A Youngish Perspective has this exclusive conversation with Alex John, the writer and performer of Everyone’s Worried About Eve at Bread&Roses Theatre, 23rd and 24th March.

What inspired you to create Everyone’s Worried About Eve, and how did the idea of
blending a sitcom format with a powerful personal narrative come about?

Initially, I wanted to start a play which explores an autistic character at the centre. But after having my own experiences with grief it made me think about how an autistic person reacts differently from a neurotypical individual. The more I looked into it the more I found. Through my own experience I completely avoided any responsibilities and neglected a lot of my personal connections. It was the beginning of a long goodbye which was more frightening for me. Being autistic and female I learnt to mask from a very early age, like many, all I wanted to do was be like everyone else. I’m pretty sure this isn’t a term but I think this led to me hyper-masking by pretending everything was ok while trying to sweep all my problems under a carpet.

This led to me searching for figures in society who pretend everything is ok by putting on a bright disposition. This reminded me of talk show hosts, comedians and sitcoms. This is how Eve came about. I wanted to create a person who uses this sitcom persona to mask her way through grief, going through life like everything is going to be sunny by the end of the episode. But, obviously life isn’t a sitcom so the cracks begin to show, interrupting the narrative throughout the play.

The show uses humor and a sitcom structure to explore grief—how do you think
comedy helps in telling emotionally complex stories?

I don’t think I can speak for every emotionally complex story but in terms of grief. I’m aware the phrase ‘laughter is the best medicine’ is often appropriate. I find that with this content people don’t want to be preached at. So tackling a heavy subject, in this instance grief, is important. If someone who’s experienced grief in any form can watch ‘Everyone’s Worried About Eve’ and think ‘that resonates with me’ or see the funny side of the heaviness or recognise bad habits like ‘oh yeah, I remember that time I couldn’t get out of bed and chronically watched sitcoms to get through the day!’…but that may be a bit too specific. I think grief is nuanced; it doesn’t constantly sting, rather when remembering those we’ve lost it can be warm and fuzzy or it can be brutal, it can be enraging and often sickening. So I think comedy is a useful tool for finding the high and lows within that.

If Eve had her own theme song, what would it sound like? And for what reasons did you choose the songs that form part of the soundtrack?

If Eve had her own soundtrack it would be a seemingly upbeat song with wallowy lyrics. So I think it definitely needs to be in the realm of disco like ‘Don’t leave me this way’ by Thelma Houston or anything by ABBA. A tune that would most likely be used in a dream sequence in a film.

The politics of M&Ms sounds intriguing! Can you give us a sneak peek of how that fits into Eve’s journey?

The M&Ms are initially a lighter part of the show. But later they take on a more metaphorical meaning which displays how grief is very symbolic. How often, out of nowhere when a person leaves us, mundane things start to remind you of the person you’ve lost.

If Eve could step into any classic sitcom, which one would she fit into best—and how would she shake things up?

Definitely Miranda. Eve’s sitcom she envisions for her life is drawn from Miranda Hart . The start of the play is an homage to the theme intro of Miranda. I think in Eve’s mind (and mine if I’m being honest) she tries to emulate this jovial and often ridiculous, tall woman who is adored despite all her flaws. To Eve, poking fun at herself or others to an imaginary audience means she gets to be in on the joke. If she can make light and poke fun at the mildly shitty things in her life such as a bad date or an awkward family wedding, then surely she won’t have to focus on her real problems! When really what she’s essentially doing is trying to pop a plaster on a missing limb.

But, I think if she were to ‘shake things up’ I reckon she’d really irritate the gang in ‘Friends’ as she’d constantly be derailing the narrative of a core friend group to talk about herself while she’s chilling on the sofa. She’d be the equivalent of Janice in ‘Friends’ in that sitcom universe.