LPT: It’s not all about playwriting for you, is it? You’ve also been documentarist for community arts project Great North Passion, facilitator and director of ‘Gemma Climbs Her Mountain’ amongst other things. We’re sensing a pattern here. What is it with you and the great outdoors?

HaHaHa! As a documentary-maker I was lucky enough to travel to amazing places and meet amazing people, but I suppose nature and the natural world have always been pretty much front and centre. I’ve made work which questions whether we’ve lost touch with nature, living in built up urban environments. And ‘fell’ takes an opposite stance, asking us to look beyond the picture postcard image of the Lake District at those living less than idyllic lives.

LPT: There’s a mountain involved in the play. Please could you tell us more about that. 

Adolescence for many is a time that demands the co-existence of individuality and conformity in a world where everyone seems to belong but you. This turbulent rite of passage from innocent to care-worn is often seen through the prism of emerging sexuality and increasingly amplified in the echo chamber of social media. I wanted to strip back all this background noise and clear the decks of extraneous distractions to look at how two young boys experience this leap into the unknown, away from social constructs, alone and exposed. I remembered my own adolescence – as much as one can – and holidays spent fell-walking and camping with mates in the Lake District. The wild landscape, harsh and romantic at the same time felt like a good starting point. Hence the mountain!

LPT: In theatre, how do you bring the outdoors inside?

I remember talking to one (very successful) playwright and he was very clear – that’s not your problem! And he’s kind of right of course but the staging here, by the brilliant Janys Chambers, is focussed on the turbulent emotions of the protagonists which are echoed in the soundscape, the lighting and the clever minimalist design by Jane Linz Roberts. If the characters feel in awe of their surroundings, or feel cold, hot, damp, cold then we are there with them in the great outdoors.

LPT: Please could you tell us how you begin your process as a writer?

I find this a really difficult question because I don’t think I have a set ‘beginning’. But my ‘process’ is ultimately one of procrastination! So, I mull a lot – run ideas about themes and characters around my brain for what seems like ages. I might make a playlist for each character or a playlist for the ideas of the play. Then I pretty much write in a splurge. Then put it in a drawer for quite a while so that when I take it out again, I can see it as objectively as I can - and begin the rewrite.

LPT: Is it important for you to work with likeminded creatives?

Not sure that it is really. I like being questioned, like the script being interrogated, having to justify what I’ve written. This is the way we get everyone on board, understanding and contributing to the production. So, by the end we are all perhaps ‘like-minded’ but I think it’s good to be challenged along the way.

LPT: Could you give us a flavour of your favourite thing about the play?

Another toughie! We did a short pilot tour in Cumbria before lockdown and I’m really proud of the fact that over 50% of the audience who came to those sell-out shows had never been to a theatre or to see a play before. So perhaps my favourite thing is that ‘fell’ seems to be accessible to everybody, has something to say to everybody.

LPT: How did you find out about Barons Court Theatre and what made this the ideal venue for the London premiere of your play? 

We were looking for somewhere intimate, with a reputation for supporting new writing and Barons Court Theatre obviously fits that spec. I went to visit – although I’ve lived in London, I now live in Yorkshire – and Sharon and Leo could not have been more accommodating and helpful and it’s hard not to fall in love with the place. I hope those who have not yet discovered this great space will come and see it for themselves, hopefully during our run!

LPT: The play is touring, and we wondered how you would cope with the practicalities of doing that?

To be honest, it takes a little more patience getting the bookings and making them work geographically so you’re not travelling from Plymouth to Edinburgh between shows, but once the tour is nailed there’s a pretty well-trodden path to production. The challenges for me are not that onerous, we just have to ensure the staging works for all venues, but that responsibility is shared, in the rehearsal room with the director and on location between the actors and the stage-manager. It’s the cost of travel and accommodation that has proved to be the biggest hurdle. Prices have gone up so much and we don’t feel able to claw that back from ticket prices, nor is the available funding environment anything other than really tough.

LPT: What do you really hope audiences will take away with them?

I think different people will take away different things from ‘fell’. I hope they laugh, and I hope they are moved. It’s a two-hander, it’s 75min packed with drama, comedy and weather, it’s about growing up and all that that involves (everything) and it’s moving and sweet and it’s brilliantly acted. So, yes, I hope it will leave you smiling, and I hope it stays with you.

LPT: Finally, why is it so important for audiences to grasp what it is like to grow up in a rural location?

What began as an interest in that war zone between childhood and adulthood (where young people are assaulted on all sides by hormones and expectation) became a passionate desire to tell the stories of young, talented, funny, sensitive lads trapped by the poverty of hope and horizons. I made the decision to build the story around characters in a rural community – and where we worked with young people in west Cumbria it was clear that the future can be devoid of hope and ambition with often devastating consequences – but wherever you grow up you can feel isolated, even in the middle of a large city teeming with people and distractions. If you don’t feel part of it, if the opportunities are not available to you (or simply do not exist) then you are going to struggle to find your place in a world that doesn’t seem to want you. 

'fell' opens at the Barons Court Theatre in London from 2-7 Oct- Box Office

It will then tour till 29 October - Trailer and tour dates