Interview Michael Morpurgo

About 30 years ago author Michael Morpurgo was on holiday in the Isles of Scilly. The former children’s laureate was also trying to write a book, but lacking peace and quiet he asked a friend to take him to Samson, one of the uninhabited outlying islands.

When he arrived he found himself alone save for derelict houses, gulls and rabbits. It began to rain so he took shelter in one of the ruined houses and tried to think about what to write. However, he began to hear noises and wondered if he really was alone.

Indeed, Michael tells me he felt so uneasy he felt “spooked” and when his friend picked him up later he told him what had happened.

The friend told him about the ghosts many people said were on the island and then relayed a story about a great tragedy that had befallen the community way back in the 1800s. It transpired that many fishermen from the island drowned after they hit a rock whilst travelling in a boat to Plymouth. The tragedy led to the island becoming deserted and the story of a curse.

It was this experience and his friend’s story that led to Michael researching and writing his children’s book Why The Whales Came. 

Set during the First World War it tells the story of 10-year-old Gracie and her friend Daniel. They live on Bryher, one of the islands in the Scillies. Their parents warn then to keep away from the Birdman, an elderly gentleman who lives alone in a cottage on the southern side of the island. 

The islanders tell stories about the Birdman and Samson, the island he used to live on and which it is said he put a curse on. They tell the children not to set foot on Samson otherwise the curse will fall on them.

However one day whilst out playing, they find themselves near the Birdman’s cottage. It is the beginning of the biggest adventure of their lives which culminates in helping a stranded narwhal whale.

It is a story full of mystery, intrigue and excitement as well as one that teaches about compassion, kindness and friendship and over the years has been adapted for stage and radio. It has now been turned into a stage show by Dani Parr and Danyah Miller and is is currently on at the Ovalhouse Theatre as part of a small tour which also takes in the Southbank Centre in February.

Danyah Miller enacts the story in the hour long show and Michael tells me she’s the perfect person to do so.

“Danyah’s amazing and is one of the great storytellers in this country and I’m certain she has done a fantastic job with this,” he says warmly.

“She approached me to do the adaptation and as I’m very keen on theatre and as she brings stories to life in the most enchanting way I knew she would do a great job and tell it brilliantly.

“There is something about the simplicity of one person telling stories in a theatre and the audience being able to use their imaginations - it’s the purest form of storytelling.

“She’s terribly engaging and it’s ingenious the way she brings in props and aids to tell the tale.

“Children don’t have huge concentration spans so it’s a real skill to keep their attention for an hour and get them to lose themselves in the story but Danyah is fantastic at it.

“I’m really excited about the fact that she has chosen Why The Whales Came,” he adds. “It is one I wrote a long time ago about an isolated community on the island of Bryher. 

“It features a strange man who lives on the island and the children who were told to keep away from him because people think he’s mad and has put a curse on the neighbouring island of Samson which now is full only of empty houses.

“However, two children don’t keep away from him and they find out that instead of being mad, he’s actually an extremely sweet natured old man who lives in harmony with nature around him. He lives simply and keeps himself to himself. 

“So it’s a story about why the Birdman lives there, how he became different, how he’s managed to live amongst the creatures around him and how we all need each other.”

Michael says it was his experience whilst on holiday in the Scilly Isles all those years ago that prompted him to find out more about the story of what happened to the islanders and which led to the book. It is this approach, bringing in an element of a true story into his own, that is characteristic of many of his books.

“I always like to bring an element of historical fact to my stories and when I heard the story about the men who drowned and the curse of the island of Samson I felt it was so powerful that I wanted to investigate it,” he says.

“I did a lot of research and visited the island again as I needed to find out more about what happened to these men, where they dropped their lobster pots and what life was like at the beginning of the First World War on the islands. It was fascinating and I realised it had the basis of a great story - which turned out to be Why The Whales Came.”

The book is the latest of Michael’s many stories that has been adapted for the stage - the most famous of course being War Horse - and he’s delighted that it is coming to Ovalhouse.

“It’s an intimate space which suits the story so I’m delighted it will be shown there,” he says. “Danyah is an extraordinary lady and I’m sure this production will be amazing.”

Why The Whales Came is on at the Ovalhouse Theatre, until January 31 and then on tour including the Lyric Hammersmith on January 28 and The Southbank Centre on February 17. Tickets cost £11. Visit http://www.wizardpresents.co.uk/production/why-the-whales-came/ or call the box office on 020 7582 7680 for full listings.

FOUR STAR REVIEW - Hedda Gabler at the National

FOUR STARS

Acclaimed Belgian director Ivo van Hove, who captivated audiences with his stunning revival of A View From The Bridge at the Young Vic last year, has done it again. This time making his debut at the National Theatre with a new version of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.

Written by Patrick Marber it is a mesmerising production, and stars Ruth Wilson in the title role, a performance that is achingly brilliant.

She sits right in the centre of the stage with her back to the audience sprawled over and playing on a piano. It sets the tone immediately - this is a woman who has practically given up on everything and doesn’t know what to do with herself.

The set is a cavernous sitting room that could do with a lick of paint. It is sparse, with merely the piano, a couple of sofas and initially rows of tubs of flowers - rather like those seen in a florist.

And throughout Berte the maid sits quietly at the side as though she is waiting for something to happen.

Patrick Marber has updated Ibsen’s original, making it feel very modern. And refreshingly instead of portraying Hedda’s academic husband Tesman as an old fuddy duddy, he’s the same age, quirky and eccentric for sure, but in American Kyle Soller, he’s also at times a bit Tiggerish, bouncy, energetic and excited - though clearly not in a way that does anything but irritate his wife.

She in turn is exasperated at her turn of circumstance - bored to death, desperate for some excitement and picking away at those who she comes into contact with just to get some reaction and for something to do - whether it’s Brack the judge, her former lover Lovborg, who now teetotal, she encourages back on the sauce, or her old schoolfriend Mrs Elvsted who is now in love with Lovborg.

When she’s on her own, she paces about the room, full of rage and despair, fiddling with the blinds at the window or hurling tubs of flowers all over the stage, some winging their way into the front rows of the audience, and then stapling the flowers to the walls. And in between scenes we hear the haunting song of Joni Mitchell’s Blue playing in the background.

Throughout the performance we almost don’t know what she’s going to do next - she’s volatile and unpredictable and you almost don’t want to look.

The end when it comes is pretty horrific not least the scene in which she is destroyed and humiliated by Rafe Spall’s evil and calculating Brack, in my view unnecessary.

However despite this, it is a fabulous and utterly gripping production with an exceptionally strong cast.

Hedda Gabler is on at the National Theatre until Tuesday, March 21. Tickets from £15. Visit www.nationaltheatre.org. uk for full listings.

FIVE STAR REVIEW - Amadeus at the National

FIVE STARS

PETER Shaffer’s masterpiece Amadeus was first staged at the National’s Olivier theatre in 1979. Paul Scofield was court composer Salieri and Simon Callow played Mozart. 

It tells the story of how Salieri, once the undisputed music king of the court, felt threatened and jealous with the arrival of the startlingly brilliant and young Mozart. So much so that he set out to destroy his rival with devastating effect.

Fast forward more than 30 years and this fantastic piece has been revived, playing out once again on the expanse of the Olivier’s stage.

This time it stars Lucian Msamati as Salieri and Adam Gillen as the child prodigy and musical genius Mozart.

Directed by Michael Longhurst this revival is a real feast for the senses - from the glittering and sumptuous 18th century inspired costumes to the treats for the ears thanks to the wonderful writing and beautiful music.

The Southbank Sinfonia provide the music, live, wearing modern day black tops and trousers or skirts and carrying their instruments with them at all times, they are integral to the story and the set and blend seamlessly into it rather than being hidden in the background.

The cast is fine throughout but it is the two central performances that shine out - much like Mozart’s gold breeches. Wearing baby pink DMs and colourful overcoats Adam Gillen’s Mozart is a man who can’t sit still - not even at his harpsichord to compose his music, which he does in the main in his head. 

Shaffer paints him as a genius, a melting pot of someone constantly moving about, punky, vulgar yet vulnerable, childish, irritating and brilliant - and who knows how good he is. 

This is someone with a whiney voice, who won’t conform and who annoyingly can take a piece of dull music and give it the heart and soul and lift it needs to make it sing.

And this is what Salieri, brilliantly played by Lucian Msamati can’t bear. He recognises instantly how mediocre he is compared to the natural brilliance of Mozart.

We see him first as an old man in a wheelchair in the last day of his life. He is full of remorse and anguish, and talk of how he killed Mozart.

But then he transforms himself to his younger self through which he tells the story of how they met and how he plotted his rival’s downfall.

We see how the jealousy and resentment eats away at him, railing against God for allowing Mozart, a man who beds all his female pupils, to be given the talent rather than him, a man who has stayed true to his wife and God.

It is a glorious production, full of wit and drama and reminds us of the stunning music that Mozart wrote in his all too short life.

It is a joy from start to finish, so much so that it is a real shame that Shaffer is no longer here to see it.

Amadeus is on at the National Theatre until Thursday, February 2, 2017. Tickets from £15 as part of the Travelex tickets initiative. Visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or call the box office on 020 7452 3000. Amadeus will be broadcast live to more than 680 cinema screens across the UK on February 2, 2017. Visit www.ntlive.com for full listings. 

FOUR STAR REVIEW - Art at the Old Vic

WHAT would you do if your best friend bought something that you thought not only cost too much money but you didn’t like either? That’s the dilemma for Marc and Yvan in Yasmina Reza’s play Art. Currently being revived at the Old Vic the play features three friends, all men, who come to blows over the purchase of a painting. 

Serge, played by Rufus Sewel has bought the canvas - it’s all white, with white lines on it and by an artist who is not that well known - and he’s paid thousands for it. He’s ridiculously happy about the purchase and proudly shows it off to best mate Marc played by Paul Ritter.

However, much to Serge’s annoyance and astonishment, Marc is appalled at the idea and tells him so. This as you can imagine does not go down so well and especially when Marc brings in Yvan, played by Tim Key, to back him up.

Over the course of the piece, there is a tussle of verbal sparring between them all which exposes old wounds and the reality of their friendship with one another.

At times it is incredibly hostile but at others there is a real camaraderie and it’s laugh out loud funny. But its brilliance lies in the characterisation and the language the three men use to argue their cases of what constitutes art and friendship.

It is of course a study of the art of human relationships rather than art itself, and the absurdity of it all is played out in a fabulous scene in which Yvan barely pauses for breath in a rant about his soon to be wife and her parents - it was utterly hilarious and by the time he’d finished his face was the colour of a tomato.

The three actors are superb, the staging is simple but effective and it is directed brilliantly by artistic director Matthew Warchus.

Art is on at the Old Vic, The Cut, Waterloo, until Saturday, February 18. Tickets from £12. Visit www.oldvictheatre.com or call the box office on 0844 871 7628.

Gary Barlow interview

Yesterday I met Gary Barlow and Tim Firth to talk about their musical The Girls, based on the true story of the ladies from the WI who posed naked for a calendar to raise money for charity.
Here are a few pictures from the event - the interview follows....