people who lock themselves away.
 
Champagne Charlie
How much of it was based on your own direct experiences and how much that of others?

Matthew Dunster
It's all true.  It's all manipulated for dramatic affect.  Therefore none of it is true. And yet it all happened. So - go figure!!
 
Champagne Charlie
Did you have your lead actor in mind when you wrote the show?

Matthew Dunster
No - but as soon as I thought of William then I never thought of anyone else.  He went to my school and he's younger and better looking than me. So - what more could I ask for?

Champagne Charlie
Why did you decide to direct your own work?

Matthew Dunster
I don't know really. Me and will know the area - the school - all those kids - so perhaps it would have been silly to bring an outsider into the mix on this one.  I enjoyed the experience and I think I would do it again.
 
Champagne Charlie
What happens when you get writers block - or don't you?

Matthew Dunster
I don't write enough to experience the block.
In my case it is more like there is a tank of ideas and stories and occasionally I turn on the tap and some of it pours out.

Champagne Charlie
Do you use if anyone at all to get feedback on your ideas while you are either writing or directing?

Matthew Dunster
I am very lucky that I have access to most people working in theatre - so I send it to the people I think can most help me.  Dennis Kelly who is a terrific playwright has been very instrumental in giving me a kick up the arse and getting me to think about myself as a writer again.

Champagne Charlie
What current works around would you like to have directed yourself?

Matthew Dunster
All the new writing by the good writers - Simon Stephens, Dennis Kelly, Martin Crimp, and Chloe Moss - I could go on.  Being the first person that is allowed to join the writer on his or her journey is such a privilege.  I am working with Che Walker at the Globe at the moment - and his play and where he has set it and the theatre space he has written it for is genuinely inspiring.  He is a great man and has tested my talents - which is what you want - what you need to grow.

Champagne Charlie
What are your future plans?

Matthew Dunster
I am about to direct Troilus and Cressida at the globe and I have just finished writing the first draft of a sequel to YOU CAN SEE THE HILLS. But written from the mothers perspective - and it definitely won't be a monologue!!
 

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