Classic tale of love and loss strikes emotive note on stage
A committed team is bringing David Almond’s A Song for Ella Grey back to the stage – a happy turn of events for a story with a soulful ending. DAVID WHETSTONE joined for an epic morning by the Ouseburn
AWINTER morning beside The Cluny music venue and it’s seasonably grey, which is appropriate since A Song for Ella Grey has drawn us here, an excited young crowd plus one or two of us older souls.
This, along with Bamburgh beach, is where much of David Almond’s novel of 2014 is set, here where the Ouseburn flows to meet the Tyne, “spinning and spiralling and gurgling,” according to the book’s lyrical prose.
It’s a sweet spot for many reasons, including those listed in the opening pages: “There’s a café, a bar, a little theatre, a room where bands play. Close by is Seven Stories, the children’s book place.”
A decade later, it remains a cultural hotspot and the water still spirals and gurgles.
Due to open in February at Northern Stage is a new theatre version of A Song for Ella Grey, which is why the actors and other members of the creative team are here, getting a feel for the place.
The story of love and loss tells of teenage friends Ella and Claire and of what happens when a boy seemingly gifted with supernatural musical powers enters their lives.
This is Orpheus who first appears on the beach where even birds and animals respond to his playing. When he and Ella are mutually smitten, it’s devoted Claire who feels the loss.
Back in 2017 there was another production of A Song for Ella Grey at Northern Stage. David Almond adapted his tale for the youth company, although only one actor was a physical presence on stage, cast as Claire, while the rest appeared in pre-filmed footage on screen.
“It always felt to me like it needed to be done on a bigger scale and with more music and movement,” says David now.
He wasn’t alone in thinking so. Esther Richardson, artistic director of York-based Pilot Theatre, read the book shortly after it came out – and soon after taking up her post – and, as a self-confessed David Almond fan, thought it “absolutely magical”.
She thought the first production “beautiful” but fancied scaling it up and having more live music, which, of course, was music to David’s ears.
Pilot’s longstanding relationship with Northern Stage, going back to productions of The Season Ticket and Noughts and Crosses, meant permission was easily attained for a new version.
David remembers his initial response to Esther’s pitch as: “Yes, fantastic.”
And he adds: “That main stage (at Northern Stage) is a big challenge but also a big opportunity so I’m rather thrilled.”
As a modern telling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Orpheus ventures into the underworld in a bid to retrieve his lost love, A Song for Ella Grey shows how the best stories attain lives of
their own. They are re-told down the ages by the likes of Virgil, Ovid and contemporary writers such as David in whose imagination the grit and grind of industrial Tyneside are intertwined with mystery and magic.
“When I first dreamed up this story,” he says, “I imaged someone singing up there (indicating the slope of Stepney Bank) and the music coming down like water and flowing into the Ouseburn itself.
“All these young people were sitting around and I had a sense this music was also coming out of them, so Orpheus represents all of that. When I was writing the story I felt Orpheus coming through me.”
Now, presumably, Orpheus is making his music through everyone involved in the production by Pilot Theatre in association with Northern Stage and York Theatre Royal.
Zoe Cooper accepted the challenge of adapting David’s story while remaining faithful to its poetic narrative. Her track record suggests she’s well suited to the task, having written acclaimed plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company (Out of Water, featuring a same sex couple and set in South Shields) and the Old Vic (the award-winning Jess and Joe Forever).
“Whatever it is that distinguishes rare writing talent,” wrote one critic, “Zoe Cooper has got it.” Born in London, she has lived in the North East for over a decade and lectures in creative writing at Newcastle University.
But she’s an Almond devotee and says when A Song for Ella Grey came out, she got her agent to check if the stage rights were available.
“I was completely obsessed with it and read it and re-read it. I grew up with Skellig (David’s breakthrough novel of 1998) and have been a fan ever since.
“I love Greek drama and there’s something brilliant about giving young people from the North East a properly epic story that they can own. Greek drama fits people’s emotions at that age.”
The landscape described in the book, she says, “is so beautifully wrought and there’s something epic and rugged about it”.
She doesn’t deny feeling daunted about the task she took on: “I think great art is about feeling daunted and you want to be. The intimidation comes from the love of the writing so it’s good to feel intimidated.”
Two more Skellig fans are also in the company, it turns out.
Having studied the book at school, Grace Long and Olivia Onyehara now play Ella and Claire whose close relationship is as key to the plot as that of Orpheus and Ella, his latterday Eurydice.
“When this opportunity came up, I thought, yes, there’s definitely something of Ella in me,” recalls Grace, who grew up in the Lake District.
“She’s a bit of a wallflower and probably observes more than she says. That seemed very representative of me as a teenager so this has been easy to step into.”
Olivia, playing Claire who is supplanted in Ella’s affections by Orpheus, describes A Song for Ella Grey as a work of art.
“The use of language and the way the book has been put together make it very special.”
Olivia is from Grimsby but says she has spent a lot of time in the North East, particularly South Shields where her mum comes from.
The pair, along with young fellow cast members Amonik Melaco (Sam), Beth Crame (Angeline) and Jonathan Iceton (Jay), were able to bond on a research trip to Bamburgh beach with Esther, the director.
“We acted out parts of the play and it was a great way to have a laugh together,” says Grace.
As for how young theatre-goers might identify with the play, she replies quickly: “In lots of ways.
“Academia is questioned a little bit on what your path could be, and it looks at who and what you’re attracted to and the journey that takes you on. It feels very representative of young people today and the different sexualities and gender identities we take on.
“I think what’s really special about it being a classical story set in the North East is how muscular the language is and how huge the personalities are.”
Adds Olivia: “I think teenage emotions are that big. Going from A-levels to leaving home is huge and it’s lovely to honour that and not patronise young people in any way. It’s big feelings we’re dealing with here.”
Everyone involved in A Song for Ella Grey, it seems, is singing from the same song sheet, which augurs well for the show, which runs from February 1 to 15 in Newcastle before touring to York, London, Hull, Liverpool and Guildford.
For details of the Newcastle run and to buy tickets, visit www.northernstage.co.uk or tel. 0191 2305151.