Theatre director Bronagh Lagan told David Hennessy about Brixton Calling, a new show about how the Brixton Academy came into existence.
Portrush theatre director Bronagh Lagan is directing the world premiere of Brixton Calling, a new play dramatizing the story of Simon Parkes, the maverick founder of Brixton Academy, and the birth of the much loved music venue.
It was in 1983 that Parkes, a one-armed, 23-year-old and unlikely outsider, famously bought a derelict cinema and its debts for £1, and reopened it as the Brixton Academy in March 1984.
The new venue opened with a gig by The Clash who would perform again later that year at Arthur Scargill’s Christmas Party, a benefit for striking miners over two nights.
It would go on to host iconic performers like Bowie, Clapton, Grace Jones and James Brown and Diana Ross for a secret gig in 1989.
Parkes is particularly proud that he hosted Artists Against Apartheid in 1986, which turned out to be the last ever Smiths gig.
It also gained a political significance as it was also a time of great social change and unrest.
Brixton Calling is adapted by Alex Urwin from Parkes’ biography, Live at Brixton Academy: A Riotous Life in the Music Business.
Max Runham will play Parkes while Tendai Humphrey will play his partner, Johnny Lawes.
The electric new play also boasts a live soundtrack of reggae, punk, rock and rave.
Bronagh Lagan has directed Flowers For Mrs Harris, starring Jenna Russell, which won the Whats On Stage Award for Best Off West End Production.
She also directed the Olivier Award-nominated production of Cruise by Jack Holden.
Her work was featured in The Irish World more than ten years ago when her version of Portia Coughlan played The Old Red Lion Theatre in London.
Bronagh chatted to the Irish World to look ahead to the new play.
How did you get involved with Brixton Calling?
“I was approached by the writer Alex Urwin and the producer John (Dinneen).
“They had seen some other shows that I’d done, one being Cruise.
“Cruise was the first new play to open in the West End after the pandemic and it was a one person show with a DJ.
“I think they were very inspired by what was created in that show and the night that Alex had been to see Cruise, a friend of his had lent him a book which was Live at the Brixton Academy, a memoirs book of Simon Parkes and like Cruise, it was set in the same time period of the 80s and 90s and talked a lot about music and the club scene.
“I think that for him was just kind of serendipitous that he had the novel and he saw the play and then he decided to write the play.
“Then we met last year.
“It was a one person play but I kind of encouraged him to expand it into a two hander so that we could share and show more of what Brixton was like in the 80s.
“The piece itself is inspired by Simon Parkes’ own words about how he created the Academy as much as the novel.
“He bought it for a quid in the 80s, an old disused cinema.
“He was like 23 and he was really chancing his luck.
“And they took him at his word and there was a lot of repairs to do.
“He’s a guy from Grimsby.
“He wasn’t from Brixton, wasn’t even from London, he was a young man and he just took a chance and bought the venue, found out what was kind of going on in the area and turned it into one of the best and biggest live music venues of its time.
“And, to me, that’s a real rags to riches story and a lot about chance and luck and moment and time and music. There’s a lot of that that I love.
“I really love directing pieces that are about real people and have historical significance.
“I direct both plays and musicals and I really love plays that use music as a storytelling language even if it’s not necessarily a musical, so it really appealed to me for those reasons: It’s historical nature, it’s love of music and also, working with Alex and John, I really wanted to capture the idea that we play a live soundtrack of the show throughout to try and show the backdrop of the music that happened throughout that time period as well as the bands that would have played.
“We have a really incredible cast, Max and Tendai are both exceptional musicians as well as actors and they play multiple instruments and they play multiple characters.
“I think it will be a really special piece.”
Is it a timely story in that venues are closing all the time now?
“Yeah, it definitely is harder now.
“There are so many venues that were casualties of COVID and never came back.
“And when you look at those big bands now, it’s so expensive to actually go and see live music that you wonder, as a young artist, where are those grassroots venues that allow you to grow?
“There’s a real kind of importance about live entertainment, especially as we’re moving into a whole world of AI.
“I think live entertainment is going to be the thing that we will crave so I think there will be another kind of resurgence for it.
“But it’s definitely a struggle for young artists.
“It definitely needs more places like what this was, I think, to help the art survive.”
You say this is a story ‘set against the fire of ’80s Brixton’, that’s very true in that the 80s was so fractious for so many reasons..
“Yeah, absolutely.
“There was a whole mix of different backgrounds and cultures in Brixton at the time but there was obviously a lot of riots between the black youth community and the police because of, I think, the racism that existed within the Met at the time.
“I’m from Northern Ireland and there was a lot of thoughts about Northern Irish people coming over to England as well.
“There was great, great disparity between the classes as well but often in history, those moments of real political tension, art is born out of necessity and a sense of resilience, of a way to keep your truth alive.
“But there was also a lot of race riots and there was also lots of stuff going on with the gay community and you’re in the middle of the AIDS epidemic, so there was a lot of minority groups that were really under attack by the government at that point and this venue was somewhere that was so welcoming to lots of different minority groups and they never wanted it to be something that was not inclusive and we show that in the play, we have like reggae culture, we have drag culture, we have working class rock and roll.
“There was like protesters, there was speeches held there for the miners’ strike, so it became a real political hub as well as a music venue.”
That’s how important it became. It was everyone’s Academy, wasn’t it?
“That’s exactly what it was.
“And there’s something really amazing about live music.
“There’s this indescribable energy that you have in a room with strangers where you’re all connecting together on one plain with music, and there’s something that’s almost parochial or church like about that where you go in as strangers and you listen and you experience and you witness, and then together you speak out.
“And that’s what it became.
“It became like a cathedral that people of all walks of life could come in and be a part of something and connect with people they hadn’t before.”
How does Simon himself feel about you making a piece like this, is he honoured?
“I think when he was approached he was a bit like, ‘What is this?’
“Because he doesn’t come from a theatrical background but he said he liked Alex and he let him have the permission to try and develop it into a script.
“Then we spent five days workshopping it to try and create a language where the music and the story fit together.
“And then we did a press day with Simon and we were able to show him a bit of what we’d been up to in the rehearsal room so he could hear his words being spoken by the actors and then also hearing them play together.
“I’m really proud of our casting.
“Tendai’s a phenomenal musician and songwriter in his own right and he plays Johnny, who is Simon’s best mate, and then we have Max, who plays Simon.
“Max also has only one arm, the same as Simon so there is that authentication with the casting but on top of that, he is a multiroling actor that can play five instruments on stage.
“He’s just so talented.
“I think Simon was really taken with how skilled the actors were so he’s really fully behind the story and helping it become realised.”
Having just one arm has not held back either Simon or Max..
“Not at all.
“And that’s not really talked about in the story which is also what’s quite brilliant about it.
“That made him almost punch harder and try harder and be bolshy.
“I think that actually spurred him to be stronger and braver and take more chances which is spoken about in the play quite a lot.”
From Portrush in Co. Antrim, Bronagh would study at John Moores in Liverpool before making the move to London.
“I moved to London 15 years ago.
“Before that, I went over to Liverpool, the Irish capital in England, and did drama.
“I studied there and then migrated down to London because it’s where all the theatres are.”
Was it always theatre for you?
“I think so.
“I didn’t really go to much theatre growing up because up in Northern Ireland it wasn’t really very big in the 80s and 90s, but my school did a lot of it and I just really loved the whole experience.
“I mean, all Irish people are storytellers, aren’t they?
“So you just gravitate to that.”
You say there wasn’t much theatre in the North when you were growing up but there’s loads now..
“Belfast is great at the moment.
“I think it’s actually got one of the highest number of theatres per capita in the UK now.
“There’s loads.
“You’ve got the MAC, the Lyric, the Opera House, The Waterfront, The Black Box.
“There’s a whole plethora which is great and as part of Capital of Culture for Derry, they built the Millennium Forum which is another big venue so there’s definitely plenty.
“There’s plenty up there now.”
There also seems to be a new impetus on stories from the north..
“Yeah, 100%
“Isn’t there a sayings, 50 years after political events, there’s a real insurgence about being able to tell those stories?
“And now there’s enough time passed it.
“Northern Irish stories are very hot tickets.
“You’ve got Derry Girls, you’ve got Kneecap, Say Nothing recently came out as well, you had The Fall.
“It’s really, really amazing to see all of that.
“It feels like there’s a real appetite for the stories coming out of there.
“And it’s encouraged me to also start writing so I’m writing my first play as well, that’s set in Northern Ireland.
“It’s set just after the Good Friday Agreement and about what it is to exist there post all of that.”
Are you drawn to Irish stories, you have done Portia Coughlan..
“I’m a huge fan of Marina Carr.
“I just think she’s the greatest living playwright we have in Ireland.
“I just think her stuff is spellbinding, that wonderful mix of colloquialism but then also the richness of the language feels like Greek mythology.
“I love the darkness of her stuff.
“I love the humour of it.
“It was 10 years ago and it was a very small piece above a pub but to direct one of her pieces was like a real dream come true, and I would love to work with her again on a new piece.
“That would be a real ambition of mine.
“I’ve never directed in the South.
“I’d love to direct in Dublin one day.
“That’s definitely on the list.”
Are you also a fan of Martin McDonagh and his dark humour?
“He’s fantastic. Really fantastic.
“Again, all of that darkness and all of that humour.
“I think quite often now, we’re scared of dark humour for whatever reason but those two playwrights are very brave in tackling that which I love.”
You directed Cruise in the West End which must have been a magic moment especially coming out of COVID as it did…
“It was a great moment and it came out of a really strange period because we were in COVID and we were supposed to put it on at another theatre and that got pulled because it got closed down.
“And I said, ‘Well, let’s rehearse anyway’.
“So we workshopped it and then made a film, we did like a 90 minute feature film of it which we didn’t end up releasing in the end because, as we did the last of the shots, we got an offer from Nica Burns to premiere the show at the Duchess in the West End which became the first new play to open in the West End. That’s where we got the Olivier nomination.
“And then the following year, it was brought back and then it went to the Apollo and then it went to the Home in Manchester so it’s had a great journey and and I’m very, very proud of it.
“But it’s a strange one because I guess it never would have happened had it not been on the backdrop of the nightmare that was the pandemic.
“And then since then, I’ve directed a musical called Flowers for Mrs. HARRIS with Jenna Russell which won What’s On Stage Award for Best off West End Production.
“And recently I’ve been workshopping a new musical.
“I’m lucky that I have a real nice balance of plays and musicals.
“I work a lot in the Middle East.
“I directed three new musicals in Dubai Opera House.
“I recently worked with Stephen Schwartz who is the composer of Wicked.
“We did a new production of Rags, that was at the Park Theatre.
“I also directed the Little Women musical which was on at the Park, it was quite successful and an interesting one because I’m one of four sisters so it was a real heartfelt piece.”
Do you want Brixton Calling to really feel like a gig?
“I definitely want to create it in like a gig theatre style so that it has that hybrid of storytelling but also making the audience feel that they are part of the Academy which is ambitious in a very small theatre but we’ve got a great creative team that hopefully will be able to fill that space.
“But hopefully there will be quite a few songs that people will recognise and maybe if they want to get up and dance, they can. We’ll see if the urge takes them.”
So it’s not a stuffy ‘stay seated and refrain from singing along’ type of show?
“They can sing along at this one, it’s encouraged.”
Kick It Anywhere in association with Southwark Playhouse present Brixton Calling until 16 August.
For more information and to book, go to southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
