Isley Lynn is a playwright and poet whose work has been produced
and supported by National Theatre Studio, Nabokov, Theatre Royal Stratford
East, Arcola, BAC and IdeasTap. This year, she received Special Commendation
from the inaugural Soho Young Writers Award. She recently graduated from the
Royal Court Young Writers Programme.
Lean, currently playing at Tristan Bates Theatre,
is Isley’s first full-length, original play. She began writing it during her
last year of university. At the time, she was in a relationship with a man who
had been suffering from anorexia for four years. They discussed his disease
openly, and he was thrilled when she said his experiences had prompted her to
write a play. After having her own preconceptions shattered by his testimony,
Isley was motivated to share this deeper understanding of the complexities of
anorexia, especially in instances where body image isn't the primary cause. She
was also interested in portraying an anorexic individual that was male and
older in age, a character rarely represented in our cultural understanding of
the condition.
You’re well
known for writing and performing poetry – how has it been changing your focus
to playwriting for Lean?
I actually consider myself a playwright first and
foremost. I've been writing poetry since
university and it took off a bit faster because there were a lot more
opportunities to share it, like open mic nights. And as I performed it myself I didn't need to
get a whole team together, it was just me in charge of getting the work out
there. The plays have just been waiting
in the wings until recently, but they've always been there.
Lean is concerned
with a couple struggling with each other and with anorexia – can you tell us a
little bit more about the play?
When I started writing I was interested in how
someone's strength can also be their weakness, that love can exist alongside
hate, and what happens when the rules of a long-term, intimate relationship
suddenly change. When Tessa returns to
the house, she and Michael haven't spoken in over a year. She tells him that she's moving back in and
joining him in not eating in hopes he'll see what he's doing to himself and
start again. Michael chooses not
to. That's all in scene one, and the rest
of the play follows from there.
What was it
that encouraged/inspired you to write a play on the subject of anorexia?
Everything I write has a strong element of
autobiography, and in Lean it came
from being in a relationship with an anorexic man. That doesn't mean that the play is a true
story, but his story was key to this one, and I'll always be grateful to him
for his honesty and generosity when talking about it with me - while writing I
could come to him with any question and he'd happily help me through it. I hadn't come across a male perspective on
the disease, and I felt it was important to make sure there was at least one
out there in the world.
How have
you found the experience of writing about such a difficult subject?
I didn't see the subject as "difficult",
perhaps because I had such a direct link to it, but also because like any
subject the more time you spend with it the more parallels you start to see
with your own experience. Everyone has a
relationship with food, for most people it's a complicated one, everyone has
been in love, and love can also be complicated... If you strip it down to those
bare essentials it's clear how many overlaps someone has with something they
may otherwise feel totally separate from, which is definitely how I felt before
I met this man and wrote this play.
Tell us a
little bit about the process of creating/developing Lean?
Lean received its first reading
at the Theatre Royal Stratford East during their Angelic Tales new writing
festival. As part of that it was
developed with the enormous help of Rikki Beadle-Blair and John R Gordon - I
owe both of them so much for showing me how to write from the pit of my stomach
and the bottom of my heart. Then I sent
the script to Chelsea Walker and she liked it enough to ask me for a coffee,
where we proceeded to finish each other's sentences and stay long enough to get
kicked out of the cafe. I knew then she
was who I wanted to direct it. Since
then it's been wonderful working with a creative team who are all at the start
of their careers and yet somehow already at the top of the game.
 |
| Photo: Richard Lakos |
What do you
hope audiences will take from Lean?
I love drama because, to me, it's the art of
empathy. It's the act of sharing a space
with other people who might disagree or maybe don't understand, and allowing
them to shift their perspective. Sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn't, but I feel pretty
confident that Lean will at least
dispel a few myths about anorexia, particularly male sufferers. I also think they'll laugh and cry and be
very uncomfortable and take relief in the little moments of tenderness that our
cast (Laura Hanna and Tim Dorsett) make so beautiful and moving.
What have
you enjoyed most about writing Lean?
Every time I write something it forces me to open my
thoughts to new ways of looking at the world, to seeing it through someone
else's eyes, and Lean was no
different. Mostly I enjoyed writing
something that felt meaningful to me, talking with people who could help me
with it, and striving to provide an insight into that very specific world.
How has
your experience as a recent graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers programme
helped you as a playwright?
I've been to a lot of writers groups and courses, but
the Royal Court was by far the most thorough and practical - it was different
from a lot of others in that they didn't ask you to write in groups or pairs,
and they spent more time working on improving your own ideas and scripts than
doing exercises that generate new ideas in the session - all this meant that I
was able to focus on what I wanted to write, not just writing for the sake of
it. Leo Butler - our tutor there - was
instrumental in helping me make the right decision when it came to handing Lean over to a director (back when a few
companies were interested in the script).
What advice
can you offer to those in the early stages of a career in playwriting?
Take every opportunity that comes your way, but don't
wait around for them to present themselves. It's a long game, so while you're waiting for a commission or an
attachment make sure you're always working on something in the meantime. Lean
was first completed in early 2010 and it's only just getting its premier, but
if I hadn't had it in my back pocket when Chelsea came along it wouldn't have
happened. Be ready for luck.
What are
you looking to for your next project?
I'm always working on a few things at once, so
whichever of those crosses the finish line first will be what I look at
next. Until then I'm on commission to
Fickle Favours in Belfast to contribute to their upcoming women writers
showcase Shakespeare's Sisters, am enjoying preparing a short piece for the 33%
Festival at the Ovalhouse theatre as part of Around The House, and have just
been invited to join the Royal Court again for one of their future Studio
Groups, so I'm looking forward to the near future!
Lean runs
until 23rd February.
For more information: http://www.tristanbatestheatre.co.uk/Lean.asp
@TristanBates @StripTheatre
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