Interview: Keir Ogilvy, Trevor Fox, and Laurie Ogden of THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE on Bringing the Show to the Stage

After a run at The National Theatre in 2019 and a tour over the past two years, the critically-acclaimed The Ocean at the End of the Lane is now playing at the Noël Coward Theatre. The play, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book of the same name, is a spectacular and thrilling tour de force of magic and storytelling. Adapted by Joel Horwood and directed by Katy Rudd, the show takes audiences on an epic journey to a childhood once forgotten.

Broadwayworld spoke with Trevor Fox (Dad), Laurie Ogden (Sis) and Keir Ogilvy (Boy) about the show coming to the West End. We discussed what it is like being in an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's work, how The Ocean at the End of the Lane is theatre for everyone, and how they each relate to their characters.

What made you want to get involved in this production of The Ocean at the End of the Lane? 

Trevor: Well, I was working at the National [Theatre] a few years ago on another production, and it was when this was first happening, the first production of it. It was in the Dorfman and I was working in the Olivier, so we were supposed to be the big show and this was a little baby show! [Laughs] And everybody in the building was talking about it after it opened, like, “Have you seen it?” And because I was doing one show, I couldn't come and see this show, but I'd heard so much about it! So then it went in the West End. And then when it came around that they were touring it and my agent phoned up and said, “There's been an inquiry, would you like to have a read of this script?” I couldn't wait to get hold of it! To be honest with you, I've never read the book, and I'm not really a big fantasy fan. Not that I don't like it, it's just that I  don't seek it out. So as soon as I read the script, I thought, “Definitely. I want to get involved in this!”

Keir: Yeah, as actors, you audition for a lot of separate things, but this was a very good script to read. It was really exciting to be part of the audition process. It was an absolute delight to be offered it!

Laurie: I saw the press night of the original production and I absolutely fell in love with it. But I think it was especially because the part that I get to play, as well as being a character, getting to be involved in the movement. I've never done any puppetry before, so knowing I was getting to learn about the puppets and be involved in that was a huge draw for being involved.

Can you go a bit into your characters in the story?

Keir: There's a good one on this! My character is loosely based on Neil Gaiman himself. So the whole of the story is based on his childhood and dips in and out of reality. It's a story about a young boy processing trauma, I suppose. So it's loosely based on him. I need to qualify by saying that Neil Gaiman is a very cool man!

This character is quite coy! Nervous, anxious, a bit of an outcast. Neil Gaiman has lots of friends, this character doesn't have a lot of friends, that’s where it diverges from reality, right? [Laughs] Because Neil Gaiman's a very popular man. But this, it's the social outcast. It's the outsider. It's the anxious boy. It's really familiar! I was so anxious at that age. It’s that thing of the really active imagination, being able to work out all the different possibilities and being able to make up worst possible outcomes for things. Constantly trying to work out if people are playing tricks, or not trusting that they're supporting. 

Laurie: Sis, on the surface, she's [a] bolshy, annoying, younger sister, and tries to take up all the tension in the space, and spends a lot of her time deliberately antagonising the Boy, her older brother. But I think what's so special about her is it's quite complex underneath - she is a little girl, she's grieving for her mom. She's in a household with a boy and her dad and so it's the journey of her processing that grief on the sidelines. That's why Ursula is such an important character to Sis when she comes into their lives.

Trevor: And the Dad . . . Perhaps he’s loosely based on Neil Gaiman’s dad? [Laughs] He's recently widowed, trying to bring up two young children. So there's the emotional thing to deal with, also the practical things to deal with. Financially, they're struggling a little bit. The bulk of the play is set in the early 1980s, which is a period I know very well because I'm of a certain age - I was coming to adulthood in the early 1980s so I can sympathise very much with that. He's a guy who's trying to do his best under very difficult circumstances.

What has it been like adapting such a popular Neil Gaiman work to the stage?

Laurie: It was really challenging, I think, especially for the creative team in terms of the epic, fantastical moments. There's such fertile ground for responding to it theatrically. Some of my favourite moments were when we were working on some of the puppets, and Gareth [Aled, Associate Puppetry Direct], who was working with us, would keep bringing out the book and we’d look at particular lines and try and see how we could infuse that into what we were doing physically with the puppets.

Trevor: By the time we came on board, most of that had been done. I deliberately didn't read the book because we're doing the play - I wouldn't like to bring the book into it, necessarily. I like everything to be within the context of the piece we're doing. So I do actually look forward to finishing this - I suppose I could read it now! [Laughs] This is just an excuse for why I haven't read the book! I will put it in the long list of books I haven’t read.

Keir: It is an excellent book!

Trevor: Well, I believe it! We've met Neil Gaiman. Actually, I got him to sign my copy of the book.

And you haven’t read the book! [Laughs]

Trevor: But I shall read the book!

Keir: I think we should say, most of the work had been done with the other iterations. But the creative team were really at the top of the game. There's not really anyone who isn't at the top. Between Jherek [Bischoff, Composer] doing the sound, Ian Dickinson [for Autograph] doing the sound design, Paule Constable [Lighting Designer] doing the lighting and Katy Rudd as the director . . . Magnificent, fit together as a  team. But Katy was really ambitious with trying to continue to advance what it was. So there are differences from the last iteration and the iteration before that. It was hard, hard work, but hopefully, the results are there to be seen. The quality of what they've put together is a delight to be part of.

So you have the book and you have the different iterations of the stage show. How do you make the character your own without taking away too much from the original character?

Laurie: For me, playing Sis, there's obviously parts of myself and my own childhood that I bring to it. But because so many of her interactions are with the Boy, I think it was really informed by choices that Keir is making about his character, and Trevor as the Dad, and finding a way of how you fit within that family dynamic. Because it's a fully new cast, that made it easier to find our own versions of it.

Keir: I suppose a lot of it is just making little choices and seeing what sticks and what doesn't, and maybe you get directed another way. But it absolutely is, that's a good point. A lot of it is about how you instinctively interact with the people in front of you, and then being told if that doesn't work. If you don't get told anything, then it means it's great!

Trevor: Yeah, any character you play, there’s this spectrum of the character at one end and you at the other. It’s where you meet them on that length. I like to meet them very close, other people like to meet them at the far end! It's not right or wrong!

A lot of it's in the text. And as Keir and Laurie have both said, you offer things up, and then Katy will watch it, and then she'll not say anything or she'll go, “Well, why don't you try doing this?” But nothing's been really imposed on us. And that is different because it's a whole new cast. If you're doing a job that's just a normal take over where you're going into a production, and you'll audition for a job and they’ll say, “You've got to make it your own way,” and then you get there and it’s like, “Well, can you looking there and seeing it like this. Make it your own by doing that!” But there was none of that. It’d be interesting to talk to the people who were actually in it [from the previous productions], if they came to see it, and then to see what they think. 

Do you have favourite scenes in the show?

Keir: It's a hard one because it moves so quickly, even to break it into scenes is quite difficult! I always say I have a love-hate relationship with the end of the first act because it is this big movement sequence - I feel like I'm about to go into cardiac arrest every time. And it doesn't seem to get easier! For a while, it got easier, and it’s really plateaued since, but it's fun. It's exciting. And then there are a few scenes in the second act where you've done all the legwork in the first half and you can sit in a slightly longer scene in the second act, which can be fun.

Laurie: I really enjoy the kitchen scenes where we all get to argue with and push each other's buttons. But I think when I'm watching it, my favourite is the ocean puppet scene, because the puppets are beautiful. The way that Aimee [McGoldrick], Millie [Hikasa], Keir and Dom [Ramsden] are working with those puppets is just stunning.

Trevor: The first time I saw it, we did a basic stagger run-through towards the end of rehearsals before we moved into the theatre for the first time. And I was just blown away by it. I couldn't stop crying. It was one of those magical moments that you get, sadly, too rarely in theatre. There's so many brilliant moments and brilliant scenes, and I love doing our family scenes, they're great, but watching it, there's so many special magical moments. It's a really special piece of work.

Keir: What's great about that puppet scene is that someone else has come up with that idea and it works really well, but then you got the credit for it! [Laughs]

What do you hope audiences take away from The Ocean at the End of the Lane?

Trevor: Well, I come from a quite large working-class family from the northeast of England, and they're not your archetypal theatre-goers. Two of my nephews came to see this, both of whom . . . I don't even know if they've ever been at the theatre before! And they both said, “I didn't know that theatre could be like this!” And I think for people who don't know what theatre is, or think they know what it is, they'll come and see this and they’ll be amazed. And also, people who do love theatre and come to it quite a lot - it's magical for them as well. It works for everybody.

Laurie: I hope audiences take away the power of imagination, the possibility in theatre like Trevor was saying. Also, for me, one of the big messages of the play is deep empathy for other people, and kindness and openness. I think that's a really beautiful message to send people away with.

Keir: Yeah, it's a beautiful coming-of-age story. And I think there is something in it about learning to love the bits of you that make you different, which is really difficult at that age, like twelve all the way through high school. But it is something I wish I could have seen at that age - I think it would have made things a little bit easier. I was a little weirdo! [Laughs]

And finally, how would you describe The Ocean at the End of the Lane in one word?

Laurie: I think it's really difficult to do that because of the epicness of the show. But then also, the bits that really landed for me are all the smaller, nuanced bits within it. So it's quite hard to find a word that contains all of it. But at a push, I'll say fantastical.

Trevor: I would say it's quite enthralling!

[Noises of agreement]

Keir: Oh, well done! He’s nailed that!

[Laughs]

Keir:  It's hard to look past magical!

The Ocean at the End of the Lane runs at the Noël Coward Theatre until 25 November.

Read our five star review of the show here.