Circled in The Dramaturgy Times: John Osbourne @ Edfringe 2017

August 5th – 27th. 1.30 pm. Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh.

After debuting his first theatre show John Peel’s Shed at Edinburgh in 2011, John Osborne returns with Circled in the Radio Times. A beautiful story about how finding a collection of old copies of the Radio Times leads to him piecing together the life of the previous owner, this show looks at the changing nature of the way all of us watch television.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

For a long time I’ve had this pile of old copies of the Radio Times that goes back to the early eighties. 

I’ve always thought there’s something interesting about them, the way certain shows have been circled by the previous owner, doodles in the margins, half filled in crosswords. Then recently I’d noticed I was starting to feel a lot of pressure about how many things there are to watch on tv. 

There’s too much and I felt I was missing out on too many good shows. I guess my new show is about the changing role television has in our lives, and how it used to be about relaxation but it’s somehow turned into yet another competitive sport.

  

                    

How did you become interested in making performance?

When I was at university there was a poetry collective called Aisle16. It was the most exciting thing I’d ever seen on stage. I’ve always been a big stand-up comedy fan but this seemed to be relevant and exciting and I went to see any event that involved Aisle16. 

I gradually became friends with the people involved with Aisle16, particularly Luke Wright. I’d never planned to perform and never had any interest in being on stage, but my first gig was in a café because a couple of my friends who had also never performed thought it would be fun. That was in 2006 and I’ve been performing ever since.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I have a really boring, unperformery relationship with creating shows. I write a story out by hand, then keep adding to it and editing it. I make a list of anything thematically it’s important to include, but mainly it’s just trying to make a good coherent story that will stick in my head and be interesting to perform. I'm not a particularly good performer but I like getting stuck into new projects. 

Hopefully with this show I've done something worthy with an interesting collection of dog-eared copies of the Radio Times.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

I feel like this show is almost a sequel to my first theatre show John Peel’s Shed. That was a show about our relationship with radio and records. This is trying to capture something similar, but exploring the way 

we watch television, and how that has evolved from sitting on an armchair watching something in black and white on a massive coat-hanger-aerial TV set to wandering around your flat half watching something on your laptop.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping the audience experience?

When I was putting the show together I thought it would be interesting to read some letters that had been published in the Radio Times letters pages in the collection. It was pretty quickly obvious that I could do a whole show just reading these letters. 

I guess the only concession I made to the audience was that I didn’t fall down a nostalgia trapdoor and kept it as one coherent narrative. I don’t want to do a comedy show or a theatre show. I want to make a story people will like.

John writes for TV, theatre and Radio 4. His Sky 1 sitcom After Hours was directed by Craig Cash (The Royle Family) and stars Jaime Winstone and Ardal O’Hanlon.

Circled in the Radio Times. Voodoo Rooms. PBH Free Fringe. 13.30. 5-27 August (not 16th)

Happy Dramaturgy: John Osborne @ Edfringe 2015

The FringeWhat inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
John Osborne: It began with a love of performing live and wanting to create a show that allowed me to write some new material in a flexible and relaxed atmosphere. So it started with an idea and everything followed that.


Why bring your work to the Edinburgh Fringe?
The main reason I do it now is because I love the fringe. I love spending my Augusts in Edinburgh. From a professional point of view I owe a lot to Edinburgh. In 2011 I did a show called John Peel's Shed. People who came to see that show included the Head of Comedy at Radio 4, reviewers from broadsheet newspapers, representatives of venues across the UK including Soho Theatre. 

If you can create a show that has a buzz then the chances are that people will come and find you.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
I want people to walk away and be reminded of the small things that matter in life. I like work that in a tiny way makes people reevaluate their life. I don't see the point in creating work that doesn't convey big emotion and make people feel things. 

I think the role of the performer or artist is that whoever sees your work walks away from it having learnt or felt something. If you try too hard to do this it can be a disaster. It's about doing things in very small doses. Trying to make something stir inside people rather than blow their minds.

After sell-out shows in 2011 and 2012, Radio 4 regular John Osborne comes to Edinburgh with his first ever poetry show. Join him every day for poems that celebrate the everyday life. Kylie Minogue internet dating, his attempts to learn the constellations and wondering what happened to a boy from school who was called Michael Jackson. At 1.30 pm this is the perfect way to start your day of watching shows at the fringe.

WHO IS JOHN OSBORNE?
His first solo show John Peel’s Shed was a complete sell out at the 2011 and 2012 Edinburgh fringes receiving five star reviews from The Scotsman and The Independent. It was later adapted for Radio 4, and since then John has written and performed five more half hour Radio 4 comedy specials, including The New Blur Album, The Kindness of Strangers and Valentine’s Day, starring Peep Show’s Isy Suttie. He wrote the sitcom After Hours with fellow writer Molly Naylor. Directed by Craig Cash and starring Jaime Winstone, Ardal O'Hanlon and John Thomson it will be broadcast on Sky 1 in the autumn.

WHAT IS THE EDINBURGH SHOW?
Most people aren’t that happy, anyway is a 55 minute poetry show. John has been performing poetry since 2006 at festivals including Latitude, Bestival and Glastonbury. He has had poetry published in The Guardian, The Big Issue and The Spectator and has performed on BBC Radio 3, 6Music and Radio 1.


WHEN AND WHERE?
1.30 every afternoon in the prestigious Voodoo Rooms (French Quarter), 19a West Register Street, EH2 2AA. Part of the PBH Free Fringe.

John Osborne. Most people aren’t that happy, anyway.
13.30 PBH Free Fringe. 8th – 30th August (not 19th).
The Voodoo Rooms (French Quarter)





The Dramaturgy Questions


How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
I have only worked with a dramaturgist once - for my 2013 Edinburgh show On The Beach. I was slightly unsure what their role would be and what our relationship would be. I was worried that it would make my show more theatrical than I was capable of or that I would be out of my comfort zone. The reason that it was such a special relationship and worked so well is that we had a long conversation before we even went inside a theatre. 

We quickly formed a very honest and communicative relationship, and he made sure I was always completely comfortable with how the show was developing. 

We started to work out how to improve the script to make the show as good as possible, and little tiny movement tips to make me able to deliver the show as confidently and professionally as possible. At the start of the relationship I wondered why I needed a dramaturgist, by the end of the experience I realised I couldn't really have produced a show without one.




What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
My biggest influence is Alan Bennett. I want to tell stories in the same way that he tells stories. I watch a lot of theatre and poetry and storytelling but I don't really think anyone has ever influenced me in the same way that Alan Bennett has.


Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
I don't really have a particular process. I work on my own a lot and I spend most of my time writing to make sure the text is as strong as possible. 

This is mainly because I'm not a great performer and don't have much to offer theatrically so I need to make sure the words are as good as possible. I want this Edinburgh show to be very loose and relaxed and hopefully it will develop over the month and will be something I keep addressing on a day by day basis.

JOHN PEEL'S SHED
In 2002, John Osborne won a competition on John Peel’s Radio 1 show. His prize was a box of records that took eight years to listen to. This is an ode to radio, those records and anyone who’s ever sought solace in wireless. This show features a selection of records previously owned by the late John Peel. Many are very rare recordings by obscure and now defunct bands, and this is a unique opportunity for any Peel fans. A version of the show was recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre and broadcast on Radio 4 in December 2011, and chosen as Pick of the Day in The Radio Times.


WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY?

‘A lovely, engaging writer finding the joyous in the everyday’ – Stuart Maconie

‘His work has a winning gentleness, a seductive voice that draws you in, ensnares you and captivates you’ - Ian McMillan

‘His work sits somewhere between Daniel Kitson and Tom Wrigglesorth. I could have listened for hours’ – The Independent (about John Peel's Shed).

John Peel's Shed

Fortunately for my poor research, it was pretty obvious that this John Osborne, when he turned up to the Radio Hour, wasn't the one who wrote those angry plays in the 1950s. He is, instead, the author of two books - one of which I have read, quite by accident, and the proud owner of a box of records out of John Peel's Shed. There was something magical about getting tucked into the box and played on the show records that had been touched by the hand of the radio legend.

I also enjoyed the strange sound of surface crackle on the vinyl, and the danger of using vinyl - unlike MP3s or CDs, there is a good chance to play vinyl at the wrong speed, or drop it.

Osborne himself is an engaging conversationalist: it's probable that the best parts of our chat happened off air, when we were chatting over the musical choices. Since  the book I have read, Radiohead, is about his adventures in listening to radio and how it rescued him from the mundane world of data-entry, he's more informed about the mechanics of radio than I am. He is enthusiast about the potential of radio as a focus for a dispersed community: he recognises that it might be an old medium, but still has a remarkable pull. His new book, currently in research, is about sea-side resorts. Like radio, he says, everyone seems to have a story to tell or a recommendation.

His actual show shares a great deal with the Live Art pieces by the likes of Richard Dedominici: personal, taking a subject that appears marginalised or obscure, then working towards some kind of general understanding. Despite the inspiration for his performance, there isn't that much about John Peel in the show: it's more about Osborne's own experiences, with the box of records acting as a stimulant to a few of his adventures.

Although it is unlikely that anyone will capture the complete extent of John Peel's influence on radio - the BBC has an entire station that tries and fails to carry the flag - Osborne is more interested in his own experience: other characters are left in the background throughout his monologue and, aside from the selections played from the magic box, it is a gentle stroll through one man's early manhood. There are few moments of revelation - a failed attempt to get a date and his father's gift of carefully recorded cassettes are rare, emotive anecdotes - and Osborne is content to ponder without drawing too many conclusions.