We sat down with Kellie Shirley and Peter Caulfield to discuss their new production of Jim Cartwright’s TWO, running 21 August – 12 September 2025 at Greenwich Theatre. This immersive revival transforms our café-bar into a 1980s pub, celebrating working-class stories and vanishing third spaces.
They have also just launched Gin Tasting Masterclass tickets on selected dates, in partnership with Greenwich Gin. The Greenwich Gin team will be taking a stroll from their home in Maritime Greenwich to our Theatre Bar, where they’ll share the fascinating history of gin and guide audiences through a tasting of several award-winning varieties.
These can be booked alongside TWO tickets, offering a fun and flavourful way to start the night.
You play over a dozen characters in the space of one night, what’s the biggest challenge or thrill in shifting between such a wide range of voices, relationships and emotional states?
It’s definitely a huge challenge but a welcome one; Transformation and discovery is the reason I got into acting. Trying to understand the world through different perspectives. Empathy creates connection. Before getting into the characters specific perspective though I usually start quite big, almost caricature like with their physicality and voice – and try a few different approaches – perhaps find part of the body where that person might lead from, where their voice might resonate. Kind of outside in which doesn’t work for everyone. Then as I do more work into their intentions and actions becoming more specific which in turn makes them more four dimensional human beings. (Well that’s the aim!)
When approaching seven characters the approach is the same/ but the biggest challenge I think is to make sure there are stark enough differences so the audience is clear exactly who you are at any one point. Costume will help of course but because the changes are so quick it really will be more about physicality and voice. The script is so good that emotions will then follow naturally. It’s definitely gonna be a rollercoaster once the play gets going for us and the audience. Which is exciting!
Jim Cartwright’s TWO paints a bittersweet portrait of working-class Britain through its pub setting. How did you connect with the world of the play, and what does it say to audiences today?
It’s reminds us just how important pubs are for communities and in person connection. A pub used to be the heart of a village or town in Britain and now they are being closed down at such a fast rate due to increased rental prices, energy costs and culture changes. Whilst Gen Zs defo drink less which is no bad thing, there also seems to be increased depression and social anxiety amongst that generation. I wonder if a part of that is to do with pubs being unaffordable along with the cost of living crisis but also the fact there are fewer pubs in poorer and remote areas creating less community hubs.Sure there are other way to connect socially but the pub used to be a place where people met to talk about what’s going on in the world and play music, pool and have a gossip. Where as now it’s some where you might go for Sunday lunch as a treat for a birthday or special occasion. A middle class luxury. I think independent pubs were such a Fabric of British society it will be sad if more close because they can’t afford to stay open. I personally connected with the play on many levels, not just cos I love going to the pub (quite hard not to when your partner is from Ireland – which incidentally he says is the main pillar of their society) but because the characters are so vivid. It’s also a real poetic slice of 80s history, pub culture, relationships and in our version the tunes played throughout are banging!
This production transforms the theatre into a functioning 1980s pub. How has the immersive setting influenced your performance — does it change how you engage with the audience or each other? I actually think it’s a perfect way to set this play, because the more interaction with the audience the more authentic that engagement with the customers and characters within the pub will feel. The audience will be able to get a drink with their ticket and sit down on a pub table perhaps where a scene might take place later on. They will be right up amounts the action and we will be able to play off them naturally and in the moment rather than pretending customers of there – which would be the case if we were presenting the play in its normal theatre setting. This way the story will unlock much more naturally and authentically and the audience will feel part of the story and the pub fabric. Do you each have a favourite character to play — someone you particularly relate to, or one who’s just a joy to embody? The pub landlord is a bit of show man and really takes his job seriously / so I guess in that way we are quite similar. He also has a lot of hidden grief trauma which he is suppressing and covering throughout the piece. I can also relate to that on a few levels so I really want honour part of his persona as believably as possible, which hopefully then other people who may have experienced great loss in their lives too will relate to aswell. He’s a good person he’s just lost his way a little inside his relationship and for good reason.The other character which is perhaps not fun, but the biggest challenge is Roy, a manipulative sociopath- who bullies his wife more mentally than physically. Having dated this kind of personality type I wanted to portray him as truthfully as possible. Often these types of men can be charming to the outside world but close under the surface is an insecure monster who only wants to control – you know, like a lot of the men leading the world right now!
As dark as it sounds, traumatising Kelly Shirley as my wife Shirley will be my soul aim for 10 minutes every night. It will be interesting to see how the audience react to seeing such a tense scene so close to them. This is a show that walks a fine line between heartbreak and humour. How do you balance those extremes in your performance, especially when scenes turn suddenly emotional or absurd? I think we just have to trust the script and its structure / which is so brilliantly written by Jim Cartwright – as well our brilliant director James Ibrahim-Haddrell who has great taste. As long as we do our jobs as actors and create full rounded people within the space and get all the the words right in the correct order I think the rest will follow.With so many stories unfolding in one night, what do you hope audiences take away from this celebration of pub culture and community?
Whilst I agree this play is about those things, I think moreover it’s about grief and the different ways we all cope. There’s no right or wrong answer and everyone’s experiences are relative. I hope the audience take away that it’s ok to be messy and to not have all the answers – and at the end of the day we are all just trying our best. Perhaps life can be made a little bit easier when your part of a community and your able to look at someone in the eye and talk out loud rather than just going to work keeping your head down and speaking to the same people inside your inner circle. Sometimes chatting to people in your local who don’t see the world exactly like you might just be the different perspective you need to move on. Or just a place to people watch. Why don’t you come down to our Greenwich theatre pop-up pub theatre and find out?