Interview: 'Refuge Said The Play Would Save Lives': Writer Emily Jupp on Funding, Ambiguity and Domestic Violence in Her New Play, WORMHOLES

Emily Jupp's a leading national journalist, who's worked mainly in arts and features (notably at The Standard and The Independent). She branched out in 2016 and started working freelance as a writer for TV and stage.

Her television credits in factual entertainment include channels such as Paramount, Smithsonian, National Geographic and Discovery. Her first play, Doing Well, about the mental health crisis affecting young people and links to social media, takes a satirical swipe at the cult of influencers. It was a finalist for the Liverpool Hope comedy playwriting prize in 2019. 

Jupp's new play, Wormholes, is currently running at the Omnibus Theatre in London's Clapham Common. As well as writing Wormholes, she's also producing it. BroadwayWorld caught up with Emily to chat about the play.

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Your play deals with coercive control and domestic abuse. And yet, it artfully combines humour with darker themes. How did you manage to structure it so well and make it so believable?

I've watched my fair share of "here's my trauma play" productions. I didn't want Wormholes to be that. From my work in television and journalism, I know how to pace things and amp up tension.

I wanted the play to be accurate and not just from my white, middle-class woman perspective, so we ran workshops with survivors from different places and backgrounds who were helped by the charity Refuge. They all said, "This is our story," which was very reassuring.

At the same time as making the material accurate and compelling, I also wanted to make it palatable and not too heavy. Audience members say its weirdly cathartic.

How important is it to get the message out that women are still being controlled and abused?

One in four women will experience abuse. And that's just what's reported, so there are probably a lot more who suffer.

My generation didn't know what coercive control was and women didn't necessarily have the vocabulary to voice that someone was manipulating them. There's a lot of shame and self-blame going on still, so it's very important to discuss these things.

I found Victoria Yeates' performance as Woman totally compelling. How did you find her?

Every night I go to Victoria and say, "That's the best performance yet". She's so alive and brings something different to the production every time she does it.

As a journalist, I interviewed Victoria in 2017 when she was in The Crucible and we just kept in touch. We live in the same area of southeast London and got closer during lockdown. She read a very early version of the play and we discussed themes. Then I rewrote and polished up the script, and she did a reading. The assistant director of the Omnibus Theatre was at the reading, and eventually, we got the play produced.

How long did it take to get the play on and was it difficult doing so?

I waited 18 months after the Omnibus said yes to Wormholes. We needed to raise money. I applied to the Arts Council five times for funding and got rejected every time. Eventually, I got crowd funding, raising £7,000. I was told it would cost £20,000 to put the play on, but I went ahead with what I had. I pay Equity minimum rates, as I think this is the right thing to do.

It's a frustrating process getting funding, as there's no quality assessment of the actual work. It's more about ticking boxes. I was also told women's issues are not a high priority right now, while Refuge said the play would save lives. It's a testament to the doggedness of artists that people go ahead and start making things.

I'm delighted Wormholes is at the Omnibus Theatre, as they programme emerging writers and are good at supporting new writing.

What next?

I'm working on a play with the Working Title: Eternal Jellyfish. It's based on a real jellyfish that regenerates and never dies. It's incredibly small and is hard to find – and it cycles round forever. If we could find a way to splice that DNA into humans, we'd live forever. Billionaires want eternal life, but also there's an over-population crisis. I love the tension between those two things. Also, I want to examine whether we should be pursuing the things we're pursuing. It's weird, strange and kind of Beckett-like.

I love looking at things that are of interest to us now. I guess I can't get away from the journalist in me. I also like sympathetic characters with flaws.

Do you think Wormholes might have another airing in a different form?

I think Wormholes could work as a TV series, as the main character reacts to and refers to other women staying in the institution with her. She also talks about her friend Jess and her mother. It would be interesting to explore all of those characters further.

There's this feeling that women's issues are all sorted now and we don't need plays like Wormholes, but that's not true. It would be good to take the script to another level.

I love the ambiguity in Wormholes that leaves the audience thinking about what really happened. What do you think about leaving things more open?

One of the nice things is going to the bar after a performance of Wormholes and hearing people discussing what they thought happened. They pick up clues that they use to support their point of view. The other evening, someone asked if the main character was in purgatory. That had never occurred to me, but I loved it.

The audience is engaging with the play and the play's really getting their minds working. That's the beautiful thing about Wormholes. So, I would like to re-engage with this character again. I think there's definitely a TV series there. Or a radio play. The whole production is about her voice, which is perfect for radio.

Read our review of Wormholes here.

Wormholes is on at the Omnibus Theatre until August 10.

Photo credit: Rob Greig

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