To Have and To Hold - directed by Finlay Glen (Brown's 2013)

Written by Mark Bastin and directed by Finlay Glen (Brown's 2013) in a New Troubadour Theatre production, To Have and To Hold comes to the Bread & Roses Theatre following a 5-star, sold-out run.

Finlay founded New Troubadour Theatre in the dark depths of the third national lockdown, perhaps a strange decision given that at the time every theatre in the country was closed.

My reasoning was that once we re-emerged into the light, I’d already have a way to start making the theatre I wanted to, developing new work and staging revivals at local theatres.

The company’s first shows were filmed at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston in May 2021: a short, late Samuel Beckett play called ‘Ohio Impromptu’ and a monologue by the writer, Mark Bastin.

Mark’s piece was in fact an earlier version of what became ‘To Have and To Hold’. I felt that the characters and worlds he’d created were vivid and compelling enough that the play, with edits and expansion, could have a further life. Mark and I then engaged in some back and forth on different versions of the play until we felt it was ready for production.

The play opened last February at The Hope Theatre in Islington for only two nights, and it will now have a two week run at the Bread & Roses in Clapham. Consisting of interwoven monologues, the play tells the life-story of Dennis and Gina Woodman, an old married couple from South London, depicting a now semi-disappeared world of Royal British Legion Clubs and palais-des-dance halls. By turns dark and comic, it’s an examination of memory, family and the complicated realities of love.

I’m enjoying the hard yards of fringe theatre, learning how to make plays work in small spaces. I’m also learning that you don’t need a vast budget to create powerful theatre. In its essence, theatre is simply the act of live storytelling and an audience’s collective suspension of disbelief. Often intimate spaces, stripped of all pyrotechnic distractions, can help bring you even closer to this essence.

I’ve kept in touch with a couple of teachers from my time at the school who have always helped out with my theatre work, so I’d like to give a shout-out to Mr Piper, who helped spark my interest in theatre in the first place, and Dr Dutta, who has consistently supported my work.

To Have and To Hold runs from Tuesday 29 November to Saturday 3 December and Tuesday 6 December and Satruday 10 December at the Bread & Roses Theatre in Clapham. Tickets can be purchased here - https://www.breadandrosestheatre.co.uk/