Todd & God and Dramaturgy: Richard Marsh @ Edfringe 2017

Richard Marsh and Liz Counsell present: 

Todd & God 

WORLD PREMIERE 

Fringe First Award winner putting the mess into Messiah

Writer: Richard Marsh | Cast: Sara Hirsch & Richard Marsh | Dramaturg: Dan Coleman 

Pleasance Dome, 10Dome, 

2 - 28 August 2017 (not 15), 

14.50 (16.00) 

Poet, playwright and Fringe First winner Richard Marsh’s latest comic drama follows the West End success of Dirty Great Love Story. God’s rebooting religion to fix her mistakes (namely, wasps). For religion 2.0, she picks atheist Todd as her Chosen One. But how does Todd even begin to do good in a world where evil is riding so very high? And what does Todd’s wife make of his overnight conversion?

What was the inspiration for this performance?

I've been trying to work out how to write about religion for a long time. I began a few years back at Theatre 503, when I was a writer-in-residence there. I wrote a play about religion, quite liked it, didn’t like it enough, put it in a drawer.

This incarnation of the play began in 2015, on attachment at the Royal Court. I tried that version out at the Vault Festival in 2016, with some fantastic actors including Rebecca Scroggs and Sara Hirsch (who plays God in the current version of the show). I learned a lot, that the God/Todd relationship was very exciting, and the audience responded really well to it. I also learned that I had the wrong form for the play…

It’s a really big story - God picks an atheist as her Chosen One - I needed to pare back the rest of the show to give that time to play out. So I cut most of the characters, and all the other actors, and began the version of the play that will come to Edinburgh.

The bigger question of why am I writing about religion is down to my granddad. I'm the grandson of a preacher man. I grew up with everything from family holidays to Christmas presents being fitted round God - a God that I slowly realized I didn’t believe in. But it was granddad’s job as well as his faith. I’ve always been fascinated with how the divine fits around family life, where the eternal meets the everyday.

And then politics happened… All my life, it looked like things were getting better. The Berlin Wall came down. Apartheid ended. Phones got smaller. But now - it’s an angry, angry world. It often feels things are so bad there’s nothing an individual can do. But if you felt you could do anything… if you had the backing of God… what changes would you make? Put my personal history and the political present together, you get Todd & God. A comedy tackling a huge subject in a heartfelt way.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

I believe so, although that isn't my main motivation in writing or making a piece. I want to entertain people, and I want to tell a good story. I really want to make you laugh, and ideally make you cry at the same time.

I find I work out the subjects of my shows through writing them. I have a broad idea but the actual story I'm actually telling emerges in the process. I knew I wanted to write about religion, in an exciting and comic way - but how that story would be told crept up on me. The journey at the heart of it, the nature of the fundamental change at the heart of the play - all that was a surprise. I got that from the characters.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I always loved stories. I always loved TV and theatre. Always loved rhymes and songs. I wrote my first play due to rhyming. I’d always written greetings cards for my friends, just silly parroty rhymes like:

Happy birthday Gareth, my favourite Mr Vile

You're looking good (for someone who's been going quite a while).

- no offence, I hope!

There was a competition at university for half hour plays by freshers. I wrote a panto, because I thought pantos should rhyme and I loved rhymes. Cinderella and the Beanstalk. (A mash-up, ahead of its time).

I loved the process of putting it on, rehearsing, getting to know my fellow-students - and it won best comedy. That was me done. I was seduced by audience laughter. I've been a massive chuckleslut ever since.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?
It's the first time I've been in Edinburgh doing a poetry play without playing a character called Richard! (For profound creative reasons, and also Richard doesn't rhyme with God).

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Yes, in that it combines dialogue, storytelling, comedy and poetry to tell a story. But I try to use poetry differently in every show. I can't give away how it's used in Todd & God, but it's a new thing for me.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

If you've met me, you will know I am in almost every way like Russell Crow's character Maximus in the film Gladiator. "Are you not entertained?'

I do want to entertain people. I want to make them laugh, and I want them to be moved. And this play has certainly made me think a lot. It’s in part a reaction to my knee-jerk Dawkinsish evangelical atheist teenage self. That guy didn't know as much as he thought he did.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
I don't think I have strategies, at least not

consciously. I work very hard, I re-write my arse off, I try things in front of audiences (Sara and I do that together). And my director Dan Coleman has read A LOT of drafts…

…which doesn't really answer your question. The only thing I can think of which is almost a strategy is that, because the story might seem fantastical, I have tried to root it in the fine grain of everyday existence. I hope it feels true.

Move over Morgan Freeman – UK slam champion Sara Hirsch takes on the role of God. Will she succeed in her mission, or is this another Life of Brian? Questioning belief, hope and legacy, comic drama Todd & God asks what each of us would do if we were suddenly able to change the world.

Richard Marsh said, “I’m the

grandson of a preacher man. I grew up with everything from family holidays to Christmas presents being fitted round God - a God that I slowly realized I didn’t believe in. And then politics happened…All my life, it looked like things were getting better. The Berlin Wall came down. Apartheid ended. Phones got smaller. But now - it’s an angry, angry world. It often feels things are so bad there’s nothing an individual can do. But if you felt you could do anything… if you had the backing of God… what changes would you make? Put my personal history and the political present together, you get Todd & God. A comedy tackling a huge subject in a hilarious and heartfelt way.”

Richard Marsh co-wrote and co-performed Dirty Great Love Story with Katie Bonna, which won a Fringe First Award and transferred to the West End in January 2017. Following his BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Scripted Comedy for Love & Sweets, Radio 4 commissioned Richard to write and star in poetry sitcom Cardboard Heart alongside Russell Tovey, Jemima Rooper and Phil Daniels. Richard is a former London slam champion and began Todd & God on attachment at the Royal Court.

Sara Hirsch is a former UK slam champion. As runner-up in the National Anti-Slam Final 2016, Sara has nearly been officially both the best and worst poet in the UK.

Liz Counsell is producer for nabokov theatre as well as independent artists Cecilia Knapp and Vanessa Kisuule. She has previously produced for The Roundhouse and the BBC and is an alumni of the Fringe Society and British Council's Edinburgh Fringe Emerging Producers Programme.



@richardbmarsh | #ToddAndGod | www.richmarsh.com

DIRTY GREAT LOVE STORY

DIRTY GREAT LOVE STORY

Richard Marsh and Katie Bonna combine drama and poetry in this funny story of two hopeful, hapless romantics who get drunk, get it on, and then get the hell away from each other. In her eyes, he’s a mistake. A mistake who keeps turning up at parties. In his eyes, she’s perfect. He’s short-sighted. But can they make a one night stand last a lifetime?

Why do you want to be part of the fringe?

We wanted to get out of London as neither of us got selected for the British Olympic team.  We're better at talking than running  (although there is some running in the play, both literally and metaphorically*).

Also, the fringe is a fantastic opportunity for unknown acts to find an audience.  Last year Richard went up with Skittles as a brand new performer no one had ever heard of.  He was able to get people to come by walking around for ten hours a day clutching small pictures of his face.  He left with some good reviews and bookings at venues like Battersea Arts Centre and York Theatre Royal.  As an unknown, he wouldn't have been able to do that anywhere else.

And what will make your shows stand out?

Our show is a funny, truthful, comic drama that combines poetry spoken directly to the audience with fourth-wall dialogue scenes. Writing partly in verse allows to conjure vivid environments and fast paced scenes.  It’s almost like screenwriting a stage play.  The main characters can comment on the action, adding (or undercutting) subtext.  There aren't many contemporary plays which use poetry, or poetry shows which use dialogue exchanges between two writer/performers, or romantic comic poetic plays which can make you laugh while welling up.

Does the background of both performers in poetry change the way that the performance is approached or experienced?

Katie has a very classical training in verse speaking, whereas Rich is from the streets.  The streets of Somerset.  The show actually uses relatively simple words and rhymes to express complex emotions.  It’s not a poetry show, but a play with poetry in it - so in performance we just have to play the truth of the situation and characters.  In short and in answer to your question, probably not. 

Is there any serious intent beneath the cheeky story line? 

Yes.  We're telling a sincere, human story in an entertaining fashion.  It's very honest and very specific - by being very specific we hope to create something universal.  Life is specific and we hope audiences will recognise situations and dilemmas they've lived through in the play (we all make idiots of ourselves at times…).  Responses at previews have been really positive - hopefully that will continue.

What brought the artists together to work on this, since they both have their own career and great reputations - why the need to team up?

We met at the brilliant poetry night Bang Said the Gun. We began writing together due to both living in Tooting and a shared love of love stories. But mostly because we both lived in Tooting. The partnership has survived Richard moving out of Tooting, due to strong artistic commitment and coffee in the centre of town. 

Working together allows us to tell a love story from the male and female perspective simultaneously.  Most writers who collaborate aim to create a shared voice, one that attempts to seem like it's written by a single creative entity.  Dirty Great Love Story makes a virtue of the different voices - the audience sees the often entirely opposite reactions of the two main characters to unfolding events.

* Katie is trained in physical theatre, Richard's stage running is amateur by comparison.

Pleasance Jack Dome 13:20

1st - 27th August (not 14th).

Previewing BAC, Latitude, PULSE and more.