Abi Morgan

Abi Morgan

Biography

Abi Morgan’s theatre credits include Splendour (Paines Plough/International Tour) for which she won a Fringe First, a Herald Angel and TMA Award for Best New Play, Tender  (Hampstead Theatre/Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Tiny Dynamite (Paines Plough/Contact Theatre, Manchester). Her television credits include My Fragile Heart [2000] Tiger Aspect/ITV, Murder [2002/2003] Tiger Aspect/ BBC 2. Sex Traffic [2004] LWT/Channel 4.  White Girl [Tiger Aspect/BBC] and the feature film Brick Lane [Ruby Films/Film4]. She is under commission to the Almeida Theatre.

Interview

Jenny:  I’m with Abi Morgan, the second playwright to write the Chain Play this year.  Abi, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your work and your relationship to the Almeida.

Abi:  Well, I’m currently under commission for the Almeida – hopefully I’m going to deliver a play one day – and I write a lot for television and film and so the Chain Play was great for me because it was a chance to write for the theatre again and to start to kind of get back into that medium. 

Jenny:  And you were the second writer so you received one scene from the previous playwright.  The first playwright was Neil LaBute.  Do you know him, do you know his work?

Abi:  All hail to Neil LaBute (laughs). Yeah, I do know his work really well actually and what was great for me with Neil was that he has done film as well as theatre, cos I think if you move into film you always feel a bit of a charlatan coming back into theatre, like you’re going to be found out.  And what I love about Neil’s work is that it has such a terrific energy and somehow seems to be both immediate and yet also quite theatrical.  So it was quite a tall order following him and certainly a privilege and a bit of a minefield as well because, you know, you’ll see from the opening scene, it’s a pretty incredible opening scene to go with.  But it was great, cos it was kind of quite fun and it allowed me to play I think a lot more in a way than I would normally have started with.  So I was quite glad I was just the second really cos I could kind of pick up that energy and do something with it.

Jenny:  And Neil just uses, he just did a two-hander, just used two out of the six actors available to him in the first scene.  Was that good for you, did that leave it open for you?

Abi: Well, I always remember a director saying to me that when you get stuck just bring another character in, so basically I used up the next four that we could have.  So yeah, it was great I mean I sort of was in two minds – the male character in Neil’s scene I was really intrigued by and I was almost thinking about bringing him back at the end of my scene but then I remembered there was a game going on and I kind of felt like I needed to pass the ball to the next writer.  So, you know it was quite intriguing for me to write for a lot of men cos I write for a lot of women, so it was really fun and I think a lot of that came out of Neil’s kind of  frenzied masculinity and the kind of energy of his voice really which I feel is very male and yet somehow he also captures women really well and I kind of like the challenge of taking that on and writing some more men, so it was great. It was great for me, yeah.

Jenny:  Did you ever doubt that it was going to be a comedy?  Because Neil sets it up so much, so clearly as a comedy and actually the entire play now, I look through all the links, and all of the writers have picked up that ball and have really run with that.  Did you ever have any moment of thinking maybe it’s going to be serious?

Abi:  You know, I don’t have a funny bone in my body.  I mean I seriously wonder if I’ve got a sense of humour some days because I just am like.. I look at my work and particularly the work I’ve done subsequently through television and film and there, you know, there has to be a good dose of  tragedy in it before I ever seem to get a commission.  So for me, the funny thing was that it was only when I got to the end of it and I read it, I thought it does have the odd funny line so I think that was quite liberating.  So thank you Neil, again! (laughter) And he does that other thing, which is great, which is he actually shocks you on stage and that’s really surprising you know and what I love about him is I’m always kind of waiting to be hit and be slightly made uncomfortable and then reassured.  And he does that cos I think he balances the kind of darkest and most painful sides of our psyche and somehow kind of unabashed puts them on the stage.  So I feel really privileged to be on the same bill as him.

Jenny:  And have you read the rest of it or have you just read …..

Abi:  No I haven’t read anything and in fact I’m almost…. I don’t want to as I think the envious, competitive person in me will be going “Oh hers is much better than mine, I don’t like it, I wish I’d thought of that”.  So no I haven’t.

Jenny:  But will you see it on the night?

Abi:  Oh yeah definitely.  Definitely.  God I can’t resist it.  I mean if only to say “I’ve had a scene on at the Almeida” (laughter).  Cos you know it’s such a great theatre, and it’s my local theatre, so for me you know it’s great .  And also it’s a very different experience being in an audience and watching your work because you never get that privilege when you write for tv and film, you very rarely sit beyond the first screening, you know you don’t get that again. 

Jenny:  Will you be nervous, do you think?

Abi:  Er, no, cos I’ll just blame someone else.  That’s the great thing – it’s not like you on your own (laughter).  “Yeah, Neil really let it down, I’m glad I could just about pick it up and pass it on and then they failed again”.  So I’ll just blame someone else! (laughter)

Jenny:  Brilliant – we like it!  Thank you, Abi.

Abi:  Alright.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the interviewees and are not necessarily shared by Coutts & Co.

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