How does a YouTube video inspire a stage production about a broken world and how important is graphic design to the continuation of humanity? David Fenne tells us all about his debut play The Empire Has Fallen. Read what the debut playwright told us, then book your tickets!
Umbra Theatre’s dark comedy, which runs at the White Bear Theatre from 22 to 26 January 2019, is set in a dystopia that needs rebuilding. Fenne’s debut play takes an absurdist look at what happens after a dystopian government falls and how the world gets put back together again. In this play The Hunger Games meets The Thick of It as the young adult dystopia genre gets turned on its head.
The Empire has fallen. The Rebels have won. The evil of the Emperor is defeated … errrm now what? Interim President Grumm is trying her hardest to get things running again, but stripping out years of oppression, subjugation and toilet surveillance is easier said than done. The populace is illiterate and unmotivated, everyone useful (including the cleaners) have been executed, and they have to pay people in gift cards because the treasury is a train-wreck.
But never fear, for overeager Minister of Apologies, Barnabas Hepplestone, is around to help with the important things… like a new state colour scheme. Will the world adjust to these new-fangled concepts of Democracy and Free Will? Or will things fall apart without the boot of the Empire in the face of the masses? Has anyone actually thought this through?
In addition to writing the play, Fenne also takes the role of Barnabus, with Emily Toomey as President Grumm and Hebe Renard as Lady Arina. Elliot Burton and Lottie Davies complete the cast, playing multiple roles.
Umbra Theatre, which stages The Empire Has Fallen, was created by David Fenne in 2018 to foster new writing in London and stage darkly comic plays. The company is particularly interested in work that supports LGBT artists and places strong female characters at the forefront of its stories.
Michael Powell directs the production. The graduate of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance previously directed The Egg Rumour, which toured London and Birmingham.
The Empire Has Fallen runs at the White Bear Theatre at the same time as another dark comedy, Franz Kafka – Apparatus. Previously a hit at the Brighton Fringe, Ross Dinwiddy’s play, inspired by Kafka’s In The Penal Colony, plays earlier in the evening, with The Empire Has Fallen playing in a later slot.
Interview with David Fenne:
What inspired you to write The Empire Has Fallen?
Would you believe a YouTube video of all things? I was watching a video essay about 21st-century Dystopia when a sarcastic side comment about them never dealing what comes next set the wheels a turning. Suddenly a Minister of Apologies popped into my head, and I knew I had to write something. I have always had a comedic flair, having been an improviser with the Very Serious People, so of course it had to be a comedy, and the scenes are almost sketches in their make-up.
Why did you think it was an important story to tell?
I have always had a secret love for dystopian fiction, whether 1984, Brave New World, or The Hunger Games and the idea of rebelling or resisting against injustice and corruption is a very current mood. However, what is never talked about is the practicalities of what happens once the rebels have actually won. There have also been a series of divisive and ugly votes in modern politics, so the idea of a referendum on democracy seemed so ludicrous yet so scarily close to reality.
How will you go about creating a crumbling dystopian world above a pub in Kennington?
Boxes. Lots of Boxes. I’ve also been busy making a lot of propaganda posters for set dressing and promotional materials; because what Dystopia worth its salts DOESN’T have a good graphic design department … even if it is punishable by death.
How do you balance writing the play and performing in it?
=It’s actually a lot easier than I thought! I have never had any desire to direct, so thankfully no back-seat directing going on here. The cast are so wonderful and funny and have brought so much out of my work that I didn’t see before. Even the character I wrote for myself has grown under Michael Powell’s excellent direction into something entirely new. I am the kind of writer who takes his hands off his work once he has finished, so apart from a few tweaks and additions that we have found necessary in the translation from page to stage, my job as writer is pretty much finished.
Who are your writing inspirations?
Like many in the cast, I trained at Rose Bruford on the American Theatre Arts course, so many of my inspirations are American. I love the uncomfortable greyness in the morality of Christopher Shinn’s work and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America is still without a doubt my favourite play to this day. Closer to home, the macabre humour and episodic format of the TV show The League of Gentlemen and the surreal comedy of Spaced are big influences on The Empire Has Fallen.
Umbra Theatre has a particular interest in dark comedy – what is it about that style of play that grabs yours attention?
My sense of humour can be quite dark, so I guess I resonate with it. There’s something about tipping into the macabre that lets you be a bit more daring with your comedy, push the audience a little more, and also deal with more sensitive subject matter. Whenever politics enter any form of media there is a collective eye-roll; you are either alienating people or preaching to the choir. But by allowing them to laugh at it, and separating it from current events, people engage far more with what is being said. I think this spate of Brexit plays would be far more effective (and entertaining) if they too contained a castration live on stage in the first five minutes…
This is your first play. How excited are you to be staging it?
Very much so! Writing can be such an internal process, so finally sharing it with people is a big relief. Of course, it makes me nervous to be putting myself out into the public eye for criticism for the first time, but that’s all part of developing as a writer. I have absolute confidence in the people bringing my work to life, just as I know they have confidence in me.
How are you feeling about staging the show at the White Bear Theatre?
Michael Powell
Very excited! The White Bear is a fantastic venue with a long history of new writing and is the perfect place for our Empire to fall. The unique shape of the space presented a challenge to what is a very dynamic play: each new scene brings a new location, new characters and new energy. Thankfully we have our fantastic director, Michael Powell, on hand to find creative solutions in a way that feels slick and efficient. I love a good pub theatre in London, especially for new writing!
Why is theatre a great way of telling this story?
I bloody hate naturalism. What is the point of telling a story if it is not exciting? The theatre just has this magical quality that allows you throw all that out the window and be creative with how you tell the story; that’s the exciting part for me as a writer and an actor. I am a big fan of multi-rolling (having done it myself in In Love and Warcraft), and it just works so wonderfully as a contrivance in the theatre in a way that filmed mediums don’t often allow. That being said, if the BBC fancy commissioning a 6-part TV adaptation I am sure we will find a way to adapt it…
What can audiences expect from a trip to see The Empire Has Fallen?
They can expect, laughs, castration, boxes, more laughs, the colours red and black, strong female characters, laughs again, aggressive law enforcement, focus groups, unnecessary factions, apologising, enthusiastic reporters, and laughs … did I mention this was a comedy?
The Empire Has Fallen runs from 22 to 26 January 2019 at The White Bear Theatre, 138 Kennington Park Rd, Kennington, London SE11 4DJ with performances from Tuesday to Saturday at 8.30pm. Tickets are priced from £12 (concessions £10). CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!
