James Willstrop: Squash champ, actor and writer, taking Daddy, Tomorrow Will I Be A Man? to Friargate Theatre, York, and the Edinburgh Fringe
FROM squash court champion to stage leading man, James Willstrop explores what success really means and what really matters in his debut solo show based on true events.
In a preview of his Edinburgh Fringe run at The Space @ Niddry Street (Lower) from August 1, former squash world number one-turned-Harrogate writer-performer James presents Daddy, Tomorrow Will I Be A Man? at Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York, on Monday night.
In his 50-minute musical ode, he ponders what happens when a self-obsessed, international squash player – dreaming only of becoming world champion – falls for someone who desperately wants a child before her body clock expires. “Where’s the solution when two dreams collide?” he asks.
James tries to find answers in the form of his beautiful mother, Lesley, who died ten years earlier, when he was only 16, nearly 17. Through his reflections and memories of her, while this supreme athlete endures one of the most brutal training sessions he has ever done, can he find a way to discover whether dedication to his lifelong craft and drive to become world champion matters most, or whether bringing a child into the world supersedes it?
“It’s a slightly nerdy, unique slant [on the subject of ambition]: you don’t get too many sporting plays,” says James. “I wanted to look at how much it overtakes you and how healthy is your desire to get to that level? What is the cost of it and what really matters?
“It does become quite skewed, but maybe it has to because what I achieved took a lot of dedication and effort. But it’s also a story about life and parenthood and how what matters changes over time. But if we didn’t have these ambitions, whether in art or sport, we wouldn’t get anywhere, would we?”
Father and son
Since childhood, Norfolk-born James has loved to act, perform and write, alongside his 23 years as a professional squash player, and now he combines the demands of parenthood with teaching squash and playing such Pick Me Up Theatre roles on the York stage as Dr Frederick Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein, Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist and acid-tongued theatre critic Patrick Burns in Nativity! The Musical.
He has written two books, Shot And A Ghost: A Year In The Brutal World Of Professional Squash and Interviews With Inspiration: Heroes And Icons…And What Drives Them To Succeed, as well as putting pen to paper for the Yorkshire Evening Post. Now he has taken on a very different writing challenge. “Everything has to be said in 50 minutes in this show,” he says.
“Sometimes I found myself thinking, I’m writing a story for the stage for the first time, I’m not an expert playwright, am I trying to squeeze in too much about my mum and my son? Is this too much?”
Those feelings, however, had to play second fiddle to his need to express himself. “A lot of it is written through the regrets of memory as you begin to entertain being a father, thinking about what you get wrong [when growing up] and how you treated your parents. But it’s also about connection with my son Logan, Vanessa and Lesley.”
James attended a creative writing course at Leeds University just before the first Covid-19 lockdown. “They were encouraging me to keep theatricality in my writing,” he recalls. “I had Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads in my mind and I knew I didn’t want it is to be like a lecture.
“I want to ‘keep it theatrical’, so I’ve been working on how I can use movement, and it’s not a monologue as I’m trying to use other voices too.”
James Willstrop’s Doctor Frederick Frankenstein in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Young Frankenstein
He does make one comparison with squash. “On the squash court, you want to be in the centre, controlling the court, and you can do that on stage too,” says James.
A key ingredient in the show is the music: six original songs by Willstrop with arrangements by York musical director, orchestrator, composer and jazz group leader Sam Johnson, who will be playing keyboards on stage, complemented by recorded musicians.
“It’s been great to work on as James has written the words and tunes that I’ve fleshed out into fuller arrangements,” says Sam. “The thing I noticed from James’s voice notes is that they feel ‘through-sung’, as in a musical, where I’m putting form and structure to it.
“There’s still melody in the songs and they’re not forcing themselves into the story structure, so they feel natural where they are placed.”
James rejoins: “I’m just concerned to match how in good musicals songs are furthering the story, rather than just saying ‘I love you’ or expressing feelings. They must enhance the story,” he concludes.
James Willstrop in Daddy, Tomorrow Will I Be A Man?, Friargate Theatre, York, July 28, 7.30pm. Box office: ridinglights.org. Edinburgh Fringe, Venue 9, The Space@Niddry Street (Lower), August 1 to 9, 7.25pm; August 11 to 16, 5.25pm; August 18 to 23, 7.25pm. Box office: 0131 2260000 or edfringe.com. Age guidance: 12 plus.
The poster for James Willstrop’s Edinburgh Fringe-bound solo show, Daddy, Tomorrow Will I Be A Man?, previewing at Friargate Theatre, York, tomorrow
James Willstrop: the squash facts
ONE of only 23 world number one players in the history of men’s squash; one of England’s best ever players, gaining 80 caps. Won three world team championship titles for England. Became official world number one in January of 2012, a position held for 11 out of 12 months. British National Champion four times; Commonwealth Gold Medallist in 2018 and 2022.