TAKING PRIDE
We interview the author of West End hit, The Pride
What inspired the writing of The Pride? Basically, there’s that situation where there’s a couple where one wants a completely open relationship and the other doesn’t. I thought that was interesting and wanted to explore that but within the context of a burgeoning relationship because obviously things change when you get older. And I’m fascinated by how difficult it is for people to know themselves. Is that something you experienced yourself, finding it difficult to know yourself? Well, a lot of it has to do with being an outsider. I’m half-English half-Greek and grew up in Greece feeling an outsider and then the experience of being gay. Being gay in a country like Greece, you’re very much an outsider. Then you have different cultural voices telling you what you are. In Greece, I was always being told what it meant to be gay, which was always completely wrong and harmful and when I came here I felt the same when I suddenly found myself, at the age of 23, sucked into a gay world here. This was the early 90s.
“It’s extraordinary to belong to a minority where, from a very young age when you’re discovering your sexuality, you’re being told that it’s wrong to be who you are”
But that was a good time to be gay in London, wasn’t it?
My generation was very marked by AIDS. I was living in America when AIDS was at its worst. Fun times to an extent, there was a lot of spirit and what I became interested in in the gay world was the need to forge your own identity and not always follow the norm. You have a larger society which is full of mores and norms and minority worlds within that and within those minority worlds, the need to belong is often very strong, so the need to belong cultivates a behaviour that’s not always who you are. And that’s what I wanted to explore. None of that is conscious when you’re writing, obviously.
The theme of turning into someone that you actually disapprove of is quite strong in your play…
I thought that was an interesting point to explore. Also I think there’s something very specific about that situation in The Pride. It’s not just someone who wants to have an open relationship but it’s about a form of addiction. It’s not about someone who enjoys having lots of sex with people, it’s that the character of Oliver is compulsive. He describes sex as something he doesn’t really gain that much enjoyment from. A lot of people completely connect with that, others get quite angry with what they perceive to be a judgemental or moralistic stance.
There were themes that were very much like in the book The Velvet Rage, the idea of
growing up with shame as a gay man.
I think it’s inevitable because you’re told what you are is wrong. I think it’s an extraordinary thing to belong to a minority where, from a very young age when you’re discovering your sexuality, you’re being told that it’s wrong to be who you are. And there is no way to separate the sexual act from shame. Always in your mind you’re associating the two.
Another key theme is the importance of
women in gay men’s lives…
There’s a slight idealising of the female characters. My own experience is that I love women and the women in it are strong. I don’t think they’re perfect but one of the things I wanted to explore was the relationship between women and gay men, relationships that become quite mutually dependent, more to the cost of the woman. By the end of The Pride, through this constant conversation they have about love and sex, Oliver knows more about himself and he’s able to say, “I’m OK without you” and she needs to go off and have a healthy relationship with a man. And I’ve had that experience. There comes a point when that closeness becomes detrimental to both of you.
Were you surprised at the great reaction this production got, with posters full of five-star reviews?
I love it! I come out of the tube and see that. It’s great. It was a small play originally at the Royal Court, in the studio upstairs, but something happened when it went to New York with a very starry cast – Ben Whishaw, Andrea Riseborough and Hugh Dancy - and it’s been performed in lots of places around the world so I knew there was something there that speaks to people. Bringing it back to London, I knew that it had something, but I’ve been overwhelmed by the response. And the timing of it: while we were in rehearsals, we had the marriage bill and now we’ve got the medieval thing going on in Russia.
Is The Pride your first play?
The Pride was my first produced play. We went into rehearsals five years ago almost to the day. I’m a late starter when it comes to writing. I’ve always written but I never finished anything. And then when I finished one I thought, “OK, you can do this, you just have to work hard.” You’ve just got to do it. I’m hoping to do films because you can’t really make money from writing theatre. Musical theatre you can, I’m sure. But unless you have a huge commercial play that runs and runs…
What did you do before?
I was an actor before but it’s a mug’s game. Unless you’re a big star, which I definitely wasn’t, you’re at the bottom of the food chain because you’re always waiting for a job. And I haven’t missed it at all. The Play is on at the Trafalgar Studios, London to 9 November. Go to trafalgarstudios.co.uk