"I never dared to write a comedy before. If nobody laughs you're stuffed, aren't you?": Lisa Evans in Conversation — Page 5:
JK: Could you talk about the challenges of working in different media. You mentioned your film work already.
LE: I am doing a script for a film, that's new for me, and I am working on two adaptations one of which is with the physical theatre company Frantic Assembly. They are really nice people to work with. Their way of working is fascinating as well. I just did a visit to Broadmoor Prison for research. My framing story, apart from Frankenstein in the middle, is that I wanted to have a modern monster, a woman who kills her child. I also got commissioned for an adaptation of a Melvyn Bragg novel to be done in Keswick for their centenary. I do keep on the move as you can see, I am a moving target!
JK: Have you done any adaptations from other languages?
LE: No, I haven't. It would be fascinating, I'd love to do that, but someone would have to give me a literal translation as I don't speak other languages (just a bit of French but that isn't enough for doing a translation). That would be really interesting and challenging because of the speech patterns and rhythms. That's why I have written several plays set in America because I love the speech patterns you can get using American. That way you have so much more poetry in the language than using modern English. That, and a film, and comedy — new things. I like throwing myself off cliffs, if I haven't done it before it is a jolly good reason to have a go.
JK: What about your work for television?
LE: I have written quite a lot for television, sort of stuff everybody knows about: Casualty, Holby City, East Enders, The Bill. This work is a kind of jigsaw puzzle, doing a guest episode while having to link the plot to existing and forthcoming storylines.
JK: One final question: if you didn't have to depend on commissions what would you like to write?
LE: No idea. I don't know because I need the work to be wanted. One of the reasons of writing for commission is obviously financial, but also I am not sure that I have the confidence, without anybody else saying that this would be a good idea, to necessarily think it is worth doing. That's why I work with other people all the time. I hate being in the attic on my own. I talk to directors about what to write next. Quite often with Gwenda, for instance, we talk and she suggests "how about writing something about this." That's how it starts. I would be in trouble if I didn't have interest from somebody else. Except I have just rewritten a comedy which is uncommissioned, just so I could get it right. So I don't think I know what this new piece would be...perhaps something with dance in it! For me writing is a very collaborative process, I get my mates involved, I ask my son to listen as I try ideas out with him. I know there are other writers who just shut themselves away for a while, but I don't work like that. I change quite a bit in the process of writing and during rehearsals, sometimes structurally, sometimes by editing, and very often it is the end that changes for some reason. In the case of Once We Were Mothers we talked about how to end it for quite a while. I don't remember the details we went through now, but we wanted to have a positive ending, bringing together the three strands on stage. Initially I wanted a child's voice, laughter and swinging on a trapeze, to give a sense of physical freedom. But at the Orange Tree they have no flying (being a small theatre in the round), so that had to be left out! At Stoke a montage of children's voices was used instead — to suggest an off stage effect, with Flora dancing and smiling centre stage.
Notes
- 1) Evans, Lisa. Once We Were Mothers. London: Oberon Books, 2004.
- 2) Evans, Lisa. Once We Were Mothers: Programme, Orange Tree Theatre. Richmond, 2007.