Donna Lesley Price and Richie Grice are out of breath after travelling for an interminable age from across the Wirral, through the congested and rammed tunnel system that goes underneath the Mersey and finally racing across town to get to The Unity. The last thing I want to do is make them talk about their play, If the Shoe Fits, as they have already been working hard doing interviews all day.
It is without doubt a difficult job being an actor, director, playwright, there are still some that believe, like teachers only work from 9.00am in the morning till 4.00pm in the afternoon, that actors get up on stage for a couple of hours a day and somehow the magic works. The rest of the day is their own. The endless rounds of conversations, in depth rehearsals and talking to somebody who wants five minutes of their time either doesn’t happen or the person being interviewed is calm and serene as they have had a leisurely day.
For Richie and Donna, they have already done two interviews and a morning of mail shots before they get to the Unity Theatre. Donna’s ever supportive mum has also been busy as I find out, also handing out flyers everywhere. The half an hour they spend warming themselves up next to the window as the half forgotten sun comes out and gives the room a sense of peace is welcome.
If The Shoe Fits is one of the great plays of its time, a snapshot on the window of Liverpool life that rarely gets seen, it is sarcastic, indisputably funny, touching and full of genuine laughter. Written by Donna Lesley Price who plays the superbly off kilter Daphne the play has gone from strength to strength the last few years with nights at The Unity Theatre, The Floral Pavilion in New Brighton and now it is making the Epstein Theatre its new home.
Are you looking forward to going to The Epstein Theatre?
Donna: “Yes, definitely!”
Richie: “It’s just the chance to perform there really. We always say about 7.30 at night when we get the costumes on and we’re waiting in the wings, the actual performance – that’s what it’s all about. The other stuff that you have to do, the media and the publicity you have to do all the time on top of the performing.”
The play’s come a long way hasn’t it, in a very short space of time from being here The Unity, over the water at New Brighton Pavilion and now back in Liverpool at The Epstein Theatre?
Richie, “It’s taken six years or so to get it here. It’s in the last three years that it’s found its feet! It’s got its shape and structure now, whereas before we were expecting it to be funnier than last time, with more gags. After the first time it went out, we put in more gags and made it funnier and the characters are so strong and we’re finding that we’re taking stuff out. If you look at the first script of it, it’s very interesting to read it! I reckon there’s another play in existence, there’s a sequel somewhere!”
It’s interesting that you say that, surely there would be time to do a sequel to the play?
Donna, “I have thought about doing a sequel but I’ve got three other plays that I need to finish writing, I just haven’t had the time to sit down and look at it especially when you’ve got three others in your head, so many things that you have to do but when three things happen – too many germs in my head!”
Richie, “There’s always the difficulty of taking such strong characters out of one play and putting them in another, would it work? There was an idea to take the shop staff on a holiday to village in Spain or something like that, we thought up a few sketches and some of them were really funny but would the audience go with that? There’s also the audience who might not have seen If the Shoe Fits first time around.”
It’s a cracking play and I said previously it’s one of my favourite plays that encompasses all things about Liverpool, very well written and very well observed. When it went over to New Brighton, something seemed to change, in the way you added things into it and going so much quicker in terms of being onstage.
Donna, “There was more energy as we had new people in the cast, we had Charlie Griffiths and Angela Simms and they both bring a lot more pace to it.”
Richie, “One of the things for me was the structure was there, the characters were there, it makes a lot of its own energy than before, it’s come together so well. The beauty of it I think is that when you do a play, you just do it the once, you spend weeks rehearsing it, then you’ve got the nights doing it, then it’s over and you think you’ve nailed it, you put on the show and you won’t go back to it. With this one, it’s always going to get better and to get it right, it’s there now, there’s always a little nagging thing, can we just go that little bit further? There were really strong parts before but now it’s got even more strong characters.”
Do either of you have a particular favourite part?
Donna, “At the moment, we’ve got Chris Crookall in but I’m not giving his part away! I’m loving that scene so much with him, it’s just amazing to see it, it’s completely different than before. Having Chris come into the play, it’s just triggered off more writing for the scene and there’s so much more physicality and action in it and Jodie said when she was watching it in rehearsals she just looked at us and said that’s my favourite scene. I asked it was it always her favourite scene and she said no but it is now! I just love it, the cast are loving it, you said yourself, you could make a whole play out of that scene. They have really embraced the character. Yes, you could make a whole play out of that scene, I had to stop myself though writing further, I got to the point and told myself to stop otherwise the cast wouldn’t do anything for 45 minutes.”
Richie, “My favourite scene is towards the end of the first half when we start talking about Bobby and all that stuff, I love all that. I also like the part towards the end when it’s very frenetic and everyone’s coming in and out and there’s a four way conversation, the way the four of us work in that way, me and Liz having a girlie chat.”
I love every character, there’s obviously one I can’t stand but that’s because he’s portrayed so well, the boyfriend, he‘s played so well.
Richie, “I don’t like the character but what I love is that the way that when he shows up, it’s the way he changes the whole atmosphere of the play, you can sense the feeling.”
I fell in love with Charlie Griffiths’ character when you’re in the nightclub and she doesn’t realise what she’s done and it’s this wonderful naivety there that runs not just through the character of Daphne but there’s bit of naivety running through everyone and it works so well because of that.
Donna, “That’s because I was very naïve when I was younger; there’s a lot of elements of me in all of them good and bad! I wrote it so there will be elements of me within every character.”
With time pressing before the next interview, I realise once more that the life of an actor is not the easiest, when you are also the director, the management and writer, there is so much more to the job than people realise. It is easy to watch a play, understand the work that goes into it but what about the little extras, the bits that people don’t see? There is so much hard work that goes into any production, large or small and for that the people behind If The Shoe Fits, and every other production that goes on in the city, deserves support.
Ian D. Hall