“There's at least one impossible stage direction in every scene” | 5 Mins with Ross Willis
30 Aug 2024
In September we're thrilled to welcome back Wonder Boy to Bristol Old Vic (where it all began!) as it launches a brand new UK tour produced by PW Productions.
The show, by Bristol award-winners - writer Ross Willis and director Sally Cookson, held its world premiere here in 2022 and took audiences by storm. It's now back with a brand new cast for 2024.
Here's an interview Bristol Life editor Deri Robins had with Ross about finding new ways to tell stories...
Was drama always important to you?
Hello! I grew up in Bristol. Young Company or drama groups weren't really on my radar growing up but it's something i would have loved to do. I remember enjoying GCSE Drama a lot.
Tell us how you got into theatre. What or who first inspired you?
I remember as a kid watching a pantomime with Chris Harris at the Bristol Old Vic and it BLOWING MY MIND. My tiny brain hadn’t seen or felt anything like it! The anarchy and liveness of pantomime is still something which really inspires me. Then later as an adult I was in London one day and my friend cancelled on me just as I arrived in Victoria so I needed something else to do, so walked to the cheapest theatre and ended up at the Royal Court and watched The Internet Is Serious Business by Tim Price and The Wolf From The Door by Rory Mullarkey both in the same day. It was the first time I realised new writing was a thing and that theatre could be strange, surrealist, contemporary and not just adaptations and twee.
We hear you spent time as an usher at Bristol Old Vic – what productions really impressed you during that time?
Jane Eyre. It felt like a real event y’know? Inherently theatrical and endlessly creative. You could just tell it was made with love. Also Iphigenia in Splott with Sophie Melville because until watching that play I don’t think I knew theatre could be furious, visceral and political.
How did you make the move into writing?
I wanted to direct but luckily, I quickly realised I was very rubbish at it.
Wolfie premiered to huge critical acclaim at the Theatre503 in 2019 and went on to win awards – presume that opened all kinds of exciting doors?
Not to sound too X Factory but it literally changed my life. I went from someone who wrote in the evenings or weekends to being a full-time professional playwright. It’s allowed me to tell the stories I want to tell in the ways I want to tell them. I'm so lucky that this happened pre-pandemic because it feels like the door is shut a bit more now? Most importantly it’s made me realise that what new artists need is long term support from theatres which isn’t just a scheme, everything needs to be heading towards a full production and that needs to be embedded into the theatre.
Wolfie shows us the desolation of being a child adrift in a care system – while your new play Wonder Boy is about a 12-year-old living with a heightened stammer. Are you particularly drawn to writing about troubled teens?
Ha yes, I’ve accidentally written two plays back-to-back about troubled teenagers which is why the next few plays I’m writing right now are about troubled immortal creatures instead. I like that quote Simon Stephens says about how every playwright is writing the same play over just in different guises- so maybe I’m just doing that? I think I’m more drawn to teen characters because I find their resilience incredible, more so than their trouble?
In the Bristol Old Viv description, we read that a ‘comic book hero of Sonny’s own creation helps him to soar above his bleak reality’. ‘Surreal’ is a word used by many critics to describe Wolfie – does Wonder Boy have a surreal element?
I think when a lot of people read a new play they think it’s going to be BORING and set in a kitchen and just have lots of boring talking. I’m not really interested in plays like that. In Wonder Boy there’s at least one impossible stage direction in every scene and it has a real dazzle bright tone to it. It’s FULL of surprises hopefully.
You also tweeted ‘SALLY COOKSON SALLY COOKSON SALLY COOKSON (!!!)’ - well, quite!! What’s it been like working with Sally?
She’s wonderful and she’s literally one of the greatest living directors. There’s such a joy and imagination to her work. Her mind is really special.
Because I wrongly thought she was only interested in devising and not directing new plays, I just presumed a collaboration between us would never happen so this entire thing has been a great suprise. Our friendship began pre-pandemic so it was so special to have someone to regularly gossip and solve the problems of the world with. I inherently trust her as a theatre maker and person so that feels really special.
Another critic wrote “You feel his real interest lies in pushing the boundaries of what theatre can do” – do you agree?
Ha! I never read reviews. I guess I’m interested in writing plays which could only ever exist as theatre? The idea has to be inherently theatrical to excite me. I want to use everything theatre has to offer. Sometimes it’s about metaphor, imagination, non literal storytelling, striking images, surprising audiences, FUN and other times it’s about simply changing the temperature of the room, moments of utter vulnerability, theatre by it’s very live nature is a very emotional medium, it’s an incredible empathy machine. I don’t know if I’m pushing anything but I know I’m always going to be interested in new ways to tell stories and in the theatre- going experience not being a passive experience, it should be something which is deeply felt, deeply imaginative and inherently live.
