Tweeds: Exclusive Interview with Writer and Co-Director Tabs Nixon

Minotaur Theatre Company Presents TWEEDS: a new and ambitious story about a clique of elite students. TWEEDS can be described as a dark comedy-drama about a new boy joining the clay pigeon shooting society. On their first trip, the new boy accidentally shoots and kills the leader, only to discover at the next meeting that she is perfectly fine, perhaps a little bit off-

“It’s comedy in some bits, it’s dark, it’s just weird, a whole mix of that in about fifty minutes.” Tabs Nixon says, describing her new show. The first-time writer and director was inspired to write the production after going to a club night; “It’s funny, I got the inspiration after going to a club night in the LCR, and I was in the smoking area and I saw some people were wearing Tweed jackets. It stands out from the rest of the neon outfits, and I wondered, what if they’re a group of friends who just wear tweed. I just thought of writing it and then I saw the slot for the Edinburgh Fringe.”

For those not familiar with the Edinburgh Fringe, a fringe is a collection of plays and performance that are produced by small theatre companies and/or individuals. There are many fringe festivals across the UK, Bedford Fringe and Camden Fringe are two that come to mind, but the Edinburgh Fringe is different. Different because it is one of the largest fringe festivals in the world. This year, over four thousand performances of dance, theatre and music are currently being performed throughout the month of August. When referring to the Fringe, Tabs stated “I was talking about this the other day, I thought I haven’t (gone up to the Edinburgh fringe) but apparently I did but I was about three so obviously I don’t remember it. Everyone that I talk to that’s been before always says that “you’ll love it” because it’s just theatre everywhere. I’m just excited because it feels like I’m going on holiday with a bunch of really nice people and we get to put on a play.”

Speaking more on her experience writing and directing a show for the first time; “It’s been a really interesting process, especially since I wrote it, when I was writing it, I had an idea of what it looks like, and then you actually have to put it out there and it’s a lot harder trying to tell people how you see it than just seeing it in your head. But, it’s been really helpful because I have Bron (Bronwyn Sadler) and Edie (Havas) co-directing with me. With all of us collaborating together, we manage just enough to make it all work.” Intrigued by what Tabs was telling me, I was able to ask her some questions,

To write and direct your own play, there must be a bit of bias or perfectionism on your part. Does having Bronwyn as a second voice help you not to become overly attached about your work?

“Yeah, because I have Edie and Bron, both like directors themselves, and it’s really useful especially because when you write something, it’s very easy to have a pinpoint vision. It’s useful to have people who can be like “I appreciate you have this vision but here’s the more realistic version of that vision.” In Tweeds, there’s this whole kind of bloody death scene and obviously I knew we wouldn’t be able to have it with gallons of blood on the stage, but it has really helped having Edie and Brom to work it out. We went through so many ideas of having someone being a bit offstage or we do it with visual effects. Having people to discuss it with, we found the best possible way of doing it, I think.”

Onto the show itself, would you be able to describe the characters, and out of them, who would be your favourite character in the play?

“I love them all in their own separate ways and how each person has developed their characters, but I think my favourite has to be Babette. She’s the kind of main character, she’s a compulsive liar, basically, if she can lie about something, she will. I wrote her with a lot of questions that I didn’t have answered and it’s been really interesting seeing Katie (Trollope) playing her and delve into that section of her. I also have a soft spot for August, who’s Gracie’s (Grace Bartle) character, because I think she’s really sweet.”

With some of the marketing that Minotaur Theatre Company has put out, it seems to be a production set in the past; the black and white film noir pictures of the cast and crew, alongside music from the 1960s, I just wondered if the play is a period piece about that time period or a reconstruction/ reinterpretation of the sixties or if the play intertextualities the attitudes and culture of the sixties?

“In the script, it’s set in 2018/2019 but I personally enjoy writing where the time period doesn’t matter, so I don’t like including technology that particularly dates it to anywhere, unless it’s vital to the plot, so I like having it be able to float around. One of the characters, her whole thing is that she’s trying to seem really eighties because her dad was famous in the eighties and she’s trying to cling onto that, so yeah, I like it floating around in different time periods.”

You have performed this production before, for a couple of nights back at the end of June, did you get any feedback on the script? I know with another UEA production Disco Dick (written and directed by Charlotte D’Angelo), I believe they had a few rewrites before taking it up to the Edinburgh Fringe

“Yes I saw both versions.”

Has that appealed to you, do you think the script can be tweaked upon or is it the final script?

“With Disco Dick, it was such a big thing because the play before was like an hour and a half and they had to trim it down to fifty minutes. I’m pretty happy with the script and I think the cast are too. I do enjoy spontaneity in dialogue so if someone wants something to throw that they think will go down well with the audience, then I think that’s great.”

I’ve heard stories of how expensive Edinburgh is, the shock and horror of it all. How has fundraising for Tweeds been?

“We’ve been very, very lucky, we had a Gofundme which went very well because people are so nice”.

As the hours went on by, with question after question asked by me (poor Tabs!), I asked the final question. Why should people go up and watch Tweeds?

“If you want to go and see it, there’s a bit of a mystery in the play that is left up to the audience. I’ve had quite a lot of people come up to me to try and get an answer out of me and it’s an answer I would not give. I want to hear as many theories as I can, I heard many theories, some of which I’ve thought of, others I would never have thought of. It raises interesting questions, we have a brillant cast, they’re all amazing and if it’s your kind of humour, then hopefully you’ll have a bit of a laugh seeing it.”