World’s first ABBA tribute band in drag
Ian Hallard writes and stars – with his husband Mark Gatiss directing – in The Way Old Friends Do at Theatre Royal Brighton, the tale of mates who set out to form the world’s first ABBA tribute band in drag.
It’s in Brighton from Tuesday to Saturday, May 2-6 on its world premiere, three years after it should have first reached the stage, as Ian explains.
“I wrote it in summer 2019. I've been asked by various people over the years whether I had thought about writing something for the stage. I've done mainly script editing in the past. I co-wrote an episode of Poirot a few years ago. But I just thought I was going to try to write somethingfor the theatre and they say that you should write about what you know and I've always had a lifelong obsession with ABBA. I just love the songs and the fact that they are brilliantly constructed pop songs that are a lot more complicated and have a lot more depth to them than might first appear.
“The play is not autobiographical but there are similarities to me in the character that I play. It's not a play about ABBA. The tagline is these two old school friends forming the world's first ABBA tribute band in drag. It is a play about friendship and it's a play about betrayal and it's a play about these six characters going off and trying to live their dreams.
“In the first draft there was an extended flashback scene to them in their school days but I decided to nobody needed to see these two 45-year-old men as school boys. You get enough of that in Blood Brothers!
“I had a public rehearsed reading of the play for friends and industry people in 2019 and on the back of that the Birmingham Rep were looking to do a production. We were just having discussions about when to schedule it but everything went wrong because of the first lockdown, and so I spent the first lockdown mourning my career as a playwright that was never going to happen. I just feel so lucky that this production can now go ahead.”
Written by and starring Ian Hallard (The Boys In The Band), this world premiere is directed by Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Dracula, Doctor Who, The League of Gentlemen). Cast includes Donna Berlin (Doctors) James Bradshaw (Endeavour), Sara Crowe (Olivier Award winner for Private Lives), Andrew Horton (Jupiter’s Legacy) and Rose Shalloo (Malory Towers) featuring the voices of Miriam Margolyes and Paul O'Grady.