"We wanted to make a big show in a small space."
Director Ebenezer Bamgboye on his five-star Jermyn Street staging of The Lonely Londoners, now at the Kiln Theatre, and his programming job at Southwark Playhouse. Plus: three shows to see next week.
Hello, and welcome to The Crush Bar, a newsletter about theatre written by Fergus Morgan.
This is the free Friday issue, which usually contains an interview with an exciting theatremaker or an essay on a theatre-related topic. This week, it is an interview with director Ebenezer Bamgboye, whose production of Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners is at the Kiln Theatre until February 22. After that, there are your usual three show recommendations.
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In December, The Guardian published theatre critic Arifa Akbar’s ten best shows of 2024. At number three, just behind Eline Arbo’s adaptation of The Years and the West End run of The Picture Of Dorian Gray, was Ebenezer Bamgboye’s production of The Lonely Londoners.
Written by Sam Selvon, a Trinidadian who moved to London in 1950, The Lonely Londoners is a sprawling novel that follows several West Indian immigrants through their daily lives in post-war London, as they hunt for work, get lost in drink, sex and depression, and struggle with racism, homesickness and unfulfilled ambition. First published in 1956, it is regarded as one of the great novels of the Windrush generation.
Bamgboye’s staging, which uses a new adaptation by Roy Williams, was a hit when it ran at Jermyn Street Theatre in March – Akbar gave it five stars and praised “an intense, expressionist production” full of “sultry song”, “searing performances” and “sensational choreography - and now returns at the Kiln Theatre for a month-long run.
How did The Lonely Londoners come about?
It’s an interesting story. As part of my interview to be deputy director of Jermyn Street Theatre a few years ago, I had to pitch a project. It was lockdown and I had moved back home for a few months. On my bookcase was this book I had read at university. It was The Lonely Londoners. I thought: ‘What about this?’
That idea resonated with Jermyn Street, and they encouraged me to explore the possibility of doing it. They told me to sound out Roy Williams. That seemed crazy but I sent him an email. It turned out that he had already adapted The Lonely Londoners and had been trying to get it on stage for ten years to no avail. He sent it to me. It was brilliant but it was big. I think it was written for the Olivier stage.
When we returned to the conversation a few years later, Jermyn Street said they were interested in staging it, but the maximum number of actors we could have was seven. So, Roy and I set about adapting his version of the story down to size.
What was it like working with a legend like Roy Williams?
Roy is lovely. He is a titan of playwriting, but he is the most humble, gentle man. Both Roy and I are interested in masculinity in the modern world. That has been a lifelong mission of Roy’s, and I would say it is a mission of mine as well.
Thematically, we wanted to focus the adaptation on the ways in which hostile environments can drive men towards self-destruction, but also focus on how men can get out of that, too. We wanted to look at the alternative ways of dealing with the tornado that exists within as a consequence of the environment without.
That is a universal message that still resonates a lot today but the show explores a particular historical moment, too. It is also an acknowledgement and an appreciation of the migrant communities that make Britain what it is today.
Did putting The Lonely Londoners on at Jermyn Street Theatre feel like a risk?
I have so much admiration for that administration. They have a really wonderful core audience that they absolutely engage, but they also seem to be making great connections and partnerships beyond Jermyn Street, which is really exciting.
I don’t think the subject matter of the show was a risk because Jermyn Street has done a lot of literary adaptations but I think the show was stylistically distinct. Jermyn Street has historically been really excellent at verisimilitude and naturalism, but The Lonely Londoners is not naturalistic. It works on a more expressionist level. It is interested in the soul and emotion of characters and in amplifying that in the scenography. You could describe it as a piece of physical theatre. I think that is what is different about it to previous Jermyn Street projects.
How has the show changed for its new run at the Kiln Theatre?
We wanted to make a big show in a small space at Jermyn Street. Now, in a mid-scale venue, we still want it to feel like a big show. My movement director Nevena Stojkov, my set designer Laura Ann Price, my lighting designer Elliot Griggs, my sound designer Tony Gayle, and I have been working hard at scaling it up and amplifying it for a bigger space. We want it to feel big wherever it goes.
Do you think it might have a future life beyond this? Maybe even the West End?
Never say never, I guess, but I am just thrilled that it has had a life beyond Jermyn Street. This run at the Kiln Theatre is already beyond our wildest dreams.
In her review, Arifa Akbar said The Lonely Londoners worked well as a companion piece to Ryan Calais Cameron’s For Black Boys. Did you like that comparison?
I’m very grateful for Arifa’s love and enthusiasm for the show. And For Black Boys was obviously a landmark production and I have nothing but admiration for it and for Ryan Calais Cameron, who I think is a great artist. I guess it is the case that that show was so landmark that anything that comes after it that also explores black masculinity and incorporates multi-disciplinary elements into its staging is going to be compared to it, but The Lonely Londoners is a very different show.
Right. It feels a bit reductive to put two shows together just because they both explore black masculinity and incorporate physicality, I guess.
Precisely, but I’ll say again that I have nothing but admiration for For Black Boys and the team behind it, and I have nothing but gratitude towards Arifa.
Where did you grow up? How did you get into theatre?
I was born in Barnsley. Theatre wasn’t a huge part of my life, although my older sister did a lot of acting at school. My family did love stories, though, and particularly films. There was a lot of love for wholesome, hearty films in my household. I then got more into prestige film and television. That was my first love. Theatre came a bit later through school plays and school trips to Leeds Playhouse.
Then, at uni, I got stuck into Mermaids, the student theatre society at St Andrews. It makes a lot of work all the time. I was also involved with the National Youth Theatre. After a few years acting, though, I got quite fatigued by it and started to yearn for something a bit more creative, something with a bit more autonomy.
So you started directing. Tell me about your journey.
I was fortunate to do the Young Vic Directors Program and get mentored by Matthew Xia. I worked as an observer director at the Royal Exchange, too, and I was an assistant director to Rebecca Frecknall in Sheffield. Straight after Summer and Smoke, Rebecca did a Chris Bush play in Sheffield called Steel. That was an amazing room to be in. After that, I started getting work in London. I was resident director at the Almeida Theatre under Rupert Goold. I was an assistant and associate director at the Old Vic and with Headlong. And then I sort of stopped. I had had my fill of assisting and I transitioned towards building-based roles.
I was deputy director at Jermyn Street, where I did two productions, Biyi Bandele’s Two Horsemen in 2021 and Karina Wiedman’s The Anarchist in 2022. I staged a few shows at drama schools. Now, I am programming associate at Southwark Playhouse, where I staged Clarisse Makundul’s Under The Kunde Tree in 2023.
Which directors are you inspired by?
I’ve always been an admirer of Rob Icke. I love how all the elements of a Rob Icke production cohere to communicate a central idea. I love how his productions engage deeply with the ideas in the play, while also exploring them visually. His version of The Wild Duck was a very seminal, influential production for me.
I’m also interested in muscular, physical, expressive theatre. I’m inspired by people like Hofesh Schechter. I think I always try to achieve a balance of both a coherent, conceptual design and a visceral, physical expression of the story. That is what we are striving for in The Lonely Londoners. I hope that we have achieved it.
And who has been the biggest help?
Rupert Goold has been a brilliant mentor to me. He’s always been someone I can talk to about things I’m struggling with. The one big thing I have learnt from him is that theatre always has to have a live element that is bursting out of it. Last year, I was taught by Katie Mitchell on the National Theatre Directors Course. She has a really detailed, methodical philosophy of directing. Every decision has to be for a reason. There has to be a justification for everything. Nothing can be random.
What does your job at Southwark Playhouse involve?
I work for Southwark Playhouse three days a week and I am responsible for programming the studio space, The Little. I’m really interested in making that space a place for the best of the next generation. So many spaces for the next generation have disappeared. I want to make this a real hub, not only for writers, but for directors and designers and companies, too. We have curated a season, largely through partnering with other producers, that is being announced soon.
It sounds to me like you want to be an artistic director of a major theatre one day?
I’m worried what it will sound like if I say that I want to be running a big theatre one day. I suppose I would go back to Rupert Goold. I think there is a perfect synergy between his artistic interests and the building he runs, and that both him and the building flourish as a consequence. That, for me, is what it is all about.
The Lonely Londoners runs at the Kiln Theatre until February 22.
Three shows to see next week
The Merchant Of Venice - Edinburgh Lyceum, until February 15
This American production arrives in Scotland as part of an exchange programme that saw Zinnie Harris’ Macbeth (An Undoing) visit New York last year. It is produced by Brooklyn-based company Theatre For A New Audience and features John Douglas Thompson - a Tony Award-nominated legend of the American stage who recently played Othello with the Royal Shakespeare Company - as Shylock. You can read my interview with him here and book tickets for the show via the button below.
Carousel - various, until March 19
Acclaimed comedian Ivo Graham, a very funny man, has temporarily swapped stand-up for storytelling. His debut theatre show, Carousel, which first ran at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, sees him recount his life through ten objects he would never throw away: photos, ticket stubs, scribbled notes, and more. The Times’ Dominic Maxwell gave it four stars and called it a “beautiful, exquisitely judged confessional.” Now, it runs at the Park Theatre for a week-and-a-bit before touring to Bristol, Brighton, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle. You can get tickets via the button below.
A Good House - Royal Court Theatre/Bristol Old Vic, until March 8
This new play from South African writer and director Amy Jeptha is co-produced by Bristol Old Vic and Johannesburg’s Market Theatre. Directed by Bristol Old Vic’s artistic director Nancy Medina, it is a biting satire of community politics set in a quaint suburban gated community, within which a strange shack suddenly appears with nobody inside it. It runs at the Royal Court until February 8, then transfers to Bristol Old Vic until March 8. You can get tickets via the button below.
That’s all for this issue
That is it for this week. If you want to get in touch about anything raised in this issue - or anything at all, really - just reply to this newsletter or email me at fergusmorgan@hotmail.co.uk. Or you can find me on Bluesky, where I am @FergusMorgan.
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