LPT: Lovely to chat, firstly, please would you give us a brief outline of the play.

Lou Beckett: A Rose by Any Other Name? is a fast, funny contemporary play about a young journalist who dives into the Shakespeare debate. She clashes with scholars, battles trolls, and tangles her love life in the process—all while asking a bigger question: what counts as real evidence, and who gets to decide? Is the evidence strong enough that the authorship question should be taught in schools? The audience votes after hearing the final debate.

When did you first discover Shakespeare for yourself?

We had fun at school shouting out sentences we learned while studying Macbeth. I still occasionally blurt out, “Is this a dagger which I see before me.” It was a revelation to find that Shakespeare wasn’t as stuffy as I had expected

The idea that Shakespeare's plays might have come from another pen has been around for a while. What particular angle are you exploring?

What interests me most is the legitimacy of the authorship question. As one character observes: we can have grown-up debates about the existence of God, yet questioning the evidence that Shakespeare wrote the plays is often dismissed outright. Seventy minutes is not enough to settle the authorship debate, but it may be enough to prompt the audience to consider a deeper issue: what kind of evidence is required before a question earns the right to be taken seriously?

How does it fit in with your beliefs as a whole?

We are living in a strange time where arguments are not based on facts and evidence. This is just one way of looking at the importance of an evidence-based approach

Please could you tell us more about your past plays and whether there is a particular area that interests you.

My playwriting started some ten years ago, winning a regional competition sponsored by the Arts Council. Three ten-minute plays were chosen for full development and a professional production; mine was one of those. It may be one of the happiest moments of my life. I’ve had three plays produced since that initial one, in addition to the tour of this play last year.

As a writer, how does it all begin for you?

As many have said, writing is all about rewriting. You have to live with your core idea and your script for quite a long time so I want something that intrigues me, and that I think might intrigue others.

A Rose By Any Other Name? has had a number of successful productions outside of London. Why bring the show to London now?

I was humbled by the terrific comments we got from audiences when the play toured in the Southwest. The positive reaction to the debate and the final vote surprised me; people seem genuinely moved by the play.

As it's a work for touring, how have you handled the staging and the set?

Keep it simple.

What are you most proud of achieving with this piece?

What I’m proudest of is sitting in the audience, anonymous, and hearing people laugh, lean forward, and engage with the story. It showed me the play entertains while also sparking real thought.