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Paul's acting career began in Norwich in 1990, He first acted in a production called 'It is a pity she's a whore' by John Ford. Paul played the part of a charlatan doctor and after a month of rehearsals, he was thrown in the deep end when the company went to the Edinburgh festival to perform. The play was a great success was reviewed favourably in the local press. Often, after the play Paul would play his music in the festival club. His next acting appearance was as the narrator in Brect's 'Threepenny opera' in which he sang 'Mac the knife'. This performance took place in the MaderMarket Theatre in Norwich and was also a success. Later that year, in the same theatre, he played the part of the minstrel (a part which came very easily to him!!) in Ben Johnson's 'Bartholomew Fair'. In this play, he also played the mandolin and composed the music. On the last day of the play, Paul gave up the chance of supporting Tom Robinson at the Waterfront,because he did not want to let down the rest of the cast in the play.. Here is a photo of Paul appearing in 'Bartholomew Fair' |
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The theatre took a back seat for the next few years, until he wrote his own first complete play, 'The Thwarted Tangentialist From The End Of Time'. Martin Bennett, Director of the Nightingale Theatre in Brighton, heard some of Paul's play and asked him to stage it. In May 1996, as part of the Brighton Festival, it played for the first time ever at the Nightingale. The audience(which included Brian Behan,brother of famous Irish writer Brendan Behan) reaction, was a strange mixture of laughter and bemusement. It was described as iconaclastic, surrealistic and one person later said, that it had a catalystic effect on his life. The play was in the genre of 'The Theatre of The Absurd'. It was a two man play with a female narrator with slight overtones of Samuel Beckett. This a photograph taken in rehearsal for 'The Thwarted Tangentialist'. |
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Once again,Paul took a break from theatre until he was in the middle of his degree in music and related arts in Chichester University. Whilst on this course, Paul wrote his second play, 'Le Marriage de Roi Bizarre'. He showed the finished play to the head of English,John Saunders who thought it was great and pointed out the strong connection with other writers of the theatre of the absurd. This was strange, as up to this point, Paul had only been familiar with the work of one of these writers, Samuel Beckett. Paul decided to study the theatre of the absurd for his dissertation and discovered he had a great affinity with writers such as Eugene Ianesco, Alfred Jarry and Fernando Arabel amongst others. He staged a shortened version of the play in the University and there was a fantastic audience reaction with people falling about laughing. Unfortunately the video of this play has mysteriously 'disappeared'. However, Paul hopes to put both of his plays on again in the future. Soon after he had finished his degree, Paul was asked to play the music for a Garcia Lorca play: 'Blood Wedding' in the Brighton Festival 2000. This was by the Prodigal Theatre Company and they called their version 'Ballad of the Shadow'. This play was staged in the Brighton Buddist Centre and everbody congratulated Paul on the musical pieces he chose and wrote for the play. It is hoped that there will be another staging of this play in the future. |