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It Happened To Me, Upstairs on the Gatehouse
The Camden Fringe 2025 interviews are nonetheless coming thick and quick. With over 400 exhibits taking place at this yr’s competition, we’re making an attempt to present you an actual style of what’s on provide for the 4 week’s of the competition. New interviews will probably be printed daily of July, you’ll find all of them right here.
The title Peter Lawford definitely rings a faint bell to a few of us, a reputation we would vaguely recognise however that almost all of us received’t have the opportunity toplace why. Chilling Out Productions and Peter Briffa are actually hoping to vary that as they carry It Happened To Me to Upstairs on the Gatehouse for this yr’s competition (enjoying 6 to 9 August, tickets right here).
We caught up with Peter to seek out out simply who Lawford was, and why he needed to create a narrative about his life.
What can audiences count on from the present?
It’s a one man present a few man who was as soon as massively well-known, but is now all however forgotten, His greatest pal was Frank Sinatra, he was the final particular person to talk to Marilyn Monroe earlier than her loss of life, and his brother in regulation was none aside from the President Kennedy.
Yet by the point he was sixty, Peter Lawford was an alcoholic, thrice-married recluse. His was an incredible story, but there has solely been one biography about him. Slagged off and shunned by most of his friends, It Happened To Me is his facet of the story. Packed with extraordinary anecdotes, humorous and unhappy, you’ll depart the theatre astounded that you just knew so little about him.
Is Camden Fringe going to be the present’s first time on stage, or have you ever already carried out elsewhere?
This is the play’s debut, and is displaying right here as a result of the beauty of the Camden Fringe, and that is my fourth manufacturing right here, is that just about a lot something goes. This is the place the place you may experiment, attempt issues out, and so the viewers by no means fairly is aware of what it will get.
What was your inspiration behind the present?
A tweet by Ray Connolly, about Peter Lawford displaying off his seaside home to him, boasting that each John Lennon and Marilyn had slept there. That was attention-grabbing,
How lengthy have you ever been engaged on the play?
A yr and a half.
Is this model the way you initially envisioned it or has it modified drastically because you first put pen to paper?
It has modified, however has change into the play it all the time needed to be!
What introduced you all collectively?
I wrote the play, pondering all alongside that Jonny Hansler, who I first labored with twenty-nine years in the past, could be the perfect actor to take this on. And I signed up Owain Rose to direct, having seen his current work, and realizing that he had labored each at this theatre, and with Jonny earlier than.
Being a fringe competition, everyone knows units need to be naked minimal, how have you ever acquired round this along with your set and props?
Good query! It’s acquired a mattress and a desk, and a tennis racket and a mop. I hope we will pay money for all of them.
How vital is viewers interplay to you?
Vital. The viewers dictate the tempo and the humour. In a one particular person present, they’re extra vital than in different form of efficiency,
Are there any plans for what comes subsequent after the present has completed its run – for you or the present?
Nothing deliberate, however we definitely hope to take this round. One particular person performs are trendy proper now, and never simply because they’re cheaper to supply. I need this one to face out, because it isn’t only a sequence of humorous tales. This has a plot, and character battle too.
Who would play you within the Hollywood adaptation of your future autobiography?
Tom Harry.
If you needed to describe your present as a color what would it not be?
Grey. Black and white collectively.
If you needed to describe your present as a meal what would it not be?
A tandoori. Hits the spot.
If your present had a soundtrack what songs would undoubtedly be on it?
My Way. A cliched, defiant quantity that Peter Lawford should certainly have hated, by the tip, however it’s how he lived his life.
If you possibly can carry out this present anyplace on the planet the place would it not be?
Santa Monica. Because it’s all about Hollywood.
What is the weirdest or most unconventional prop utilized in your present?
Tennis racket. Lawford needed to be a tennis participant when younger, however injured his hand and needed to accept appearing.
If price range or actuality was not a problem, what’s the one piece of surroundings/set you’d like to have in your present?
I feel we don’t want anything!
What’s essentially the most useful piece of recommendation you’ve obtained throughout your profession, and the way has it influenced your work on this present?
All criticism is true, even when it’s fallacious. That is, whoever is saying it received’t be the one one to assume it.
What phrases of recommendation/encouragement would you give anybody fascinated about doing Camden Fringe subsequent yr?
Do it. However badly it goes, and I’ve had my share of unhealthy occasions, it’s higher than not making an attempt.
Is there a query lacking that you just really feel we must be asking you?
If you have been a tree, what tree would you be?
Many due to Peter for taking the time to inform us in regards to the present. It Happened To Me will play at Upstairs on the Gatehouse from Wednesday 6 to Saturday 9 August.