The writer of Spring

Every year, societies like DramSoc and MTSoc find new ways to impress me. You would not think that in a university filled with scientists, engineers and medics, the students would be that interested in theatre. However, these clubs are more than interested, they are good at it too, finding new ways to entertain their audiences with their talent and passion.

ICSM Drama’s latestplay, All The Meanings of Spring, running next week, is set to be another such example. It is an all-new play, directed by final year medic, Richard Newman. However, he is not only the director, he is also the wrote the play. To find out more about all the meanings of spring in November, I caught up with the playwright.

Rhys Davies: Hello Richard. Thank you for talking with me. Perhaps you could start by explaining what the play is about?

Richard Newman: This play is about coming to university and being in a new environment where nobody knows you and trying decide who you should be and why. It tries to capture that initial feeling of escape and freedom that we have as freshers. It is also about putting thoughts into action, as we often don’t do, and seeing where those actions take us and why we may have social and personal barriers preventing us from performing those actions in reality. So those are the themes but specifically it is the intertwined story of three freshers discovering their feelings and how these affect their relationships and lives.

RD: That’s quite ambitious. Where did the idea for the play come from?

RN: The whole thing started in three places. I’ve wanted to direct a play for ICSM Drama before but was unfortunately (fortunately, I now think) rejected. I find theatre exciting and always felt that I had something to add to productions. But I needed something to direct. Around a similar time, whilst travelling, I decided that doing something creative was vital. It was absolutely necessary for me to have a place in the world. It’s the kind of thing one thinks about whilst travelling. So I had in my head that I wanted to direct a play and wanted to be creative – the two ideas were not yet connected. I then became aware that many of the ideas I was having were being lost. I found I had real epiphany moments that a couple of months later I would forget. So I decided that I had to write them down. And necessarily it took the form of a play. It’s quite interesting for me to realise this course of events now, as I had never really pieced it together before.

RD: It’s taken a long time to go from that first idea to the stage next week. How has the play changed in that time?

RN: Initially the play started as a group of eight students in a mysterious group with a cloaked man who then go out into the world and follow their ideas and then report back at the end. This project didn’t seem feasible and there were too many main characters. So I changed it to a group of three with a representation of their unconscious self that followed them around instead. On advice I wrote the final, climactic scene first. This scene plus the full characterisation of the main protagonists meant that the rest of the play seemed to fall into place completely organically.

There were certain things that I wanted to show about the characters and others which needed to happen in order for them to reach the final scene in the state that they were in. This led to the first draft of the script. It was a ‘bare bones’ piece of work as others pointed out to me many times. So I tried to flesh it out. This was difficult as I really didn’t want to add superfluous scenes which had no meaning or value. However, on consultation with others I realised there were aspects of character and plot that, as the writer, I had taken for granted and needed to expand on. So I did this and it evolved into the current script. It’s still quite dense but I am reluctant to water it down.

RD: Have you had any helpin writing this? Who has inspired and influenced you?

RN: Yes I’ve had help from two main sources. For a while I was going to be co-directing with another final year medic, Matt Rinaldi. However due to other commitments (such as an exhibition currently on in the Blythe Gallery) he had to drop out.

Previous to that we had had numerous scripting and ideas sessions, editing and re-editing the various drafts. It was a difficult process as there was always a difference between us. We had different visions and, as the original author, I sometimes struggled to incorporate both whilst staying true to the meaning and purpose of the play. Matt’s ideas have been invaluable however, and I am particularly pleased with the way he transformed the final scene into such a climactic event. The other help was from my brother who gave me many ideas and suggestions that were often along the same line as my own. I also had advice and ideas from others. In future I think I would always work as a writer on my own and then have other people read the piece of work and make suggestions and give ideas, leaving it totally up to me to make the decisions. I think having a pair of writers working equally together is very difficult.

RD: Finally, What do you think is the importance of doing something creative like this? Writing plays. Directing plays.

RN: We at Imperial are nearly all scientists and rarely, if ever, use our imagination in our studies. And, for most of us, those studies take up a lot of our time and focus (the rest of it often being filled with sport and drinking). I think this is a shame. As Imperial students are generally very intelligent, I’m sure that there is a massive amount of great creative energy which is currently not being used. And University is the best time to use it. After this it is extremely unlikely that I will ever get the opportunity to write and direct my own play again (particularly if this one turns out to be rubbish). It is surprisingly refreshing doing something creative, and is a welcome break from hearing and thinking about medicine constantly. Theatre is, above all, very enjoyable and I’m sure that there are many fascinating and important stories to be told by our students. I’ve tried to tell one of them.

All The Meanings Of Spring at the Union Concert Hall: 21st - 24th November at 7:30pm. Tickets £5 for students and £7 for non-students. Discount available for groups of eight or more. Please contact ah2610@ic.ac.uk for booking or any other details.