Writer Luke Hereford, director Izzy Rabey and actors Reece Connolly and Geraint Rhys Edwards bring an untold queer love story to the stage with the theatre production of Nice Things. Amy Ford spoke to all four, ahead of the play opening in April.
Luke Hereford (Nice Things writer/producer): A breakup inspired this play… like all the best things. I mean, not entirely – it’s spurred on by a breakup. I did kind of write it in a post-breakup rage, but it’s become much more than that. I feel like there’s loads and loads of plays like this – domestic, two-handed relationship plays – but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one about nonbinary people. So that’s kind of what I wanted to do.
Izzy Rabey (director): So often, queer plays are set against a straight world. What makes this play so different is it’s about queer issues within a gay world. For me, that makes it really special and refreshing, because so often our stories are pitted against heteronormativity, and that’s not what this play is.
Geraint Rhys Edwards (actor): Not that this play was ever going to be preachy, but I think people who are cis, and who aren’t from a queer community, may think this play will be preaching about how to be, you know? But it’s not. It’s just about real life – heartbreak, and a journey through coming out – and it’s honest.
Izzy: For me, the breakup scene [in Nice Things] is extraordinary, both in terms of the writing, but also how these two perform. There’s something so real about it. As a director, I’m so sucked in to the chemistry between these two as actors – it’s so exciting to watch. They’re really screaming at each other at one point, and then it’s really quiet. It’s like an orchestral piece of a breakup, and I really see it like a piece of music, which makes it really beautiful.
Reece Connolly (actor): The audience have to be very engaged and very attentive and put a lot of work in as well, in terms of making their own assumptions and looking at where we are in this relationship. At the same time, it doesn’t necessarily matter if they don’t know exactly, because the play has a sort of dream logic to it. It feels sometimes like we’re watching a montage play out in real time, and we’re looking back retrospectively on this relationship. It has a chronology all of its own. I think that will be really interesting for an audience to watch… and for us as performers, obviously it’s like, here we go!
Luke: I’m also a drag queen, so I have my foot in the door of that part of the queer culture in Wales. I think it’s very rare that those that the queer scene meet the artistic scene, within Wales; I don’t really know any other nonbinary Welsh theatre makers, apart from Juliette Manon. In the Welsh artistic scene, there’s not really any queer work happening, with the exception of great things in cabaret. It would be really lovely to see the Sherman taking a chance on a main stage queer musical made by some Welsh queer artists.
Nice Things: A Queer Love Story opens in the Pleasance Theatre, London (Wed 1-Sat 4 Apr) and is then at The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol (Mon 13 + Tue 14) and Porter’s, Cardiff (Wed 22-Sat 25).
Tickets: £10-£14. Info: London / Bristol / Cardiff
words AMY FORD
