Interviews

5 minutes with: Phoebe Eclair-Powell – 'I want to be the next Jack Thorne'

We spoke to the ”Fury” playwright to talk about being a new writer, Brexit, and “second album syndrome”

Phoebe Eclair-Powell
Phoebe Eclair-Powell

I used to be part of the Young Pleasance group, which meant I got to go to the Edinburgh Festival a lot. I got to do lots of annoying musicals in people's faces on the Royal Mile. Then I did a gap year and studied for a foundation degree in Drama. It was really great, but I’m a terrible actress and like most writers I realised that I wasn't going to be an actor. When I came back from uni, where I directed a couple of plays, I was a bit down like everyone is when they finish, but I worked in a sweetshop and wrote a play in my spare time. When I got onto a writers' group at the Royal Court with it, I thought: "This is exactly what I wanted, maybe now I can do this".

I've been writing solidly for about three years now. I did a short play [Bangin' Wolves] which Theatre Renegade staged. That got the attention of Theatre503, so when I wrote Wink in 2014, they helped me develop it massively. I was quite scared after Wink – "second album syndrome". Soho Writers' Lab really gave me a chance to write my next play and not be scared – that was the point of the course. I thought: "I'll see if I can do this again or if it was a one-time only thing." And the play that came out of that is Fury.

Fury is about how "single mum" is a buzzword, a cliché, a stereotype. I wrote the show because of an exercise from a Soho Writers' Lab session. I had to write a monologue based on the saying: "Don't mug yourself". Out came this very angry young woman, Sam. At the time I lived in South Peckham in a really nice flat above a young, single mum. Me and my flatmates were in our early twenties, and I think we made her life extremely difficult. We all ended up having to move out, but I always wondered what happened to her.

Post-Brexit, the issues behind who is and isn’t being listened to and where anger is being directed feels really important. I felt rubbish after Brexit, having to be like: "I’m doing this play". But I had a really good chat with Avigail Tlalim [assistant director] who told me: "this play is about someone who everyone is angry at right now". She said it was really important we start thinking about how the government constantly makes it harder for those who are already in a difficult position.

I want to be the next Jack Thorne. He has the best job ever – writing Harry Potter on the West End, and incredible TV shows like This is England, Skins and Glue. That man can do everything. I feel like I’m a very new and emerging writer. I want to do this for the rest of my life, but I’m not sure if I’ll be allowed to.

Fury runs at the Soho Theatre from 9 to 30 July.