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£400 tickets for West End Cock? No thanks.

Well….

The cynic, as Oscar Wilde put it, knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. For commentators, that switches into reverse: indifferent to price, we are expected to deliberate value. 

Full disclosure, I am privileged to not have to usually pay for tickets. Occasionally, though, I despair. I feel there is no place for the working class in theatre. This is by no means my first rodeo, either.

This week, premium tickets for Mike Bartlett’s play Cock – starring Jonathan Bailey and Joel Harper-Jackson – were put on sale with ticket prices that had been spiked to £400.

If you thought that was bad, though, add the additional burden of ATG’s booking fees, the total came to £460. £460!  A sorry state of affairs.

Let’s do a brief summary: Cock is directed by Marianne Elliott and made headlines after understudy Harper-Jackson stepped into replace Taron Egerton who left suddenly due to ‘personal reasons’ having fainted during the first preview.

A spokesperson for the 90-minute play defended the unprecedented ticket prices as the result of “supply and demand.” That’s showbiz, honey. However, following backlash producers Elliott & Harper subsequently reduced the cost of the seats significantly.

Photograph: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg

The world may be shifting, but we must remind commercial producers – especially those recently in receipt of three rounds of significant Culture Recovery Funds – the value of accessible and affordable tickets, and a sense of the very real dangers should they discard it.

The risk of knowing the price of everything is that you can end up forgetting about its value.

Nevertheless, 15% of tickets sold have been at £20 and there is a daily lottery with tickets at this price point. Ambassadors Theatre is also a small house with only 444 seats. But most of these £20 tickets require a degree of flexibility not compatible with most people’s lives.

Still, the West End is a supply-and-demand business – and if there is escalating demand, there will be little pressure for a ceiling on what producers and theatre owners will seek to earn from. Even so, accessible tickets equal sustainability, as fair ticket prices encourage theatre-going generally and are key to the creative industries survival.

Data collected by the Society of London Theatre for 2019 found that the average ticket price for its member venues, which include all of the commercial West End and London’s major subsidised theatres, was £52.17. 

Anyway, Cock briefly became the most expensive play in West End history, thanks to dynamic pricing. First developed for the retail sector, dynamic pricing software uses algorithms to tell a theatre what they can get away with charging. It felt like a tipping point.

Photograph: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg

Top-price Cock premium seats are now £175. Ones that had been greedily priced at £350 are now £150, additionally £300 tickets are now on sale at £125 plus booking fees. Quite frankly, still absurd for a 90-minute play.

In reality, however, inflated ticket prices – particularly West End ticket prices – risk alienating an entire generation of future audiences as increasingly unaffordable tickets further limits audiences to very rich white people – whose wealth largely surged during the pandemic.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) have predicted the UK will fall into recession this year. What’s more, an estimated 1.5 million households across the UK will struggle to pay food and energy bills, as rising prices, and higher taxes squeeze budgets. This, coupled with the ongoing decimation of cultural education in our state schools, is a theatre time bomb. Potential audience members now face the choice between heating and eating, rather than whether to have an interval ice cream.

Yet the ever more pressing wider issue is that theatre’s future, and indeed recovery, rests entirely on the next generation of theatre-goers. Price them out at your peril. Habits are changing fast; with disrupted education, rising rents and low wages.

Photograph: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg

Producers Elliott & Harper have stated that they will not be commenting further, but this outcome speaks for itself.

This U-turn was not just a people-power social media victory: this was direct action. A historic watershed.

That is all.

Cock is at the Ambassadors theatre, London, until 4 June

“Company” resumes business as box office opens today

Company

The box office at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (242 West 45th) reopens for business today at 12:00 PM for the highly anticipated return of Marianne Elliott’s revolutionary staging of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s seminal musical masterpiece, Company. Tickets are available for purchase from noon to 8:00 PM, Monday through Saturday at the box office. Additionally, tickets can be purchased at www.companymusical.comwww.telecharge.com, or by calling (800) 447-7400

This visionary production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s landmark American musical, Company, directed by two-time Tony Award® winner Marianne Elliott will resume preview performances on Monday, November 15 ahead of a Thursday, December 9 opening night.

Tony Award winner Katrina Lenk and two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone lead a cast that includes Matt Doyle as Jamie, three-time Tony Award nominee Christopher Fitzgerald as David,  two-time Tony Award nominee Christopher Sieber as Harry, Tony Award nominee Jennifer Simard as Sarah, Terence Archie as Larry, Grammy Award winner Etai Benson as Paul, Nikki Renée Daniels as Jenny, Claybourne Elder as Andy, Greg Hildreth as Peter, Rashidra Scott as Susan, and Bobby Conte Thornton as P.J. The complete cast of Company also includes Kathryn AllisonBritney ColemanJavier IgnacioAnisha NagarajanTally Sessions, and Matt Wall. Casting for the role of Theo will be announced in the coming weeks.

Company, the musical comedy masterpiece about the search for love and cocktails in the Big Apple is turned on its head in Elliott’s revelatory staging, in which musical theatre’s most iconic bachelor becomes a bachelorette. At Bobbie’s (Lenk) 35th birthday party, all her friends are wondering why isn’t she married? Why can’t she find the right man?  And, why can’t she settle down and have a family?  This whip smart musical comedy, given a game-changing makeover for a modern-day Manhattan, features some of Sondheim’s best loved songs, including “Company,” “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Side by Side,” and the iconic “Being Alive.”

Sondheim and Elliott have collaborated to update this masterpiece, bringing Bobbie’s array of friends and lovers unswervingly into the 21st century: Paul (Etai Benson) is waiting patiently for his fiancée Jamie (nee “Amy,” played by Matt Doyle) to get over his increasingly frantic wedding day jitters. Sarah (Jennifer Simard) struggles with her body image while her husband Harry (Christopher Sieber) struggles with sobriety – their marital tensions bubbling just under the surface. Joanne (Patti LuPone) is taking a third try at marriage with Larry (Terence Archie), the object of his wife’s affections … and savage barbs. Peter (Greg Hildreth) and Susan (Rashidra Scott) seem to have the perfect marriage, until perfection proves impossible. Sophisticated David (Christopher Fitzgerald) and his square wife Jenny (Nikki Renée Daniels) can’t wrap their heads around Bobbie’s perpetually single status and aren’t shy about expressing their concern. All while Bobbie juggles three men: Andy (nee “April,” played by Claybourne Elder), the sexy flight attendant, Theo (nee “Kathy,” casting to be announced), the small-town boy trying to find his way in the city, and P.J. (nee “Marta,” played by Bobby Conte Thornton), the native New Yorker who’s head-over-heels for his hometown.

The creative team for Company includes Liam Steel (choreography), Joel Fram (musical supervisor), Bunny Christie (set and costume design), Neil Austin (lighting design), Ian Dickinson (sound design), David Cullen (orchestrations), Sam Davis (dance arrangements), Chris Fisher (illusions), Campbell Young Associates (hair, wig, and makeup design), and Cindy Tolan (casting).

Company was in sell-out preview performances when on Thursday, March 12, 2020, the COVID-19 crisis forced the shutdown of all Broadway theaters.

Company is produced on Broadway by Elliott & Harper Productions, The Shubert Organization, Catherine Schreiber, Nederlander Presentations, Inc., Crossroads Live, Annapurna Productions, Hunter Arnold, No Guarantees, Jon B. Platt, Michael Watt, John Gore Organization, Tim Levy, Grove•Reg, Hornos•Moellenberg, Being Alive Productions/ Ben Lowy, LD Entertainment/MWM Live, Daryl Roth/Tom Tuff, Salmira Productions/Caiola Productions, Adler•Federman•Levine, Aged in Wood/Lee•Sachs, Beard•Merrie•Robbins, Berinstein•Lane /42nd. club, Boyett•Miller/Drew Hodges, Finn•DeVito/Independent Presenters Network, Armstrong•Ross/Gilad•Rogowsky, Boardman•Koenigsberg/Zell•Seriff, Concord Theatricals•Sanders Productions/ Abrams•May, DeRoy•Brunish/Jenen•Rubin, Fakston Productions/ Sabi•Lerner•Ketner, Maggio•Abrams/Hopkins•Tackel and Jujamcyn Theaters.

State Approvals

The anticipated return of Broadway performances is subject to the approval of the NY State Department of Health and the Governor based on the continuing growth of the fully vaccinated population, coupled with an ongoing decline in total Covid 19 cases and positivity rates.

The Department of Health and the Governor will review and approve health protocols in the theater established by the theater owner to assure that the highest safety standards are in place.

Safety Protocols

Broadway is committed to providing healthy and safe facilities for audiences, performers, and staff. Based on CDC and New York State guidelines at the time of performance, protocols may include mask enforcement, vaccination, or negative test verification, and more as developed by the theater owners in conjunction with the State.

New protective systems – including sanitization and filtration requirements – will be implemented by the theater to align with federal and state recommendations, and if any regulations change, the theater will follow state, and federal guidelines to maintain safety for all. 

Company announces new broadway dates and additional casting

Company

Today, producers of the upcoming revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s landmark American musical Company, under the direction of two-time Tony Award® winner Marianne Elliott, announced that the visionary award-winning new production will now begin performances one month earlier than previously scheduled with preview performances resuming on Monday, November 15 ahead of a Thursday, December 9 opening night at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (242 West 45th Street).

Tony Award winner Katrina Lenk and two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone will be joined by returning Broadway cast members Matt Doyle as Jamie, three-time Tony Award nominee Christopher Fitzgerald as David,  two-time Tony Award nominee Christopher Sieber as Harry, Tony Award nominee Jennifer Simard as Sarah, Terence Archie as Larry, Grammy Award winner Etai Benson as Paul, Nikki Renée Daniels as Jenny, Claybourne Elder as Andy, Greg Hildreth as Peter, Rashidra Scott as Susan, and Bobby Conte Thornton as P.J. The complete cast of Company also includes Kathryn AllisonBritney ColemanJavier IgnacioAnisha NagarajanTally Sessions, and Matt Wall. Casting for the role of Theo will be announced in the coming weeks.

Tickets are available at www.companymusical.comwww.telecharge.com, or by calling 800 447 7400. As part of the “Buy With Confidence” ticketing policy, ticket holders who wish to exchange for these earlier performances can contact their point of sale to reschedule.

Director Marianne Elliott said, “We always wanted to bring Company back as soon as possible and when the opportunity was presented to start performances a month earlier, we knew we had to jump on it. This production has always been about bringing people together to share in laughter, joy, and friendship and I’m beyond thrilled that we are able to reunite almost all of our remarkable cast to make this happen.”

Producer Chris Harper said, “There were 135 people working on Company when the shutdown happened. Knowing that this many people are counting on the show coming back as soon as possible has been a huge motivator for us. So, when the schedules of a number of key creative team members made this possible, it was a no brainer. We had to make it happen. This is a musical about the one thing we have all been missing  company –so to be back on Broadway even sooner feels great.”

Company, the musical comedy masterpiece about the search for love and cocktails in the Big Apple is turned on its head in Elliott’s revelatory staging, in which musical theatre’s most iconic bachelor becomes a bachelorette. At Bobbie’s (Lenk) 35th birthday party, all her friends are wondering why isn’t she married? Why can’t she find the right man?  And, why can’t she settle down and have a family?  This whip smart musical comedy, given a game-changing makeover for a modern-day Manhattan, features some of Sondheim’s best loved songs, including “Company,” “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Side by Side,” and the iconic “Being Alive.”

Sondheim and Elliott have collaborated to update this masterpiece, bringing Bobbie’s array of friends and lovers unswervingly into the 21st century: Paul (Etai Benson) is waiting patiently for his fiancée Jamie (nee “Amy,” played by Matt Doyle) to get over his increasingly frantic wedding day jitters. Sarah (Jennifer Simard) struggles with her body image while her husband Harry (Christopher Sieber) struggles with sobriety – their marital tensions bubbling just under the surface. Joanne (Patti LuPone) is taking a third try at marriage with Larry (Terence Archie), the object of his wife’s affections … and savage barbs. Peter (Greg Hildreth) and Susan (Rashidra Scott) seem to have the perfect marriage, until perfection proves impossible. Sophisticated David (Christopher Fitzgerald) and his square wife Jenny (Nikki Renée Daniels) can’t wrap their heads around Bobbie’s perpetually single status and aren’t shy about expressing their concern. All while Bobbie juggles three men: Andy (nee “April,” played by Claybourne Elder), the sexy flight attendant, Theo (nee “Kathy,” casting to be announced), the small-town boy trying to find his way in the city, and P.J. (nee “Marta,” played by Bobby Conte Thornton), the native New Yorker who’s head-over-heels for his hometown.

The creative team for Company includes Liam Steel (choreography), Joel Fram (musical supervisor), Bunny Christie (set and costume design), Neil Austin (lighting design), Ian Dickinson (sound design), David Cullen (orchestrations), Sam Davis (dance arrangements), Chris Fisher (illusions), Campbell Young Associates (hair, wig, and makeup design), and Cindy Tolan (casting).

Company was in sell-out preview performances when on Thursday, March 12, 2020, the COVID-19 crisis forced the shutdown of all Broadway theaters.

Company is produced on Broadway by Elliott & Harper Productions, The Shubert Organization, Catherine Schreiber, Nederlander Presentations, Inc., Crossroads Live, Annapurna Productions, Hunter Arnold, No Guarantees, Jon B. Platt, Michael Watt, John Gore Organization, Tim Levy, Grove•Reg, Hornos•Moellenberg, Being Alive Productions/ Ben Lowy, LD Entertainment/MWM Live, Daryl Roth/Tom Tuff, Salmira Productions/Caiola Productions, Adler•Federman•Levine, Aged in Wood/Lee•Sachs, Beard•Merrie•Robbins, Berinstein•Lane /42nd. club, Boyett•Miller/Drew Hodges, Finn•DeVito/Independent Presenters Network, Armstrong•Ross/Gilad•Rogowsky, Boardman•Koenigsberg/Zell•Seriff, Concord Theatricals•Sanders Productions/ Abrams•May, DeRoy•Brunish/Jenen•Rubin, Fakston Productions/ Sabi•Lerner•Ketner, Maggio•Abrams/Hopkins•Tackel and Jujamcyn Theaters.

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Angels in America added to National Theatre at Home

BEHOLD!

The National Theatre has announced that Tony Kushner’s multi-award-winning Angels in America: Parts One and Two, is now available to stream worldwide as part of three new productions added to the National Theatre at Home platform.

Denise Gough & Andrew Garfield in Angels in America

The National Theatre has today announced three new filmed productions have been added to its streaming service National Theatre at Home, including Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America Part Two: Perestroika, Marianne Elliott (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, War Horse)’s multi-award-winning production of Tony Kushner’s two-part masterpiece, with a cast including Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Denise Gough (Paula), Nathan Lane (American Crime Story), James McArdle (Ammonite), Susan Brown (It’s A Sin) and Russell Tovey (Years and Years).

The iconic two-part play is set in America in the mid-1980s in the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, as New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell. Following a sold-out run in the Lyttelton theatre in 2017, the production transferred to Broadway for a sold-out 18 week run in 2018. The production won numerous awards including Best Revival at the Olivier and Tony Awards in 2018.

Rufus Norris, National Theatre Director, said: “Angels in America is one of those productions that stays with you always – a seminal piece of theatre that has a lasting impact. It’s a true honour to be able to bring Marianne Elliott’s remarkable, compelling production of Tony Kushner’s masterpiece to audiences around the world through National Theatre at Home. After sold-out runs at the NT and on Broadway, I’m delighted global audiences will finally get the chance to experience the astonishing performances of the original cast on the Lyttelton stage 

It isn’t Follies, but we’ll take it.

National Theatre at Home is available now at ntathome.com, with single titles available from £5.99 – £8.99, a monthly subscription for £9.99 or a yearly subscription for £99.99.  

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Review: Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle

Cometh the hour, cometh the show directed by Marianne Elliott, the inaugural show for Elliott & Harper Productions, the company she has set up with director Chris Harper.

Kenneth-Cranham-Anne-Marie-Duff-Heisenberg-by-Brinkhoff-Morgenberg[1].jpg

It’s fair to say that expectations were high… But as anyone will tell you in these difficult theatre times, coming up with the show can be the easy bit, and selling it is where things get tricky.

Simon Stephens’ play, first seen at Manhattan Theatre Club, is set at a London train station and tells the unusual story of two strangers who strike up a relationship as a result of the manic Georgie, played by Anne-Marie Duff hitting on Kenneth Cranham’s Alex, while he sits on a bench at St Pancras International. Cranham is spellbinding as a 75-year old butcher. His earthiness is shattered by the arrival of Georgie: 33 years his junior.

This is not your everyday sort of love story, but it winds up feeling both strange and familiar. Stephens’ complex two-hander is as much about romance and ulterior motives as it is about Werner Heisenberg’s physics theory.

Heisenberg is one of the plays of the year – a ninety-minute, intriguing production with the same captivating quality of true spectacle. The heart-breaking pairing of Duff and Cranham manages to encapsulate regret and hopefulness all at once.

Theatre sometimes revels brilliantly in its own meaninglessness. Other times, as here, it hits the spot when it stops being about nothing, turns its nose up at being about something, and fluently manages to be about everything. The questions it throws up about identity, attraction and love collide with a vastness that I’ve rarely experienced in a theatre.

Paule Constable’s gorgeous lighting glues style and substance together in an irresistible modern theatre collage. One of the most electrifying moments comes during an effortless scene transition with Duff trapped between the two walls. Thinking about it in the cold light of day, it all plays better in memory than in real-time. This is an accessible but immensely rewarding watch, and the music by Nils Frahm has an intriguing emotional reach that captures the sparse mood perfectly too.

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Ann-Marie Duff – amazing –

Other points are genuinely touching. But is that all there is to Heisenberg? Well, not quite –the duo’s chemistry will only flourish in enjoyable new directions as the production runs. There’s more to the writing and the performances than a first viewing might let on.

Not everything is sensational; Steven Hoggett’s movement sequences don’t always work. A section where the pair clumsily tango isn’t really that great. Intelligent choreography does more at the same time as it does less, making fewer things more impressive, making smaller statements count for more. When the choreography does hit the spot – it more than makes up for this.

Basically, Heisenberg doesn’t knock the planet off its axis quite as nimbly as theatre fans will have predicted. Maybe that was the point. On one hand, it’s not exactly Angels In America in the landmark stakes, on the other Elliott and Harper have come up with exciting ways to work in the West End and at least it isn’t Oscar Wilde.

Whether a prelude to an exclusion order or a heart-warming tale of encounter, Heisenberg is an extraordinary addition to Simon Stephens canon of recent experimental work; considerate and romantic enough for repeated viewing, but with a theatre sensibility that makes you want to head out in search of a stranger at a train station and live for the moment. Think of this as a controlled explosion.

At Wyndham’s, London, until 6 January. Box office: 0844-482 5120.

Access Booking 0344 482 5137.

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Simon Stephens interview: “There is something about bringing Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle to London which means a lot to me. A lot of my plays are carved out of a love for this city.”

Multi-award-winning playwright Simon Stephens is a pale giant, dressed today in dark blue jeans, a maroon shirt and a charcoal grey jacket. He listens and laughs a lot.

SimonStephens,byAlexRumford

Simon Stephens © Alex Rumford

We’re sitting upstairs in a quiet corner of Black’s, a members’ club in London. The setting is intimate and our talk about his new play, Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle is too. The blurb for the show reads: ‘When two strangers meet by chance amidst the bustle of a crowded London train station; their lives change forever’. The play receives its UK premiere at Wyndham’s next month and tells the story of two strangers who strike up an unlikely relationship. It stars Anne-Marie Duff and Kenneth Cranham, and reunites the production team behind The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, with Stephens, Marianne Elliott and designer Bunny Christie. “Ken and Ann-Marie have a very complimentary energy that’s absolutely perfect for this play. Ken has such earth and a stillness and Ann-Marie has an edge and desire. The two of them dance around one another and it’s kind of exquisite,” he says.

The play is directed by Marianne Elliott and is the inaugural show for Elliott & Harper Productions, the company she has set up with director Chris Harper. Elliott’s many credits include Curious Incident (adapted for the stage by Stephens), War Horse and Angels in America. “I hope it sells – for them,” says Stephens, “I don’t want them to be exposed to anything. I really love them. If I’m anxious about anything, I’m anxious about the people of that calibre enjoying the success that they deserve.”

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Is he nervous? “I’m really happy. I’m not nervous. Because the play has been done before in New York,” Stephens replies. “When a play is being done for the first time your main fear is that it is shit. I kind of know that it’s not shit. It’s not a shit play. There is something about bringing Heisenberg to London which means a lot to me. A lot of my plays are carved out of a love for this city.”

We talk about his friendship with Marianne and I get a clear sense of how and why they work so well together (Simon is Godfather to her daughter and it was some time into working together that she and Stephens discovered that they were both from Stockport and that they used to get the same bus to their schools.)

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Simon Stephens and Marianne Elliott © Alex Rumford

“She’s brilliant because she’s brilliant – we have a brilliant relationship because of some deep psychic connection,” he says. “Above all of those things, she’s the hardest-working director I know.” Hard-working in a different way, he explains, from Ivo van Hove and Sean Holmes, say, who run theatres or do show after show, back-to-back in Paris or on Broadway. “Marianne refuses to go back-to-back with shows. Stephens continues. “At a time when everyone wants her, she says no to so many jobs because she needs the preparation time. I don’t know any director who prepares more than her. Heisenberg is an hour and fifteen two-hander and she has six weeks preparing it so that when she talks to the cast at the beginning of rehearsals, she speaks with more depth about the play than I have. What she’ll bring is the sense of its existential depth.”

He’s on a roll about his peers. “I’m so fucking fortunate, Carl. I’ve been so fortunate with the collaborators that I’ve worked with. Really lucky,” he says, thinking. “To work with Sean Holmes again and again, a substantial ten-year relationship. A fifteen-year relationship with Sarah Frankcom as well as the rockstar directors like Katie Mitchell, Ivo van Hove and Sebastian Nübling… It’s completely thrilling.”

There’s nothing smug about the way Simon Stephens says that, just a thankful recognition that he has done incredibly well.

I say I think his writing is often desolate but never without heart. In these uncertain times, how important is optimism? “I think Heisenberg is infused with the possibility of optimism and I think that is important. The only response to a world in peril is to be optimistic – I think pessimism is the last resort of the privileged,” he says, tucking into his artichoke soup.

“There is a difference between optimism and naivety – between optimism and jolliness. Real optimism has to consider real peril, real despair, real fear and real isolation. To deny those is just naïve but it’s about acknowledging those and finding the determination to persist.”

Rather brilliantly, there are 30,000 tickets for Heisenberg available for under £20. Delivering work to audiences at an affordable price is important to Stephens. “I’ve been a teacher all my life,” he nods. “There is nothing more important to me than the notion that theatre is not an elitist art form but that it is a democratic art form. You can make it cheaper than a lot of cinemas. You can make it cheaper than a football match. This is like watching a Champion League Football match at the cost of watching a match in the Ryman Conference.”

Heisenberg isn’t the only play keeping him occupied. Stephens’ adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull opens at the Lyric Hammersmith the day after and he has come from rehearsals to meet me. “I’m more nervous, weirdly, about The Seagull,” he admits. “I really like writing versions – it’s thrilling for me. It’s simple, it doesn’t take a massive amount of time and it’s different from play to play to play. 10 years ago, when I was working on Harper Regan and Lesley Sharp asked me to write a version of The Seagull, I knew I wasn’t able to at that time in my career. Because in my opinion, Chekhov is the best writer in the history of the world. For me, he is my tower. Do you know the Leonard Cohen song ‘Tower of Song’?” he asks.

I tell him I don’t.

“It’s a really beautiful, beautiful song. In it Cohen sings about the Tower of Song – a tower that all songwriters live in and there’s a beautiful line about Hank Williams.” Stephens quotes: “‘I said to Hank Williams: “How lonely does it get?” Hank Williams hasn’t answered yet. But I hear him laughing all night long. Oh, a hundred floors above me in the Tower of Song’.”

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He continues, “I think writers position themselves at the foot of towers and they are very specific about which towers they position themselves at the foot of. I’m sitting on ground floor of Chekhov’s Tower and he’s a hundred floors above me, laughing all night long,”

It would be easy to pin him down as a tortured artist. How does he manage ego? “I find it really confusing because there’s part of me that still thinks I’m desperately trying to hack away, trying to get it right. As I look at my career now, objectively – if I separate myself from the experience of my career – I think you’d look at it and say that it is probably the career of a successful playwright. But I don’t experience myself as being a successful playwright,” he admits, modestly.

“I think the only thing you can do is, you stay present tense and concern yourself with the work and just get the work right. This is not just for successful playwrights, I think it’s true of all playwrights,” he continues. “I think it’s actually more perilous for writers at the start of their career because they are so worried about career that they can stop worrying about the work. I can’t change anything… It took me about 10 years to get over the notion of linear improvement. All I really want to do is write a play that is different to the last one. If ever it comes close to me taking myself too seriously then my children and my wife will just take the piss out of me – so brilliantly and precisely that it’s just impossible.”

I shift the conversation to critics, specifically, Michael Billington, who we both agree gets a lot of stick from the blogosphere. “If you’re working in theatre and you can’t distinguish between Michael Billington and Quentin Letts say- or Michael Billington and Dominic Cavendish, then you’re a fucking idiot,” he says, smiling. “If you can’t acknowledge that Michael Billington is one of the most consistently thoughtful, economic, searching, knowledgeable and serious writers about theatre.”

Stephens is Artistic Associate at the Lyric Theatre and Associate Playwright at the Royal Court. Does he think there are issues with the way new work is being commissioned that need addressing in order for the next generation of playwrights to break through? “I think there are perhaps some structural issues. But the structural issues are really complicated,” he says.

“I’m old enough to remember the year 2000 and the early years of the Blair government – and the remarkable energy for the arts that that government had and the extraordinary investment that that government brought about,” he explains. “I forget the name of the report in 2000 celebrating the agency of new writing and instigating a cash injection into new writing. But within five or ten years there were more playwrights than there had ever been and they were funded and supported. There new writing groups and young writing schemes all over the country. Eight years later there was an economic collapse that we’re still reeling from and the consequences of that is a massive withdrawal of money from the arts.”

“So, we have this situation where there are four times as many playwrights and less money to inject into the productions of their plays. That’s really tricky for the well-intentioned artistic directors who have to let people down. They will, and have rejected major significant playwrights and that’s an ongoing thing. I don’t know what to do about it because we are unfortunately not governed by a government that believes in the arts. The nature of Conservatism is that it has an impulse to conserve and the one thing the arts are not interested in ever – or should never be interested in –  is conserving,” says Stephens.

Julian Fellowes is the only playwright in the world who has any vested interest in things staying the way that they are and that’s why he is a…”

Just in time his phone beeps. “That’s my timer,” he sighs. “I need to be thinking about making a move.” Another rehearsal to get to?

No, he laughs, and heads off down Dean Street to pick up his daughter from school.

Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle runs at Wyndham’s Theatre from 9 October to 6 January, with previews from 3 October.

The Seagull will run at the Lyric Hammersmith from 10 October to 4 November, with previews from 3 October.