Playwright David Eldridge

On David Eldridge’s 22 birthday the Bush Theatre called saying they had decided to stage Serving It Up, his tale of racism and rage set in Hackney.

Serving It Up was one of the first things Eldridge wrote while studying for his degree in English and Drama at Exeter University.

He originally wanted to be a director but couldn’t find any plays he wanted to direct. ‘There was nothing that said the particular things that I wanted to say. I realised that I would have to write those plays myself so I just had a go and that’s how it started.’

Now, aged 37, he has proven that he is more than a ‘promising young writer’. Hit plays include an adaptation of the Danish film Festen (2004), which transferred to Broadway, and Market Boy (2005), which is partly based on his teenage experience working in Romford market.

2011 has been a busy year. The Knot of the Heart is currently running at the Almeida and is a wonderfully observed portrait of a relationship between a mother and her two daughters, with sharp dialogue. His new play The Stock Da’wa recently opened at the Hampstead Theatre and is directed by actress Kathy Burke.

Polite and articulate, Eldridge took some time out of overseeing the production of The Stock Da’wa to tell TLW about how great British actresses are, getting young people excited about the theatre and why there’s never been a better time to be a new playwright.

Why did you write The Stock Da’wa?

‘The Stock Da’wa was more about writing a kind of play. While I was adapting The Wild Duck for the Donmar in 2005 I thought I’d love to write a play like that. I’m often inspired by great masters and I wondered what Ibsen might be interested in if he were alive. The action of The Wild Duck is around the return of a character called Gregors Werle and the desire to get his family and friends to face up to the truth.

‘What’s really interesting is how that truth isn’t necessarily the force for moral good that it seems it might be to begin with and how that truth telling can become really destructive. In my play, the protagonist returns to the village of Stock after 20 years away. Da’wa is an Arabic word and means a call, invitation or mission.’

What was it like working with Kathy Burke?

‘It’s impossible not to enjoy working with Kathy Burke. Kathy denies vigorously that she’s a national treasure but really she is and she’s completely unique and brilliant. She came to see my very first play in 1996 and we had a chat. I remember that vividly because she’s one of my heroes and I was really in awe of her. We’ve always had a beer and a chat if we’ve seen each other out and about. I sent her The Stock Da’wa and she wanted to be a part of it, which was great.’

You wrote The Knot of the Heart in response to a comment by actress Lisa Dillon that she didn’t want to play a character defined by her relationship with a man. Do we need more strong female characters in British drama?

‘We’ve got the best actresses in the world. They can have great pathos and feeling, they can be funny, but also they don’t ask for sympathy, they just show you the character as it is. We have a fantastic wealth of talent in our actresses and should make better use of it by writing for them, employing them and working with them.’

You spoke of the ‘energy of the ’90s. What has happened to that?

‘There’s never been a better time to be a playwright. There are more opportunities than there ever have been for young or new playwrights in particular. But there are also a lot more playwrights now, which makes things harder for mid-career playwrights. That’s what’s changed in the last 15 years, that ‘energy of the ’90s’ made room for young playwrights and there hadn’t been that much room before. There are more opportunities for new playwrights than there were when I started out.

‘Many more new plays being produced now, which is a great thing. Theatres like the Royal Court have schemes to find new talent and all the regional theatres put on plays by first time playwrights.’

Will there still be so many opportunities when impact of the cuts to the Arts Council start to be felt?

‘The danger is that theatre will suffer as budgets are cut and audiences have less money to spend on seeing plays. We don’t want to see new plays being reduced to monologues. But the British theatre has weathered past recessions remarkably well. For some reason, people still like to go out and see plays. We’re a nation of theatre-goers. Arts organisations also do a lot of valuable work to try and make sure they include all their communities.’

What can be done to encourage people who wouldn’t usually go to the theatre to give it a go?

‘For a start, you let them know that it’s going on. You let them know that the theatre isn’t something to be frightened of, that it’s relevant to them in some way, or it might be interesting to them even if it’s not directly relevant to their lives, and you make ticket prices affordable. They’re all the things that I think we all kind of know about and I think that Crawling in the Dark, written by Natalie Mitchell in response to my play, Knot of the Heart, and commissioned by the Almeida for young people, is a fantastic example of a project like that.’

National Theatre Live is screening its current production of Frankenstein in cinemas for mass audiences. Can a filmed stage show be as good as the real thing?

‘As long as the original productions in the theatre don’t become tailored to be transmitted, the screening of plays doesn’t bother me. It allows you to reach a larger audience. If you get someone excited seeing a broadcast of a play at a cinema maybe they will think “it’ll be great to see that live next time.”

‘The politics of that’s really important for me because I come from a non-traditional theatre-going family. I never went to the theatre until I was a sixth-former and I always think it’s important to give people like me who are now 16 or 17 the opportunity to see some of that work. If you’re living in a part of England that’s a long way from the National Theatre, it might feel impossible to come down to see Hamlet in the Olivier. It’s easier and less expensive to travel to a cinema half an hour away.’

Do you have any advice for young playwrights?

‘Write what you’re passionate about, not what you think you should write about. Fashion is something that you should never worry about trying to follow because as soon as you write a fashionable play it’s out of fashion. I think really it’s important to write what you want.’

What’s your favourite area of London?

‘I love to walk along the river on the Southbank from Borough Market up to the National Theatre. On a day when the sun’s shining it’s better than any other walk.’

Best night out?

‘The thing that I like to do more than anything else is to have a really good meal and a bottle or two of wine with someone I care about, my wife or a close friend. I could do that forever. Recently I had a meal at Sheekey’s that was just bliss.’

Who (dead or alive) would you like to invite to dinner?

‘I’d have to invite Shakespeare because there are so many things that I’d like to ask him. Julie Walters would be there too because I’m a big fan. I’d love to work with her. We could have a good laugh and then when we got a bit drunk we could have a deeper chat about meaningful things. And another playwright, Harold Pinter. I missed an opportunity to meet him just before he died because I was scared to go talk to him and I regret it bitterly now.’

What are your plans for the future?

‘I have two shows coming on in 2012. Hopefully I’ll still be standing in 2013.’

The Knot of the Heart is on at the Almeida Theatre until April 30.

The Stock Da’wa is on at the Hampstead Theatre until May 14.