“In terms of making it female orientated. I don’t really have a sort of strong answer for that. It just felt right. To tell it between the eyes of these two women. I just felt they were so strong and they were running around in my head. They wouldn’t go away and it just seemed right to tell it through, it just added an interesting layer about what it means for them to be Black, British, and also women as well,, not just Black women, but just women as a whole” Roy Williams
Roy Samuel Williams OBE FRSL (born January 1968) is an English award winning playwright awards, include the George Devine Award for Lift Off, the 2001 Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright for his play Clubland, the 2002 BAFTA Award for Best Schools Drama for Offside and 2004 South Bank Show Arts Council Decibel Award. His play Sucker Punch was nominated for the Evening Standard Award for Best New Play and the Olivier Award for Best New Play 2011. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours for services to drama and sits on the board of trustees for Theatre Centre. In 2018, he was a made a fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.
Born in Fulham and brought up in Notting Hill, the youngest of four siblings in a single-parent home, with his mother working as a nurse after his father moved to the US. Williams decided to work in theatre after being tutored by the writer Don Kinch when he was failing in school and attended some rehearsals in a black theatrical company Kinch ran. After leaving school at the age of 18 Williams did various jobs, including working in McDonald’s and in a props warehouse. He was 25 years old when he took a theatre-writing degree at Rose Bruford College and has worked ever since as a writer.
His first full-length play was The No Boys Cricket Club, which premiered in 1996 at Theatre Royal Stratford East. Williams has done work in television, including adapting his own play Fallout, and also co-wrote the script for the 2014 British film Fast Girls. ALT caught up with Williams on his current play The Fellowship at Hampstead Theatre in London. The play runs until 23 July book here.
ALT:
Why do you write Roy?
Roy:
Why do I write? So I know it’s just, it’s something that I think goes as far back as to when I was a kid at school. I always loved, I don’t quite know where it came from, but I think I just grew up always having a love of storytelling, being told a story and then me trying to write stories subsequently. So, it just seemed when I left school like most kids, my age, my generation kind of, sort of drifted and not quite sure what I wanted to do in my life. Tried other things, other jobs. I was an actor for a while until finally I felt, you know, this is your passion Roy always has been, so try and make a career out of it and luckily I’ve been able to.
ALT:
At what point did you realize, you know, I’m good at this?
Roy:
I dunno if I’m at that point. Yeah. I mean, always, still feel like, oh, I’ve got away with it. I write another one I’ve got away with that. So I’ll just keep getting away with it. And then until someone finds us out. I don’t know yeah, my first play when that was done by Stratford East and in the circumstances and the way it was, I just kind of thought, oh, actually I don’t think it was about, but oh, I’m good at this. I just felt, okay. I feel I’ve got something to say and lucky for me, other theatres and people who commission me feel the same way.
ALT:
In terms of like having something to say, so what kind of stories interest you that you would like to talk about and write about?
Roy:
Well, I think if I was to compare all the plays I’ve written, I think they’ve all got a strong link. It’s all about identity, specific cultural identity and what that means. And I have a lot of fun breaking that down and, because there’s no one answer to that. There really isn’t you can split off into so many other stories, another world. So that that’s something that very much interests me. I mean, one of the reasons why I wrote The Fellowship is, I really wanted to, you know, go at it and write a piece that I feel kind of, sort of to begin with that said something about my generation, the second generation you, who were born here, we were like the children of the Windrush generation.
And I just thought there was a really rich topic and discussion about that and, sort of compare contrast with, w with the generation that came before, I and Windrush, as I said, and then the third generation, who are our kids as it were. I think that’s what it really came into focus when I sort of had an awareness of, okay, we’re not kids, we’re not young anymore, we’re growing up, we’re getting older and now we’re having kids and they they’ve got something to say about, you know, how black and British they are and compared to how black and British we felt, and also how black and British the Windrush generation felt as well. I just thought, oh, there’s a, so when I was thinking about all those things, they were really slowly and gradually sort of coming together. And, by the time it did, I realized, okay, I’ve got a play here.
ALT:
You kind of answered a bit of my next question. The fellowship, you’ve got two Black female leads. Why did you choose to go in that direction? And also how much does this story of being a child of the Windrush generation, resonate with you?
Roy:
I went in terms of I made it sort of female orientated. I don’t really have a sort of strong answer for that. It just felt right. To tell it between the eyes of these two women. I just felt they were so strong and they were running around in my head. They wouldn’t go away and it just seemed right to tell it through, it just added an interesting layer about what it means for them to be Black, British, and also women as well,, not just black women, but just women as a whole. And I really thought, that’s a challenge. And I like challenges when I write plays, I like to challenge myself, and I thought that’d be a really good, exciting challenge to do, to, to tell it that way.
ALT:
How do you create female characters, do you pull from, the women around you, do you actually base your characters sometimes around people you know obviously, the Windrush scandal and being a child of Windrush?
Roy:
I did very much., I grew up with a lot of people, yo cousins and sisters and, friends, and, all of them got aspects of Dawn and Marcia in them. And I just remembered, you know, conversations I’ve had with all those people yeah. Conversations I continue to have, and I kind of moulded them all together and out of that came Dawn and Marcia, and also there’s also me in them as well. There’s a lot of me in both of those characters too. So, um, yeah, it was all kind of grist to the mill and I very much enjoyed doing it.
ALT:
What’s it like working, working with her Randall and once it gets into production, do you kind of take a step back and let the director do the job?
Roy:
Very much so. I mean, a playwright will spend, know, Lord knows how many months they took to write a play it could be a year, could be two years. This one took me two years. And then finally, when it’s ready, you hand it over to the director and they take over and, and they work on it. But you are right, your role as a playwright is not quite done, because it’s a new play. So any rehearsals naturally all of the actors are gonna have questions for you. You know, why does this character this? Can I try that, blah, blah, blah. And, it’s down to the director to oversee that all of that and, working for Paula is a joy. She’s an absolute legend.
Roy:
She’s been directing big plays for, you know, God knows how many years. And we were very, very lucky to get her. I’ve worked with her before. She’s a wonderful director, a great friend as well. I couldn’t think of anyone else to direct this play. You know, I don’t quite know what I would’ve done if she said, no, she was unavailable. I think I would’ve been in a very difficult position , I was so fixed in my mind that it was that she should direct this play because she’s got knowledge of the themes, of what I’m writing about. She’s like me, she’s a sort of second generation and I really felt its really important that she brings that into to the rehearsal and she certainly did. She’s a fantastic director. I love working with her
ALT:
What would appease you regarding the treatment of the Windrush generation, government compensation, it doesn’t necessarily have to be monetary, but what would you like to see happen now going forward?
Roy:
Well I would like to see, but, I am not holding my breath to get it is, a sincere, honest full frontal, real, genuine apology, lovely apology, I would say and stop the deportations. I think they’re still carrying on in spite of the all the anger and frustration t we that’s been seen over the last couple years. Pay the people who you promised to pay do it now don’t hang around, just get on with it and count yourself bloody lucky for the Windrush generation. What I mean by that is, they made this country great they made this country greater and this government and then, anyone who supported those awful deportations should be ashamed of themselves thoroughly ashamed.
ALT:
Back to the fellowship what are some of the other themes in this play and what can an audience expect?
Roy:
All the things that kind of go along with, when one writes a sort of family drama, so it’s about generations and how each generation sees it, sees the other. And every generation always seems to think, oh, we’re the angriest. We’re the most, we’re the most active, we’re the funniest, we’re the, you know, we we’re the first of everything and that’s not normally the case. So this part was an interesting kind of how the generations kind of view each other as well. And I think anyone can relate to that. So the play is very culturally specific in terms of look at this all black British West Indian family, but what they’re going through, grief trauma as I said, the kinda the generational divide rights of passage. I think any family from any,, class or race can identify with that if they allow themselves. But I think it’s very, very clear that they can and that they should. The play kind looks at that as well.
ALT:
And talk about those who came before which playwrights do you admire or is there anything you’ll like to adapt for the stage?
Roy:
Oh, there’s so many playwrights, it would take me all day to name them. , I can pick a couple of that. I mean, so many, Mustapha Matura, August Wilson, Winsome Pinnock,, Barry Keith who is a White writer known for writing really strong plays, certain seventies and the eighties that kind of really dealt with the voice of the black and white working class youth. His work really, really struck a chord with me, there are so many there’s so many others.
ALT:
And last question, what makes a great writer?
Roy:
I think what makes a great writer is one who challenges it themselves as well as the audience. You challenge yourself, you challenge your audience, you challenge your characters in the play as well. So I will say you a great playwright should always attempt to, use that word challenge in every, in all aspects of the playwriting.
Review: The Fellowship Press Night
Williams likes to tell stories that discuss and dissect identity in The Fellowship it is the identity of children of the Windrush generation, through the eyes of sisters Dawn (Cherrelle Skeete) and Marcia Adams (Suzette Llewellyn) who grew up in 1980s London and were activists on the front line against the multiple injustices of that time. Skeete had just taken over from Lucy Vandi to play Dawn and sometimes script in hand she would read her lines but with the power of her performance the script became a prop and was not a distraction at all. Skeete’s Dawn the younger of the two sisters is of the hook, all guns blazing and flying the flag for Black unity, and does not welcome her son Jermaine’s white girlfriend (Rosie Day). Marcia on the other hand is more refined and is in a world where she is constantly the only Black woman in the room, working as a lawyer, having to justify her presence and wanting to leave behind Marcia from Craven Green. The sisters now come together with very little in common beyond family…
Dawn struggles to care for their dying mother, whilst her one surviving son is drifting away from her. Tony (Trevor Laird) is the mild mannered easy going partner of Dawn who tries to weather all the storms that Dawns brings, being a roadie helps. Meanwhile, high-flying lawyer Marcia’s affair with a married politician might be about to explode and destroy her career. Randell’s The Fellowship brings the story to life cleverly unpacking the layers, deportation, sexual abuse, racism and the everyday struggles and issues any family can have. With skilled actors, perhaps a minimalist set and strong writing The Fellowship is worth seeing like in real life there are comedic moments like Dawn’s secret love for “white music”.
The world premiere of Roy Williams’ The Fellowship, directed by Paulette Randall, is, by turns, an electrifying, hilarious, gripping tale set in modern Britain
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