From struggling with anxiety to the influence of Pinter, Osborne and Mamet, and following the success of Sunrise for the Blind, actor and playwright Lee Lomas tells us everything about Killing Nana. Discover more in his interview, then book your tickets!
Lomas’ latest production, staged by 1956 Entertainment and running at the Hen & Chickens Theatre from 9 to 13 April, promises to be a cynical comedy-drama exploring the effect anxiety can have on the brain, and how that twists what is real and what is not.
Stephen is in his late twenties, he spends the majority of his time in his dressing gown, staring at the television and drinking copious amounts of tea. Keeping him company, or suitably irritated, are Kimmy and Anne, girlfriend and Nana’s carer. The trio’s lack of love is made up for by a need for unarticulated, dark sexual desire and a lust for control over one another. Driven by social anxiety, sexual confusion and dysfunctional relationships, three people dream of murdering Nana.
Lee Lomas in Oliver Twist
Playwright Lee Lomas also acts, and boasts credits including Coronation Street, Shameless, The A Word, Casualty and Happy Valley. He recently played Father Marcus in long-running C4 drama Hollyoaks. Lomas will also star as Stephen in Killing Nana. He previously starred in productions including Sunrise for the Blind, Oliver Twist and Port.
Killing Nana runs as part of a spring season at The Hen & Chickens Theatre that also includes The Haunting of 47, Theatre Festival Pending and The Colourful Greens. It’s also one of a number of plays bringing working- and benefits-class stories to the stage this spring, including Starved, by Lomas’ Sunrise for the Blind co-star Michael Black (Bread and Roses Theatre) and the double-bill of Killymuck and Box Clever at Bunker Theatre.
Lee Lomas interview
What inspired you to write Killing Nana?
Stephen Mangan, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor and Toby Jones in The Birthday Party (Photo: Johan Persson)
I got this idea of a young man at home, frustrated by his situation and his lack of achievements, angry at the world and everybody in it, loathing himself and taking his hate out on the world from his living room. Also, two of my favourite plays are Look Back in Anger by John Osborne and The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter, they’re both about disturbed young men so perhaps on a subconscious level I was inspired by that too.
Why were you drawn to ideas about anxiety?
I suffered badly with anxiety for a couple of years in my early 20s and I’ve got people close to me who have had similar experiences. It’s crippling and often not spoken about, especially amongst young men. I think people who have never suffered with it have no real idea what it is. It isn’t just being “a bit stressed”, when it’s at its worst it’s a complete detachment from reality, a loss of rational thought – you’re in a constant state of fear and it’s awful. I wanted to attempt to translate that onto stage and hopefully we’ll get somewhere close to depicting it in a way that isn’t too drab and miserable.
The piece also delves into the need to control other people? Why did you want to take it in that direction?
Anxiety puts you in a constant state of fear and a lot of fear comes from insecurity or past events, which leads to obsessive compulsive disorders and a need to control things, like food, routine, cleaning and relationships. I thought it would be interesting for the narrative if there is a sense of the characters trying to control one another in an intense environment.
Your previous play Sunrise for the Blind ran at the Tristan Bates Theatre in February. This sounds like a very different piece. Will fans notice similarities?
It is a very different piece on the surface, for sure, but I think there are definitely some similarities. The writing style is similar, snappy and cutting, whilst tackling bleak topics with comedy. There’s also the same sense of hopelessness.The main character is trapped with seemingly no way out and there is also plenty of social commentary. Stephen is a victim of our current societal crisis – he’s out of work, has a lack of direction and opportunity, and no plausible way to support himself, he can’t afford to buy a house so is still stuck at home with his Nana. These are all themes that are prevalent in Sunrise for the Blind.
Sunrise for the Blind
I love Sunrise for the Blind and I have huge plans for that play, but it’s also really important for me to keep creating and challenging myself as an artist. I have enough material and inspiration to write something similar to Sunrise again, but that feels like a comfortable thing to do. My favourite writer, David Mamet, says, “Learn to deal with uncertainty and get comfortable being uncomfortable.” I think it’s really necessary for growth, not just as an artist but as a person as well.
How are you feeling about staging Killing Nana at the Hen & Chickens Theatre?
It’s an intense space, you can barely see the front row of the audience when you’re stood on stage and even without any audience in there it feels oppressive. I love that and the space as a whole is wonderful. The feeling we’re trying to create with Killing Nana will be helped massively by the venue, so I’m looking forward to getting in there. The pub’s lovely as well, which is never a bad thing for a northerner.
What can audiences expect from the a trip to see Killing Nana?
A dark, bleak, but quite often humorous depiction of the fragility of the human mind.
