Writer, actor and producer Josie White joins us on Close-Up Culture to talk about her play, Rotten.
This dark comedy-thriller takes spying on your neighbours to a whole new, frightening, and disturbing level! As the plot develops and the characters find themselves truly barrelling down the path of no return, the classic traits of a Folie à deux (French for “folly of two”) emerge but amplify into a Folie à plusieurs (French for Madness of many).
Hi Josie, lovely to be speaking with you! You are set to be touring your debut play Rotten, starting in Leicestershire. How are you feeling?
Great to be speaking to you too! We’ve just opened ROTTEN at Curve Theatre in Leicester after two weeks of rehearsals. We did two shows there and I’m thrilled to say that they both sold out! It’s been a brilliant experience! I’ve learnt so much from Rikki Beadle-Blair (our Director) and Rob Ward (our co-producer) who have both opened loads of shows in the past, so it’s been a really enlightening experience. The cast have been excellent also and have shown great enthusiasm for the show and their characters. The work doesn’t stop by any means here though. We have the rest of the tour to focus on and we’re committed to making it a success and a positive experience for all involved.
We also had the performances of our Curve Rapid Response Writers scheme on Saturday afternoon. This is a paid opportunity we developed with Rikki as part of the projects outreach scheme. 6 writers in total, three at Curve and 3 at Derby Theatre have been given the opportunity to write short response pieces to ROTTEN and be mentored by Rikki, myself, and Rob. Rikki will then rehearse the scripts with professional actors for a day, resulting in a showcase performance. The showcase at Curve went really well and we’ve been blown away by the level of talent these writers have! Our showcase of our next three rapid response writers will be at Derby Theatre on 6th April and is a free event and welcome to all.
The most cliché of questions; what inspired you to write Rotten?
As a young actor trying to fulfil my dreams, make ends meet in London and have some sort of a social life, I became conscious of the huge gap between ‘the haves’ and ‘the have nots’. Sitting on the small balcony of my council flat that sat directly opposite a multi-million-pound block of apartments, I began to wonder what the lives of the people living in them must be like, and how easy it would be to become obsessed with who they are and what they have. ROTTEN came out of these observations and I feel holds a mirror up to society, challenging the make up of it, by displaying characters that are frustrated and beaten down by their position in the world and desperate to change their circumstances. Saoirse, Coco, Sonia, and Ross continually challenge their own morals and principles in ROTTEN, making shocking and at times disturbing decisions in their pursuit of wealth, but is this surprising when in today’s society what used to be classed as luxuries now seem like necessities? And thanks in part to social media and reality TV, young people can easily find themselves in a vicious cycle, where they never feel like they have enough.
What would you describe your writing process like?
I’ve been extremely privileged to have a Rikki mentor me through this project and it was actually working as an actor on his masterpiece ‘GUTTED’ that inspired me to give writing a shot in the first place. I found GUTTED so unapologetically hard-hitting, poignant, and thrilling, that it made me excited about new writing and untold stories. During the first lockdown, I told Rikki about my idea for ROTTEN and he began mentoring me. I started with mapping out the play in as much detail as I could, scene by scene, moment by moment and then started writing. I would send scenes to Rikki, he would give me notes, I would make edits and it kind of progressed from there. When I had completed the first draft, Rikki encouraged me to get a group of actor friends together via zoom to read it. This was the most helpful exercise to me as I was immediately able to hear where I needed to make changes. The script also changed a lot during our R&D of the show, the actors were super forthcoming with suggestions, and I was able to add some great moments to the script. Ultimately , I feel that the writing process never really ends on a script, I was making changes till the day before the show opened at Curve, there are always things you can improve on or refine in a project, I think that’s the beauty of it.
You mention this play is tapping into the new ‘dark comedy’ genre emerging from media such as Killing Eve, and elements of Agatha Christie. Would you ever consider writing for Television/Film or a novel?
I definitely feel that there is a new genre emerging: Dark-Comedy- Thriller, that started in TV but is moving over to theatre. ROTTEN, is my take on this genre. It comes out of my love for classic thriller but also my fascination with Antihero’s— Characters that don’t typically do the “right thing”, but you still find yourself drawn to them and wanting them to succeed because they are multi-layered, entertaining, and witty.
I’d love to get into writing for TV and Film and was just saying the other day how I’d jump at the opportunity to sit in on a writers room and learn all about that process. Also audience feedback from ROTTEN has been that it would make a great TV show or film, which is definitely an avenue I’d like to explore further!
Additionally, what drew you to this genre?
Hitchcock and Agatha Christie have always been huge influences on my work. As a kid I was privileged enough to go and see Christie’s work on the stage and be shown Hitchcock’s old black and white films, which for sure gave me nightmares but I loved the experiences just the same. Although extremely different writers, both in style and mediums, Christie, and Hitchcock both incapsulate to me the great tropes of classic thriller, with interesting characters, strong plots, and lots of twists and turns. Now TV shows like: Killing Eve and the works of Mike Flanagan are gripping people and becoming very successful, I’m keen to bring that cross genre style of work to theatre, as I feel it is really sparking the interest of young people today.
What was it like to work with Rikki Beadle-Blair?
Rikki’s style of working in the rehearsal room is really successful and brings out the best in actors. By going through the script moment by moment with them and asking questions, he really get them to understand their characters and why they make certain choices. As a writer this technique is useful too, as I get the opportunity to look at the script objectively and make changes. As I’ve said before, there would be no ROTTEN without Rikki, his passion for this project is inspiring.
If you could collaborate with any playwright, alive or dead, who would you choose and why?
This may be cliché, but I am a huge fan of Shakespeare! I love performing his work as an actor and exploring his text. He makes an actors job quite easy as he basically tells you through punctuation and pentameter how he wants it performed. I also like the way his audiences would shout out how they felt about the show during performances. These days we’re kind of expected to keep quiet during plays but I like it when I hear audiences reactions to my work.
What can people expect from Rotten?
Audiences should expect to be entertained, shocked, and taken on a roller-coaster filled with hilarious and scary twists and turns. Betrayal, double-crossings, romance, and explosive action keep on coming. You’ll think you’ve worked it out and then the play will pivot in ways you won’t expect.
And, what do you hope they will take away from the performance?
I really hope audiences walk away with a reignited love for thriller as well as feeling that they’ve had a good laugh and been entertained!
Finally, where can people catch the show?
Derby Theatre – 6th April
Norwich Theatre Royal – 20th April
Stephen Joseph Studio, Scarborough – 23rd April
Harrogate Theatre – 9th May
Dukes Lancaster – 15th & 16th May
Nottingham Playhouse – May 23rd
We’re also hoping to tour again in Autumn 2024, so keep a look out for more show announcements soon!
And is there anywhere people can follow you and your work?
I usually use Twitter (now X) to post stuff about my work— @Josiemwhite
I also post interesting opportunities for people in the theatre world too!
