Chequered Flags to Chequered Futures. Mark Wheeller

that point on everything moved unbelievably fast. I remember arriving home and transcribing the tapes well before any agreements had been finalised. Arrangements were made for the visit with four members of my Oasis Youth Theatre (performing a hastily rehearsed Chicken! as a partner play) securing an invitation too! What an opportunity! When I first told the Principal (at Oasis) and the young people in the cast, I don’t think any of them believed it would happen. Their parents didn’t either!

      I completed an interview with Graham (the other passenger in the car) who I had made no effort to contact up until this point. I also interviewed Bryoni (who was in my Year 10 Drama Class), Chris and Lucy’s daughter.

      Around this time, verbatim theatre was gaining a credibility I never felt it had previously. I felt (perhaps wrongly) that it was regarded as second class. This genre wasn’t viewed as “proper theatre” and so, I couldn’t be considered a “proper writer” until I had created a successful naturalistic play… hence my determination to write one. Suddenly, I was being regarded as one of the elder statesmen of this “newly accepted’ form. This was all magnificent for my confidence in writing this play, which uses the original words and virtually nothing “invented”.

      A few months later, I sent the first draft to VSA. They didn’t ask for any changes. Everyone was delighted with the result. The title was developed through a Facebook thread in which all sorts of titles were suggested and discussed.

      Chequered Flags to Chequered Futures was born.

      The premiere was planned for October 2014. I was not involved in the development of the VSA performance, but had a strong impression that I had handed my play to a very confident drama department and put my trust in their professionalism. When we arrived in Hong Kong they were at dress rehearsal stage. Chris (who, with his family, was invited too) recalls watching that rehearsal:

      When the time came to finally watch it being rehearsed and then performed in Hong Kong I was very nervous, and in fact when I saw it I was an emotional wreck!

      I was sat next to Chris who was sobbing towards the end… and this was only the dress rehearsal! I remember putting my arm around him and he said:

       It’s all good. If I’m crying… it means it’s good!

      His presence lifted the performance of the cast beyond anything their teachers had expected.

      The performances were incredibly powerful. A cast, all of whom had English as a second or third language, were speaking these colloquial words with obvious understanding and moving the audience to tears. It will live in my memory forever. Chris and his family participated in a Q&A, all of which is captured on film and that added such an invaluable dimension to this unique production.

      Watching the play, there were only two minor amendments I chose to make. On occasions, I have to do so much re-writing but this seemed to have been “right” from the outset.

      Although a commission, it was still a labour of love. It is one of only two plays where I knew the subject before I started the research, the other being Sweet FA/No Place for a Girl.

      It also benefitted substantially from my developed understanding of structure which arrived in my head care of a John Burgess playwrighting course at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton. He also delivered some classes on verbatim, which was the beginning of my accepting it as “officially sanctioned”!

      The newfound confidence I have in the verbatim form shines through in this play. I had the confidence to use Jane’s powerful monologues, as in her original interviews with me, without trying to break the speeches down into shorter lines spoken by different characters, which I may well have done previously to make it more like a play.

      In the Hong Kong performance, we (in the audience) were able to prepare ourselves mentally, as Jane approached centre stage, for what we, (the audience) knew would be another harrowing account. It offered an effective change of pace to the lively ensemble approach that typified the way I dramatised Chris’s story. (In the VSA production the ensemble were also used behind Jane to offer visual images to great effect.)

      Now the play is published and will, we hope, develop a life of its own. I can’t wait to see how it is used and whether, as I predict, it will eventually replace Too Much Punch for Judy as the favoured Mark Wheeller Road play featuring an avoidable RTA. I hope it will.

      The thought of other schools performing our story is a bit surreal but I hope that a lesson can be learnt from the whole experience.

      Mark Wheeller (with Chris Gilfoy)

Afterword 2020

      I have been fortunate enough to witness two productions of CFTCF since its publication. Both were stunning.

      The first was presented by professional director, Tim Ford, with a group from his Youth Theatre at the Hexagon Theatre in Reading. Tim had presented a number of my plays and so was a bit of an expert.

      He brought a big difference to the production as he had a much more detailed setting rather than the black box space used at VSA. I remember walking into the studio theatre and being greeted by a cast dressed predominantly in overalls as would be seen on a race track or mechanics. If that wasn’t enough to throw us into the theme of the play he had a variety of car parts hanging from the rig and discarded tyres adorning the stage area. The performance, which was seen by Shelley and Jane (for the first time) was as stunning as I remember it in Hong Kong. Sadly it received no coverage, so it remains in my memory and those few others who saw it…

      The second production was by The Samuel Ward School (now Academy) in Haverhill. It was outstanding. Like Tim, Matt Russell is an expert on directing my plays as he does one of mine every a year! I filmed some moments of their dress rehearsal and often feature them on my Wheellerplays Facebook and Twitter pages. The opening to their production was one of the most dynamic openings I’ve seen for any play… and I’m embarrassed to say that they ignored the opening I had in the original Zinc text, and developed one they thought should be there in a proper Wheellerplay about a successful banger racer. You can now see my version of theirs, adapted in this version of the script. Thanks, Matt for the idea! I am also delighted that Matt has agreed to write about his approach to this play as a director. (See the next page.)

      Of all the plays I have written this one has most frustrated me. It has become a perpetual and needlessly well kept secret. I hope the opportunity arising from Salamander Street publishing it, along with my better known scripts, will bring it into a focus that will encourage people to explore it more fully.

      Mark Wheeller

From Page to Stage with Matt Russell

      I first met Mark back in 2014 for our production of Too Much Punch for Judy. We have been lucky enough to produce a Mark Wheeller play every year since and continue to do so without fail. His texts are a perfect guide to developing the skills of drama teachers all over the country, who are at different stages in their career and are passionate about developing their creative skills as directors. Mark’s texts are predominantly written in a verbatim style which gives the cast and the director a point of focus. The themes that surround these true stories are the nucleus, however the way in which drama ‘teacher/directors’ can stage them is down to interpretation and is an outstanding way to push creative decisions to new and exciting ends.

      CFTCF is a perfect example. This production is heavily reliant on some lengthy and beautiful monologues. Although this could potentially make rehearsals tougher for a larger cast, you will soon realise that the chorus can offer vital stage presence in regards to tableaux, symbolic movement and choral speaking. Personally, I found rehearsals, at times, very intense. The actors, even though they were thoroughly enjoying the process, appeared deeply moved by the story and were inspired by the creative opportunities each scene offered. However, this directly leads onto a hugely relevant point, which are the sorts of things a young cast could be thinking about when exploring such a text. You can always step back as a young actor and look at large professional sets, lighting rigs, sound design etc, marvel at the complexity of them