On the 9th March I met the playwright and actor Tim Crouch. For those of you who are into your theatre you may have seen or read his play "The Author" - a play that steps away from realism and meshes the audience with the actors with the intention of creating a shared journey.
Tim is a tall bald headed man with the most soul-penetrating eyes I have ever seen. When he walked into our writing session it seemed that his reputation was a few steps ahead. Over twenty intimidated writers pretended to be nonchalent, shifting only slightly in their seats as he grinned around the room.
To begin with he told us all about his past experiences including the years he spent acting, the course he took (and disliked) at Central School of Speech and Drama and his role as a saucy air cabin crew member on an ITV1 programme.
After this insight into his past he began to talk about his writing. It soon became apparent that his ideas about the theatre were well defined and clear unlike my own flabby pontifications on the craft of playwriting.
The idea central to his work is the removal of the literal from the theatre. He argued that theatre did not need to be so figurative - an audience do not need to see a set representing a 'place' - their imaginations can be stimulated by words alone. He referred to himself as a "theatre maker" rather than a "writer with a capital 'W'" and explained that he saw his writing as a kind of code for a performance.
Tim was also honest about what he calls his "addiction to story", which, to me, seems like the best kind of addiction to have (although maybe not worthy of a trip to the Priory).
"There are always stories in my plays," he said, "and narrative hooks that draw the audience in."
For me, a high point of the discussion came when Tim talked about being made to feel stupid in the theatre/theatre industry and how awful it feels when that happens. This resonated with me as I thought back on the multitude of inaccessible academic blather that I've previously tried to decode. I decided that my pen and I are stronger than academics and their thesauruses.
All in all I have to say Tim Crouch is a really funny, intelligent man who makes innovative theatre.
If you want to see any of Tim's work, his play "My Arm" is on in Brighton in April. This play is about a boy who lives with one arm constantly above his head. I hasten to add that at no point during the performance does Tim lift his arm above his head (no figurative art remember). So if you're in Brighton check it out!
