A couple of Christmases ago I wrote here of a visit to the Croydon Warehouse, and mentioned my own small part in its history when - all of a quarter of a century ago now - a Cambridge student company that I had produced transferred its work there after Fringe First winning success on the Edinburgh Fringe in 1984. I mentioned at the time that the shows were directed by Nick Ward, who I commented, “went on to have plays produced at the National and made a film, Dakota Road, but seems to have disappeared since”.
He may have been gone, but wasn’t entirely forgotten: last month, the Finborough staged a short season of Sunday and Monday performances of his play Apart from George, and Michael Billington’s admiring review in The Guardian began by stating, “We tend to bury the recent past. So all credit to the Finborough for reviving this forgotten Fenland tragedy by the Australian writer Nick Ward, who made a big impact on the London fringe in the late 1980s. This hour-long piece reminds us of Ward’s gift for creating a potent poetic atmosphere with a minimum of words, and for suggesting a direct link between lonely landscapes and emotional inarticulacy.” And Michael concluded, “It’s a bleakly powerful piece about word-hoarding isolation that makes one regret Ward’s own theatrical silence over the last two decades.”
So I wasn’t the only one to remember him.
And yesterday, a press release popped up from the in-house PR of the up-and-coming Cock Tavern Theatre in Kilburn, promising a revival next month of another Ward play, The Present, originally premiered at the Bush in 1995. I visited the Cock Tavern earlier this year in March, coincidentally for a revival of another play that had originally been premiered at the Bush in 1999, Adrian Pagan’s The Backroom, and noted at the time how appropriate the name of the pub was to the play, and hoped that the theatre could make a go of it.
It seems that they are, with an adventurous policy of revivals and new work. And Nick Ward is quoted on the press release commenting, “I’m very pleased to be part of such an exciting new venue - it’s like being young all over again”. Encouraged by the fact that the theatre were obviously in touch with him, I duly replied to the e-mail, and asked the theatre to pass on my address to Nick.
And within a couple of hours, we were in touch again - for the first time in the 25 years since we’d last worked together. We’ve not spoken yet, but I’ll let the e-mails do the talking, which I’m quoting with permission. As he told the Cock Tavern PR, “Mark was my first real producer. We were at Corpus Christi College together and he managed 3 shows I directed as an ungergraduate in Edinburgh and oversaw their transfer (my first to a ‘profesional’ venue) to the Croydon Warehouse in 1984. We even made money! He wrote a touching blog in which he lamented my ‘disappearance’ from the London theatre scene. In his blog he also referred to Cambridge College ‘Quads’ rather ‘Courts’ which I thought was extremely slap-dash of him - but we can let that go.” (Mea culpa and well spotted, Nick!)
He also went on to say, “As Mark will remember well, I had a policy from a very early age of not fraternising with critics and I am disappointed that he didn’t follow the producer’s path. However, I consider him an old friend and an intense lover of theatre (I do NOT share his love of musicals - and that goes way back). I once crashed out at his mother’s place in Wembley - not many playwright-directors are given the chance to do that. He has the makings of a major critic and that pleases me.”
We then exchanged some personal e-mails, too, and it was nice to be reminded, as he said, “of our explosively creative youth”. And it seems, he also has an explosively creative present, too: though he bowed out of the mainstream arena of London theatre, he’s pursuing other personal projects (including a discovery of painting), as well as working on a film version of The Present, with actor Chris Simon, who played (and will play again) the role of Michael.
He’s got a story to tell about why he disappeared; but for now, I’m thrilled that his work is being done again, and also that we’re in touch again. It’s wonderful, at this distance, to be told, “You were a brilliant producer for me. We never fell out once. You were wonderful, in fact.” And he was, and is, a wonderful writer, as those who see The Present will discover all over again. It’s frightening how talents like Ward’s have managed to get lost in the constant striving for new work.
As he said to me yesterday, “It helps to be remembered. You sparked that off in theatreland. Thank you.”
Yes, I'm often curious about certain writers who seemed just to disappear. Charlotte Eilenberg? Charlotte Keatley? Can our theatreland detective solve these mysteries?
Tokyo Stages: sing it loud sister! Our great playwrights are buried alive under a blanket of second rate plays, celebrated simply for being "new".
Well you know what, my little puppy just had an accident in the corner, it's new - but i'm not celebrating it!
Hey, if you've got electronic copies of the scripts by the authors you mentioned, do you want to wing them over to me for a read? adam@cocktaverntheatre.com
Thanks for the shout-out Mark.