Award-winning writer Brendan Murray takes us behind the scenes of Time After Time – a whirlwind journey from scattered fragments to a fully realised play, with a little panic, a lot of collaboration, and just enough time to learn the lines.
Much like the Great War, opinions vary as to how it started. I have a WhatsApp voice note (from and to myself) dated late September, suggesting the moment in the show when Terry and Matt almost embrace, so the idea for the play must have been in the air by then. I think the plan was for me to start writing by the end of November, but illness meant work on actually assembling the script didn’t begin until the New Year.
I say assembling because my usual MO as a playwright is to pen (more or less) random fragments and then fit them together like some sort of dramatic jigsaw. On this occasion, I also plundered an abandoned radio play and a piece (on a related theme) I’d written 25 years ago. But there was still a way to go and meanwhile I was being told the venues had been confirmed (But Darren I haven’t…) and the first tickets been sold! (…written the play yet!)
It was a pretty tight schedule: a first draft by mid-January, followed (after Zoom readings, feedback and suggestions from my co-conspirators) by second and third drafts over the following 2 weeks. That would leave a fortnight to learn the damn thing before our very short rehearsal process.
And we still hadn’t decided how to deploy the creative team. Darren performing was a given, but would Willie join him on stage with me directing or vice versa? I mean, I was tempted by the idea of playing Terry (especially as the story is based more or less closely on events in my own life) but there was the small matter of my having last trodden the boards in 1988. Let’s do the maths here… That’s 37 years ago!
Could I even learn lines anymore, let alone distinguish down-stage-left from up-stage-right? But Darren was pushing me for a decision, so after some thought (and probably a large glass of something red) I handed the responsibility for directing the show to Willie and started my articulation exercises.
Rehearsals themselves were pretty frantic but (unsurprising perhaps when working with 2 such supportive and talented old mates) also fun and funny. And it helped that the journey from my digs (Darren’s place) to the rehearsal room (Darren’s place) was such an easy one.
By the time we moved into the performance venue (the day before we opened) we pretty much all knew which way was up, but it was still slightly terrifying on opening night (for me, at least) to face an audience after so short and intense a rehearsal process and being so long away from the stage.
But audiences proved supportive and generous in equal measure, and we managed to get through all initial 3 performances (without too many mistakes!) both in London and Dorking.
It’s a simple story in many respects: a tale of love and loss, anger and forgiveness; sometimes funny, sometimes deeply emotional. Speaking personally, it was a slightly surreal experience to be acting again after so many years but very gratifying that the show seemed to resonate with those who came to see it.
After-show feedback was wonderfully positive, insightful and often humbling, with many people drawing parallels to their own families and family histories – and one particular father and son, sitting proudly (their words) together who spoke movingly about how the play was, in some ways, their story – the pain of which they knew only too well but from which they had emerged stronger and more loving.
We’ve got a future performance on 19 April 2025 at Printers Playhouse in Eastbourne with a view to scheduling a tour – so watch this space. Well, maybe not this space but the space you watch when you want to know what Damn Cheek is doing next.
So, whose big idea was this? Well, maybe it was a little bit mine, but it was a hell of a lot more Darren’s – with a little bit of Willie’s thrown in for good measure. A pretty bonkers idea when you think of it (so maybe don’t think of it) but just the sort of idea you’d expect from Damn Cheek. Here’s to the next one!