Hello Matthew, you clearly rise to a challenge, so we’d like to ask you to give us an overview of the play’s plot in a single sentence.

Anthony and Penny used to be ‘an item’ but they refuse to let their break-up get in the way of auditioning actors for their latest Off West End show - and neither will the fact that someone seems to have sold tickets to the auditions and now there’s a live audience here to watch it all - but The Show Must Go On, mustn’t it?

That was a VERY long sentence. Sorry! I think I failed at that challenge!

Please could you tell us a little bit about your part in the show.

I play Anthony, a playwright. An unpublished playwright (something which he very much wants to change!). He’s written a play he is very proud of; THE PLAY WITH SPEECHES and is excited to be auditioning actors for it. But once he finds out that someone has sold tickets to the auditions and is presented with a live audience, he steps up to the plate and brings them all along for the ride. He’s a showman and loves the audience’s attention. He’s inexperienced as a playwright and theatre maker so has a tendency to put his foot in it, with the actors and sometimes the audience. He’s prone to over-the top emotions and gestures, quite highly-strung, very finicky and just wants everything to be ‘right’. Oh, and yes, he’s single. Very unhappily so. The play follows his journey from fear of the audience being there into really enjoying himself chatting to them and enjoying some of the actors’ auditions that take place within the play. But he cannot hide his feelings very well and soon the wheels start to wobble and perhaps even come off….

In terms of my influences, he’s an amalgam of Julie Walter’s AmDram Director character in Victoria Wood As Seen On TV (“I don’t think it’s too gimmicky… the tandem”), the Musical Director role in French & Saunders’ Opera Divas Sing Kylie sketch, the headteacher in Alan Bennett’s FORTY YEAR’S ON, and The League of Gentleman’s wonderful Ollie Plimsoles of Legs Akimbo.  

He’s a misguided idiot, basically. But a VERY well meaning one!

How much of yourself is in the role?

The role of a misguided idiot?! Ha ha. Oh gosh, I really hope not too much!

Anthony spends most of the play either talking directly to the audience or sat behind an audition table, auditioning actors. And I’ve spent a lot of my theatre career this past 13 years doing both of those things. As Artistic Director of The Hope (2014-19) I’d often have to chat to audiences, welcoming them to the space. And as a Director (which I started in 2009) I have spent many hours, days, weeks sat in auditions. I’d like to think I’m better at hiding my thoughts and feelings in auditions than he is though. And also, I’d really like to think I am MUCH more supportive of auditioning actors than him. Some of his behaviour is not ideal, let’s put it that way!

It certainly wasn’t written with me in mind but there are some elements of me in there, which is fun (and a bit spooky/upsetting! Ha). He is a theatre maker, putting shows on the Off West End and Pub Theatre scene and obviously I’ve been doing that for just over 13 years now. Physically Anthony is described as having over-the-top gestures and anyone who has ever met me will know just how ridiculously florid and wafty my hands and arms are when I talk! But he’s also described as being a drama queen with delusions of grandeur and ideas above his station. Ahem. I think perhaps you need to ask my husband about those elements!

But joking aside, I also really connect to his desire for everyone in the audience that night to have a good time. To enjoy themselves. Throughout my work as a Director my main priority and focus is the audience; that we tell them a fab story, clearly and with imagination, attention to detail and joy. He wants everyone to have a good night at the theatre. And so do I.

Would you describe the show as pure entertainment or is there a darker side to the comedy?

Oh, it’s total pure entertainment and I absolutely love that about it. It’s been a tough old time of late so it’s great to be a part of a show whose entire modus operandi is to entertain and make people laugh. It’s a comedy with some real farcical elements. And the comedy is varied; wordplay, rhythmical gags (reminiscent of Victoria Wood and Alan Bennett), comedy from situations, comedy from the characters’ interactions and misunderstandings plus some physical comedy and clowning. When we did the preview performance at the Hen & Chickens it was wonderful to have the whole audience laughing along so loudly and often. The script is funny, the situation the characters find themselves in is funny and how the ‘evening’ transpires is surprising, twisty and, yep, funny. There are definitely darker elements within the events for Anthony as a character, which obviously I have to play totally straight and truthful, as one does with all comedy, but how this comes across is funny. Well, I hope so! The audience end up laughing at him, which of course only makes his ridiculous behaviour even worse! And some of the “auditioning” actors behave in very bizarre and amusing ways.

If you come along to watch THE PLAY WITH SPEECHES, I promise you’ll have a really fun and hilarious night out.

As the show features good and bad audition pieces, could you give us the low down on how not to do it?

Ah. That’s a hard one. I have for years now facilitated workshops on Theatre Audition process; a look at what it’s all like from the ‘other side of the table’ and I can and do go into a lot of detail of what I see often and what works best and not so well etc. But a few really key tips would be:

Prepare really well, not just your character but the full play and research the venue, the theatre company, the director etc. And check where the audition venue is in plenty of time, don’t leave it until the day.

Don’t get distracted by what to wear or costume or props. Just bring the text to life.

Do YOUR version. That’s what I as a Director always want to see and be a part of with you. I do not know what I am looking for. I’m open to suggestions. WE don’t start making decisions until rehearsals so for audition do YOUR version of the role.

Enjoy the chat - if there is a chat element of the audition. It’s your opportunity to ask questions about the project, of the Director. And for you to suss out whether you’d like to work with this Director and team. Be upbeat, interested, curious. Be yourself. You’re an artist so you are all these things all the time anyway. Artists are brilliant!

Leave the room calmly and don’t gabble a million Goodbyes etc or spend time trying to shake hands with everyone. A simple “thank you so much for your time and best of luck with the rest of the auditions” and then calmly and steadily leave through the right door! Don’t hurl yourself out of there at breakneck speed. I see this SO often and have done it myself as an actor We tend to just want to RUN AWAY once it’s done with. Resist this urge. Breathe, smile, stay calm and exit with control! And then take yourself out for a little treat of some kind. Even just half an hour sat with a nice coffee or some cake. To celebrate a job done well.

Know that what you did was your best. The best you could do at that date and time. That’s all anyone can do. Now it’s in the lap of the Gods. So long as you can come out of there knowing you did your best then there’s nothing further to worry about. Eat your cake and enjoy the rest of your day and week. 

Matthew Parker directing Thrill Me (at Jermyn Street Theatre January/February 2022)

As a real life director yourself, do any of the scenes resonate with your lived experience?

Well, I’ve certainly been in my fair share of… how shall we say?… ‘awkward’ auditions before now. Auditions where you just want the ground to swallow you up or ones where the actor has been… erm… ‘inappropriate’ in terms of personal space! That’s always a shock when that happens. And also, sadly, many auditions where the actors just haven’t prepared enough or didn’t even seem to care at all about the project. I get it. It’s hard and emotionally risky to engage your whole brain and heart in something that might end in a rejection. I get it. But I honestly do believe that everyone I audition CAN do the job. That’s why I shortlisted and asked them in. So, if I end up with someone who just isn’t invested it can be disheartening, for everyone concerned. As an actor myself I’d much rather prepare as much as I can and throw myself into it 100%. Sure, the rejection hits hard. But at least with this approach I know I have done all I can within the elements I can control as an auditioning actor. The rest is then out of my hands.

Oh, and my character is very reliant on biscuits. Snacks are the real hero of any audition room. Don’t underestimate the need for snacks!!

A little birdie told us that you’ve got a lot of lines to learn but that’s just a tiny part of developing your role. What has been the toughest aspect?

The little birdie was right. It is a LOT of lines. The most I’ve ever had to learn. I’ve not counted how many lines in total, but my highlighter pen ran out of ink whilst I was highlighting them!

But I absolutely love a challenge. It’s my first lead role in over 25 years and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was utterly terrified. But that’s what life is about, innit? Facing the fear and doing it anyway. And I know how lucky I am to have a career in theatre, so I welcome and relish every challenge with open arms. Though tell me that an hour before opening night on 11 October please, when I’ll be shaking like a big, bald, bespectacled leaf.

Who’s your favourite character in the show and why?

Actor 6 - he has a very unusual approach to his audition, no idea or concept of personal space and a truly awful attitude. He’s so delightfully awful! And the actor that plays him - Joe Aylward (he’s the chappie on the poster at whom I am pulling a face!) is just hilarious at it. My character is supposed to be really put off by him and just mentally ‘check out’ but I end up almost choking on my biscuits laughing!

Will we be seeing a lot more of Matthew Parker, the actor?

Who knows? I have an absolutely brilliant agent; Savages Personal Management, and they are wonderful, getting me all sorts of casting opportunities. It’s all so exciting. Although I’m mainly known in the Off West End world as a Director, I did start my theatre career as a performer (first as a dancer and then an actor) so it’s wonderful to come back to acting in my late 40s after a break pursuing directing. I only re-entered the acting profession at the end of 2019 after a 15 year break from any type of performing. And, though we were in a global pandemic, I was lucky enough to play some great roles on stage and have made my professional Shakespeare debut as well as playing a dog, a pirate, a policeman, a landlady, a one eyed sea-dog, a paperboy and a comedy vicar. It’s been quite the ride so far and I hope to stay on it for as long as I can. 

Finally, are there any off stage moments you’d like to share with us?

Backstage at the Hen & Chickens was hilarious as the show has a cast of 15 actors and backstage there is really very small. We had to take it in shifts to get changed. Luckily, we shan’t have that issue at the Brockley Jack as they have a fabulous Green Room/Rehearsal Space upstairs, above the theatre, where we can all change and also hang out in when not on stage; though that doesn’t really include me as I barely leave the stage!! Anthony loves it a little too much!

Please come see us. We promise you a good laugh and a fun night out. 

THE PLAY WITH SPEECHES by James Woolf 

Jack Studio Theatre 11 – 22 October 7.30pm

Box Office 

Directed by Katherine Reilly

Produced by Olive and Stavros

Penny and Anthony were once an item, but things went pear-shaped a year ago and they separated. Now Penny has been chosen to direct Anthony’s play and there’s a theatre full of actors waiting to audition. Tonight. As in, right now.

Penny is ill-prepared, Anthony is wounded and the actors arrive with enough emotional baggage to fill the dressing room. What could possibly go wrong?

This hilarious new comedy from Off West End award-nominated Olive & Stavros is playing at the Jack Studio for two weeks following a sell-out performance at the Hen & Chickens Theatre.