We sat down with James Pickthall, whose newest show Together Forever!, comes to The Bread & Roses Theatre from 15-19th April.
- What inspired you to write Together Forever!?
As a writer, I’ve always enjoyed exploring concepts such as love and togetherness. At the risk of sounding prosaic, relationships are inherently theatrical in their complexity. But it is in how people find out about themselves when trying to understand each other that I’m drawn towards, particularly in the last year since coming out as trans nonbinary. The three stories in Together Forever! are as much to do with genuine, quiet contemplation as they are about couples breaking up.
I originally wrote Safety Zone as something of a subversion of In Yer Face theatre: the couples were in a room designed to be fought in, but they weren’t fighting. They were talking.
The meaning of ‘communication’ thus became the play’s tonal centrepiece: actions speak louder than words, but what if you’re only left with words?
The two monologues that make up the front half of the play, Tunnel and Let This Be the Day, were originally written in the summer of 2023 and were quite different to their now final drafts.
Coming out as trans nonbinary realtered my attitudes and feelings towards life; it gave me an actual reason to embrace myself and enjoy being alive. Consequently, it aided redrafting Tunnel and Let This Be the Day into more rounded pieces.
- What made you decide to explore this concept through satire and humor?
When people reflect on a ceased relationship, it is usually here when the funny side of a sincere situation becomes defined. Each other’s quirks, icks and flaws become slightly caricaturised, because most people enter a relationship with such high expectations that simple actions and gestures are constantly under self-scrutiny.
It is really in this heteronormative model of relationships where satire emerges; one can’t help but mock the absurdity of people so confident in their abilities stumble over basic concepts such as communication and boundary setting.
In Tunnel, Mark’s desperate legitimising of his own concupiscence begins to reveal his many layers of self-protective irony. In Let This Be the Day, Ally’s natural ignorance about human behaviour is mistakenly taken by her on-again-off-again partner as judgement of his personality.
Of course, while this light hearted contempt is pivotal to the comedy in Together Forever!, something I wanted to ensure was that there was heart for its protagonists.
At the end of the day, we are humans with such precise interests, desires and fears that the Brownian motion of being alive is going to mean that for brief moments a connection is made, and you end up with just a small snapshot of someone’s entire identity before parting ways.
- The play features a range of diverse characters, from an alien in a situationship to a young couple in distress. How do you approach creating characters?
I’ve yet to check if this is a recurring trait with people with autism, but I have a habit of talking out loud to myself. Combined with what I would like to consider is a hyperactive imagination, I’ve developed a creative practice as a writer based on a Dylan Moran-slash-William Goldman idea called ‘spitballing’ where, much like the two, I just talk to myself as different characters and like a windchime or a paper airplane, just see how the idea evolves in the moment.
I usually find a theme to talk about that is quite personal to my own struggles, such as the subtextual discussion of forced outness of Everett and Grace’s bisexuality in Safety Zone.
All four characters in Together Forever! were fun to write. Mark was a fun excuse to explore the rather embarrassing pretentions of sexually frustrated men but to also give him some much-needed humility.
Ally was originally grimly lugubrious but become much more an endearing soul after a more trans-focused rewrite.
Secrets are a recuring theme in Together Forever!, now that I think about.
- Do you have a specific message or sentiment you hope to convey through the comedic situations in Together Forever!?
There’s certainly a veiled theme that links the three stories together, that of the notion of ‘first relationships’.
Over a lengthy period of contemplating and critical reflection, I was finally able to find a quote of sorts that I would like to think has become the moral of Together Forever!. From the balladry of video game journalist Tim Rogers in his video essay on milestone progenitor of the Dating Sim genre, Tokimeki Memorial: “some of us are so ashamed of even the most innocent aspects of who we are that eventually we run out of people to be.”
I would like to hope that within the three stories, audiences will find situations that resonate with their own journeys of self-discovery; all of us have regrets about how we lived our childhood, our teenage years, our transition into adulthood, that it must feel like we’ve lived a whole life before having that spark of inspiration when things actually do make sense. And honestly, that’s completely normal. Because at the end of the day, it really is about being the best you that you can possibly be.
- What do you hope to achieve with this play on a broader scale?
Perhaps selfishly speaking, but Together Forever! marks my London debut for a full length play that has not been performed script in hand. As I approach turning thirty, I did look upon this achievement with some bittersweetness, but it has been very comforting to be given the advice from the rest of the team and from fellow creatives that, ‘we all grow at our own pace.’ I hope that this serves as a reminder for any creatives who are naturally despondent about the glacial pace of their career development: it all takes time!
While Tunnel and Let This Be the Day are standalone piece, I’m keen to continue developing Safety Zone as a full length play. A priority for its development would be bringing on an intimacy coordinator, given the very physical concept of the show, and because of how significant the act of touch is within the play’s three narratives.
I also hope that Together Forever! helps springboard my company Bread Bin as a recognised home for queer and neurodivergent led new writing, which it has been doing quietly since it was formed back in 2021.
- What advice would you give to emerging queer and neurodiverse writers who are beginning their creative journeys in this industry?
Embrace fun. It is vital to recognise the history of the queer and neurodivergent community; our struggles, challenges, obstacles, achievements, objections and moments of celebration. It is equally important to recognise our agency in being able to conjure stories and read the world in some brilliantly different ways.
Own the cringe. Make stuff that’s embarrassing, esoteric, enigmatic, eerie, emotional, earnest, earthy, exciting. Embrace whatever wave of hyperfocusing you’re on as if you are a champion surfer.
Work together. Be active in forming networks; share work with each other, share ideas with each other, share worries and fears with each other.
Finally, as anodyne as this is, it has to be said: be yourself. We are continuing to experience mainstream media’s labile understanding of queer representation, bouncing back and forth from tokenism to rejection, in a muddled effort to please all the people all the time. Art in their hands melts and spoils; the art of the individual creatives will always have a pulse.
- Is there anything else you’d like to share with our audience about Together Forever! or your work as a playwright?
I think while the show will no doubt resonate with a young adult audience, it would be wonderful to see a range of audiences throughout the week! Something I would like to find out from audiences is how they resonate and connect (or even resist) with the three stories.
With reaching a younger demographic, that being students and teenagers, it would be fascinating to provide a talking point about the ethics of relationship etiquette, the importance of boundaries and the significance of differentiating between fantasy and reality of romantic connections.
From older audiences, perhaps an opportunity to share their own experiences with relationships or how it compared with the expectations of a relationship from their younger years.