{"id":2711,"date":"2023-11-28T21:11:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T21:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/?p=2711"},"modified":"2024-03-06T18:23:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T18:23:09","slug":"qanda-withroxycook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/qanda-withroxycook\/","title":{"rendered":"We Walk Into a Bank: Q&A with Roxy Cook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Follow playwright Roxy Cook into the fantastical world of A Woman Walks Into a Bank <\/em>(UK<\/span><\/a>) \u2013 a powerful portrayal of a country in crisis inspired by childhood fairytales, and winner of the 2023 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award. In this Q&A, Cook shares her creative journey from writing the play to directing the production at Theatre 503.<\/p>\n

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In A Woman Walks <\/span>Into<\/span> a Bank<\/span><\/em>, the three actors narrate and share the roles of an old woman, a young bank manager, a middle-aged debt collector and a talking cat. What made you decide to tell the story this way? What were the challenges and rewards of dividing the storytelling and characters among these three actors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a play about how people try to shape, contro<\/span>l and<\/span> defend their own story \u2013 and so writing it as a piece of theatrical storytelling was always the plan. <\/span>Given this, it felt natural for each storyteller to play a variety of roles<\/span> (along with their \u201cmain character\u201d that they align more and more with as the play progresses)<\/span>. The reward is playful theatricality, the challenge is <\/span>clarity of the<\/span> layers and personas <\/span>the storytellers are<\/span> dipping in and out of.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sally the cat is such a great and quirky addition to the story. How did you get into the mindset of a cat, creating movement and dialogue for her?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Writing Sally<\/span> was one of the easier <\/span>tasks \u2013 just all about that sassy, self-important world view. And our lovely associate director and movement director Sam Hooper did years on CATS<\/em> (US<\/span><\/a>), so we\u2019ve been well covered in terms of tips! We\u2019re not going full <\/span>Jellicle,<\/span> but have found a happy <\/span>middle <\/span>ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

The young bank manager and the debt collector both try their best to live their ideal versions of life, while the other characters keep dragging them back into harsh reality. Can you talk a bit about invoking hope and kindness in this play?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d felt for a long time that we weren\u2019t hearing stories from or about ordinary Russians, and so the aim was very much to try and get inside their head \u2013 to <\/span>write from the perspective of these two \u201cvillains\u201d to try and understand where they were coming from, even if I didn\u2019t always agree with what they were doing. <\/span>I\u2019m not sure I offer much by way of hope and kindness in the story of this play, but perhaps the act of <\/span>putting these stories in front of a UK audience<\/span> is encouraging<\/span> a kindness and hope in these characters and the future of Russia somewhere\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n

What was the creative process like, as you created and directed the play with this cast and creative team?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The creative process was a wild ride \u2013 although I wrote the play<\/span>,<\/span> I still had to as a director figure out what it was about, and how to rehearse it. The process was collaborative, a lot about playing as an ensemble, and trying to pull out layers of meaning from the inside out. And because it\u2019s storytelling in particular, the designers were part of that creative process <\/span>more so<\/span> than usual, creating a box of tricks for us to play with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Are there any particular playwrights or theatre makers who have inspired your writing and the kind of work that you want to make?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Writers who play with form and language like Alice Birch (US<\/span><\/a>) or <\/span>debbie<\/span> tucker green. <\/span>I like work that tries to do something new and doesn\u2019t play it safe \u2013 I\u2019d much rather see something I dislike but that has really committed to something<\/span>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you want audiences to take away from the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I want them to feel like they\u2019ve got a flavour of <\/span>modern Moscow<\/span> \u2013 and a little bit more understanding of what it\u2019s like to live there<\/span>.<\/span> But mainly, I would like people to have a<\/span>n <\/span>entertaining evening.<\/span><\/p>\n

Congratulations on winning the 2023 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award! What inspiring advice would you give to authors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No inspiring advice, but my main takeaways from the writing process <\/span>are:<\/span> keep coming back to the <\/span>world, <\/span>intention and flavour of the piece you want to make<\/span> \u2013 you can always edit story and structure later; read and see lots of other plays, TV shows, films and books; and always ask for notes but remember you don\u2019t need to take all of them, otherwise there will be no deliberate or coherent feel to the piece.<\/span><\/p>\n

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To learn more about A Woman Walks Into a Bank<\/em>, visit the Concord Theatricals website in the UK<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Follow playwright Roxy Cook into the fantastical world of A Woman Walks Into a Bank \u2013 a powerful portrayal of a country in crisis inspired by childhood fairytales and winner of the 2023 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18],"tags":[15,14],"class_list":["post-2711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk","category-playwrights","tag-qa","tag-uk"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingcharacter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}