SPOTLIGHT

Playwright Phoebe Eclair-Powell on sharing her blonde ambition with mum Jenny.

on playwright Phoebe Eclair-Powell

WHO? The sparky 27-year-old playwright from South London describes herself as ‘a mini-me of my mum’ – the comedian Jenny Eclair. They have the same bleach-blonde hair (‘We even go to the same hairdresser’), colourful dress sense (‘I have all her old clothes’) and talent, too. This autumn, her hit Edinburgh Fringe show Epic Love and Pop Songs transfers to London. BIG BREAK As a teenager, Phoebe belonged to a youth theatre company and made ‘mad films about hamsters’ at an after-school club. She opted for Oxford University over acting, but couldn’t stay away from the theatre after graduation. She worked as a PA to Vicky Featherstone – the boss of London’s Royal Court – eventually joining its prestigious young writers group. Phoebe’s debut play Wink, about a French teacher and the teenager who worships him, received rave reviews, while her second, Fury – labelled ‘a modern Medea’ – won her the 2015 Soho Young Writers’ Award. WHAT’S THE IDEA? Epic Love and Pop Songs is about love, friendship and growing up. It centres on friends Doll and Ted – or should that be Phoebe and the play’s director, her best friend Jamie Jackson? ‘I wrote the play for him,’ she says, ‘and the concept of best friends who are boy and girl puts a different spin on things.’ WHAT’S NEXT? Phoebe is working on ‘a few telly ideas’. She is also looking to bring her other Edinburgh triumph Torch to London later in the year. KEEPING MUM There will be no stand-up comedy for Phoebe. ‘I can’t think of anything worse,’ she says. ‘To have your work put on stage and be criticised by an audience afterwards is painful enough. To be heckled at the time would be too intense for words.’

Epic Love and Pop Songs is at the Pleasance Theatre, London, this evening; pleasance.co.uk