The Stage

Drew Ackroyd

Published Friday 21 April 2006 at 10:55

Drew Ackroyd has accomplished a great deal since he graduated from a three-year theatre directing course five years ago.

His most recent triumph is Mass Appeal, which has just opened at the Finborough.

“I like the space, I’ve done several plays here. Mass Appeal is from the eighties, about Catholicism and personal relationships - I’ve anglicised it. Bill C Jones, the writer, is coming to see it. I’m petrified.”

“One Finborough production toured very successfully - it’s by Sonja Linen and is called I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda. It was well received and it came at the tenth anniversary of genocide. Others were International Stud and Natural Inclinations.”

“I worked on Larry Kramer’s best known play The Normal Heart and I’ve edited the French edition. This sequel, The Destiny of Me, is about himself, as I think his plays tend to be. He’s just written a book of 30,000 words and he is amazing, having battled AIDS for 13 years.”

Huis Clos at the King’s Head was a real challenge. “Jean Paul Sartre is either loved or hated, yet I felt this play in a new translation well worth doing.”

“Ciboulette at the San Francisco Opera Studio was a departure for me. Opera obviously, very intriguing. I’d come from Barber of Seville with the European Chamber Opera. It was an experiment for the Studio and the idea was to involve unusual talents - street kids from a poor area of SF. They were asked to do their own version of Carmen so we got some surprises. It was utterly fascinating.”

Ackroyd describes the directors’ training at Rose Bruford as: “A bit of a mix to start with, they had just inaugurated the directing course. At the end I graduated and felt launched. I was only 20 but I fibbed originally and said I was 17 when I started. They found out but it didn’t matter, fortunately.”

To raise income, Drew coaches at Camden College. He’s also a part-time script editor for BBC Radio Four, “which I’ve done for some time as I work occasionally for the BBC. Every script gets a guaranteed reading. It’s a fascinating task. You must feel there’s a treasure in the trash. I believe in taking time, reading with anticipation, always being hopeful”.

Next? “Well it’s a new play I am very keen on called Killing Mother by Jurgen Wolff. We are preparing it for readings now. There’s also Buicks by Julian Shepherd which I loved. All these plays to consider and raising of money too.”

“If I get a chance I go up to the end of the world - Nidderdale in Yorkshire where I was born.”