20 Questions With…Zinnie Harris

First big break

It’s more like lots of small breaks. I suppose the first was when the Traverse Theatre commissioned me to write my first full-length play.

Favourite actor
That’s sort of difficult because I can admire people – such as Judi Dench or Simon Russell Beale – for their performances but I haven’t actually worked with that many actors. You find that people can be so different in the rehearsal room. An actor’s attitude to new writing is very important to me. As a writer, I like actors who really want to be precise about the text, who want to understand the mechanics and structure of it.

Favourite playwright

Edward Bond, whose plays I’ve directed before. He exercises such economy, nothing is ever spare.

What play would you most like to have written?

Saved by Edward Bond, I find that one very stunning. I teach a lot of playwriting too and, in terms of showing new writers about plotting, Arthur Miller‘s The Crucible is second to none.

What’s the best thing currently on stage?

I went to see Sarah Kane’s Blasted at the Royal Court recently and was absolutely bowled over by it. In fact, it was difficult to assess the production properly because the writing was so powerful; I almost couldn’t remember the acting.

What advice would you give the government to secure the future of British theatre?
There seem to be playwriting schemes around for absolute beginners, but there’s a big difference between starting out and making a career in the theatre. Writers making the transition to a concrete career need to be supported. But so much of theatre is quick success and money-orientated rather than being about overall development. The National Theatre Studio is very good about that. They’re interested in you for the next ten years not just your next production.

If you could swap places with one person (living or dead), who would it be?
Gregor Mendel. He was the 19th-century Austrian monk who, when growing peas, discovered the basis of modern genetics. I have this image of him being on the verge of a massive scientific discovery but having no idea about the significance. Though I don’t know if I’d like to live as a monk.

Favourite book
Child in Time by Ian McEwan

Favourite holiday destination
Italy or the south of France. My husband and I like those cycling holidays where they take your bag for you.

What made you want to write for the stage as opposed to writing films, television or novels?
It was theatre that turned me onto writing rather than the other way around. I trained as a director and never really intended to be a writer. But it was out of my passion for theatre that my passion for writing developed. I’m just starting to think about writing for TV now.

What impact has becoming an RSC writer in residence had on your work and productivity?

At the RSC, there was a large ensemble on hand the whole time. If I wanted to try out a scene, I could grab some actors, workshop it and get feedback immediately. That has been very helpful. Writer in residence schemes also give you a small amount of money which, when just starting out, is vital.

I think it’s important to belong to a theatre and write for particular spaces. As a writer, you can become very isolated. I like to have a place to go and bounce ideas off people. It’s also nice to be around the building and feel you know it, to be able to look at the stage and think about what happens there.

Why do you think Further than the Furthest Thing has been so successful?

It’s difficult to pinpoint. At the Edinburgh festival, I was quite surprised at the interest we had from all over the world. It seems to speak to something international; I’m not sure why. The cast has been fantastic, too.

How did you feel having your second play mounted at the National Theatre?

I was absolutely over the moon. The news came the same week as the news about becoming writer in residence at the RSC. It made me think possibly there was a career out there to be had. I don’t dwell too much on past success, though. There’s always that terror that the next play will be crap.

What’s your favourite line from Further than the Furthest Thing?
Even if our church hasn’t got a roof just at the minute, when you is singing the way we is singing on the island, who is needing a roof?

How have your personal and family experiences influenced your writing?
Inevitably when starting out, you use things that are quite biographically close to you. With every step, you take a step more into fiction. It’s a progression.

What can you tell us about your next play?
There are two. Nightingale and Chase is a co-commission between the Royal Court and Clean Break, an organisation helping women offenders and ex-offenders. For three months, I spent one day a week teaching creative writing in prison. The play draws on my experiences with the women there but is about what happens immediately after they’re released. It’s opening in the autumn at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs.

The one for the RSC, titled The Old Lie Still, is still being written. It’s about a community coming out of civil war. It will be staged at The Other Place in Stratford.

– Zinnie Harris was speaking to Terri Paddock

Further than the Furthest Thing opens at the Tricycle Theatre on 24 May and continues to 23 June 2000 (previews from 22 May).