​AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN RETALLACK

​JOHN RETALLACK – Writer & Director John Retallack is the author of twelve plays for young people and has adapted numerous texts for the stage and radio.

He was the founding director of ATC Theatre, director of Oldham Coliseum, director of Oxford Stage Company, and the founding director of Company of Angels.

From 2010 - 2013, he was Associate Director at Bristol Old Vic where he directed Owen Sheers’ play Pink Mist.

​Prior to setting up the Oxford Playwriting Course, he was Tutor in Writing for Performance at Ruskin College in Oxford. 

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 What compelled you to write both the original Hannah and Hanna, and its follow up Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland?

Before writing the original play of Hannah and Hanna, I had worked on a play about refugees in Holland. When I came back to London, I wanted to write something about the hosts, since at that time, I didn’t think there was anything around where we saw how much animosity existed between long term residents and newcomers from outside the UK. I decided to test this out in Margate and we did a workshop in a school in Ramsgate. I set up an improvisation where the students were talking to refugees in Kosovo. Their attitudes were astonishing – presumably influenced by the views of their parents. In the eyes of these young people, all asylum seekers had babies, were thieves and had Rolex watches! They were happy to unite around a common enemy. My daughter’s name is Hanna and at the time, her best friend was called Hannah, so this gave me the title of the play, in which I wanted to explore how two young women from very different backgrounds could become friends and what their story might be. Then in the summer of 2015, I began writing a play for the Unicorn about the Calais Jungle. It wasn’t produced but it led to me revisiting the story of Hannah and Hanna and to find out what happened to the Hanna(h)s 15 years on.

​How has the political, social and cultural climate changed in the years between the two plays? 

The two sections of the play are set sixteen years apart. Ironically, in 2015, Kosovo Hanna states that Margate isn’t as welcoming as it was in 1999 / 2000 and in many ways she is right, since Tony Blair’s support for Kosovo at the time, led to the British Government going some way towards welcoming Kosovan refugees to the UK – and although it was never enough, the government was much more welcoming then than it is now. Margate Hannah’s views represent those of the vast majority of people today – and it is these views that get politicians elected as opinion moves to the right. Very few people actually want to open their door to refugees. The world can’t cope with these issues – a sign of individual thoughtlessness….. Migration has now become the biggest issue that we face today, and while the two characters are individuals, they are also archetypes – we like Margate Hannah, despite her faults but she doesn’t want to give up her comfortable way of life….although at the end of the play she does make a single and uncharacteristic gesture of generosity.

The play is set in Margate, but do you think it could be anywhere?

It is important that Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland is located in a coastal town – since the coast is traditionally where people arrive to and where they depart from. Margate is a uniquely good place to set the play. Not only is it close to Dover and Folkestone – and therefore to continental Europe, but it has also changed hugely between 2000 and today. Margate in 2000 was dilapidated and scary. Today, there is a more balanced political discourse and there are signs of lasting transformation.

Why is theatre a good way to explore some of the issues that Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland addresses, such as relationships, migration, racism, gentrification, the impact of incomers etc? 

Theatre is an important medium to explore and debate these issues. At a time where there is no longer a proper political discourse in this country, it is up to artists to provide opportunities for people to talk about the things that should matter to us. Theatre punches well above its weight. It is my medium, the genre I know best, and I hope that Hannah and Hanna in Dreamland will enable audiences to look again at these important topics.

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Hannah And Hanna In Dreamland is a co-production between UK Arts International, the Marlowe, Canterbury and the Lighthouse, Poole and supported by Quarterhouse Folkestone, Theatre Royal Margate and Looping the Loop. Its development has been funded by Arts Council England, House and Thanet District Council. The 2018 production is supported by Arts Council England and Kent County Council.

DATES:Saturday 3rd – Sunday 4th November 2018
TIME:7.30pm
VENUE:Theatre Royal, Margate
HOW TO BOOK:Box Office 01843 292795
www.theatreroyalmargate.com

These performances are part of Looping the Loop Festival