This February, the New Works festival returns for its 13th year, celebrating the very best of student writing in Glasgow. We sat down with Will, author of Boutique, which performs on 25th February, Queen Margaret Union.
What drew you to set the play in a boutique, and how did that environment shape the story?
The play actually began as a much shorter piece (without any bizarre supernatural elements) that essentially never left the boutique parlour, so the enclosed nature of the setting has always been intrinsic to the story. The idea started when I was spending a bit too much time watching Say Yes To The Dress with my mum back home and began to realise that the wedding shop floor is often a place where insecurities are released and family tensions can so easily bubble to surface. Put simply, bridal shops can be evil. Once I figured out that I wanted it to go into much darker, weirder territory with the narrative, I developed this environment that was perfectly tailored to a luxurious customer experience, to an extreme, campy degree, but was actually a kind of monstrous trap for the hopeful brides. There’s also something fascinating about spaces of extortionate purchases. What are we buying? Why does it cost so much? Why are we willing to pay? What does it mean to the buyer? What do these items represent for us?
How does the 1976 setting influence the social and family dynamics depicted in the play?
Without spoiling the story too much, ’76 was a crucial transitional period for the gay community, at a point where homosexuality had been decriminalised for a few years but prior to the radical action of the 80s. This tipping point for queer culture manifests in the character of Jude, whose brazen expression of his identity is a source of discomfort for his sister and mother, and in two other characters, whose repression of their own queerness shape so much of the narrative. In a larger sense, the shadow of marriage as an institution hangs over the characters, reminding them of what they can’t have or what they feel they must do in order to be accepted. As is the case with the largely static character of the Mannequin, at this point in history, queer folks are still struggling to move the needle; they can gesture towards real life, tilt or strain in its direction, but to be seen, heard, acknowledged, interacted with, would be to break the careful boundaries laid out in the culture.
What inspired the blend of family drama with darker, supernatural elements?
I think elements of fantasy work best when they coax out very real personal troubles. As an insufferably avid fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, weaving in campy horror with soapy personal drama has always been my favourite – for this play, I took a lot of specific inspiration from the visuals of 70s Giallo cinema. Boutique has a sort of fairy-tale narrative of selfish dreams that lead the family astray, complete with a run-in with their very own Big Bad Wolf, but it was important to me that the Clyde’s family drama was real so that the magical threat feels equally as real. The danger that Madame Tattler poses is reliant on a family that is ripe with both fear and regret; between Marjorie’s delusions, Evelyn’s bitterness and Jude’s avoidance, they make the perfect feast for her.
What challenges did you face in balancing the glamorous and sinister tones of the narrative?
In the writing process, it was a huge challenge getting the character of Madame Tattler right, she’s equal parts predatory creature and poised fashionista and the first aspect is sort of contained within the other. Her character is really representative of this tonal balance, at times dancing around the showroom floor and at other’s crawling and prowling her way across the stage, and in the rehearsal room, Tilly’s performance has matched this beautifully, to the point of almost seeming like a special effect in and of herself. From a technical perspective, we are also working to create this tone by blending luxurious, high-camp set dressing with deep red lighting and ominous soundscapes, hopefully evoking the Gothic atmosphere of the stories which inspired it.
What role does the concept of “perfection” play in the story’s deeper themes?
Most of our characters are seeking to create something perfect: Marjorie wants the perfect romance, Evelyn wants the perfect family, Tattler strives to create a ‘perfect’ dress. But these pretty basic desires are rooted in a genuine inability for the characters to face reality and I think that quest for perfection really comes crashing down on all of them in terrifying ways. In Tattler’s Boutique, perfection means cutting the loose threads – shedding anything that doesn’t look or feel the way you want it to.