Tim Firth: Book writer and lyricist for Calendar Girls The Musical
TIM Firth has returned to the Stephen Joseph Theatre, where he first cut his playwriting teeth under Alan Ayckbourn’s artistic directorship.
He is opening the Scarborough theatre’s summer season in tandem with composer and friend-since-Frodsham- schooldays Gary Barlow in a ground-breaking revival of their 2015 musical, Calendar Girls The Musical (first called The Girls in its Leeds Grand Theatre premiere).
For the first time, under SJT artistic director Paul Robinson’s directorial hand, the show is being staged in the round and as an actor-musician production.
In a joint statement, Firth and Barlow enthused: “As writers, one of the most exciting things that can happen is when someone comes up with a totally new way of staging something you’ve created.
“When Paul described his vision for a new production of Calendar Girls The Musical, it was instantly clear he was talking about something we’d never seen before, never imagined and to be honest never thought possible.”
Explaining the rationale behind this co-production with Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake, the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich and the Octagon Theatre Bolton, Robinson said: “Our new in-the-round staging brings the audience into the heart of the Rylstone Women’s Institute, making this true story of friendship and determination feel more personal and immediate.
“This intimate production will create a unique, shared experience, reminiscent of gathering around a community hall or a close friend’s living room, allowing for a deeper connection to the characters and creating a collective, communal atmosphere that fully immerses everyone in the moving story of these ‘ordinary women’ doing something quite extraordinary.”
Quick refresher course: this show is the one about a group of Yorkshire women, from the Rylstone Women’s Institute, who create a nude calendar to raise money for charity after the death of a husband to a blood cancer.
News spreads fast in their community and none of them expects the emotional and personal repercussions, but gradually the making of the calendar brings each woman unexpectedly into bloom.
Recalling the roots of writing play, film and musical versions of Calendar Girls and now bringing the musical to the SJT, Tim says: “Scarborough I always feel to be my home as a writer. Not only was it the first place to give me a main stage but the plays of Alan Ayckbourn embody so much of what I love about theatre.
Sarah Groarke, left, Karen Holmes and Angela Caesar in a scene from the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s actor-musician production of Calendar Girls The Musical. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
“It was en route to a meeting with him about a new play that I called into a Wharfedale fete and bought a calendar from a WI stall. Now years later, it seems wonderfully fitting to be starting a production of a musical about that story at the Stephen Joseph Theatre.”
Paul Robinson first put the question to Firth two years ago: “Do you think this is possible: doing Calendar Girls in a theatre of this size and design? Up till then, I’d only seen professional productions in bigger venues, and yet the sheer number of amateur productions made me think we could do it in smaller theatres,” says Tim.
“I wanted this show and these songs to be robust enough to stand up to any setting, whether on a small stage with a piano, in a church hall or a theatre – but in the modern world, it’s become difficult to mount a musical on your own, so we needed three other theatre to align with the SJT to do this new production.”
Analysing the popularity of Calendar Girls, Tim says. “It’s a ‘group comedy’, and what people seem to respond to right from the start is the bonding of these women, the unity and the camaraderie, and there’s warmth in the comedy.
“We’re tribal and Calendar Girls is a tribal piece of theatre. It’s a poke in the belly of society that makes people rally round. What makes Calendar Girls work and the whole endeavour work in reality was that it was more about friendship than it was ever about nudity.
“What makes the photo-shoot work in Calendar Girls is what the other ‘girls’ are doing around the ‘girl’ being photographed to make the picture happen because the nudity is like a fan dance.”
For the SJT production, two factors came into play: how many of the cast would be playing instruments on stage at any one time in a scene and how could the teenage children’s roles be re-introduced (after being jettisoned for a touring version). “It was a shame to have lost them as they’re like a palate cleanser and a real change in tone,” says Tim, delighted by their return.
“The rest of it, I have done absolutely nothing with, because I grew up writing for this theatre, and I know that you don’t write for the Round; you let the Round tell the story. I know you can do anything in that set-up, and it’s up to the director and the designer to make it work in the Round, where it’s like a circus.
“That’s why everyone is excited by it as it brings a proximity, immediacy and vibrancy to the story. It’s also why all my plays are prop heavy rather than scenery heavy, as you can’t have any scenery more than two feet high, so it’s all about the floor and putting people together to work on that stage.
“Sometimes, the more ‘production’ you give a musical, the more you move away from its heart. You can do it just with a basket full of props.”
Calendar Girls The Musical runs at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until July 25. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.