PRETEND YOU HAVE BIG BUILDINGS (1st Prize 2005)
- Produced in the main house at the Royal Exchange in July 2007 as part of the first Manchester International Festival. Directed by Jo Combes and Sarah Frankcom.
LEON: There used to be a swimming pool. The Dolphin. I used to like going. Wave-splash, everything. But they closed it. The building’s still there – this dirty glass pyramid with an hole in the roof. No one goes in it now.
Biography
Ben grew up in Britain, Bangladesh and India. He teaches creative writing at Westminster University, and is a fellow of the Macdowell Colony, New Hampshire. He was a member of the Forum of Young European Playwrights (Wiesbaden, Germany 2008. Ben is currently under commission to Only Connect Theatre. His plays include, BOARS AND DRAGONFILES (2010, The Miniaturists / Arcola Theatre), EXAMS ARE GETTING EASIER (2010, Young REP Birmingham Repertory Theatre), PANCRAS BOYS CLUB (2009, Only Connect Theatre, London), BREATHING COUNTRY (2008 Y Touring / National Tour, Shortlisted for the Theatre Centre Brian Way Award), GLOBAL WARMING (2008, Y Touring), LATER (2008, Paines Plough, Trafalgar Studios London), THE MELANCHOLY HUSSAR (2003, Etcetera Theatre, London), LOVE BETWEEN TWO SHELVES (2003, ADC Theatre, Cambridge), A TALE OF TWO CITIES (2001, London / Paris).
“Musgrave’s fresh take on forbidden desire in unforgiving surroundings races with a vitality all of its own.” THE TELEGRAPH
To read Ben’s online tutorial about ‘Scene and Action’, click here.
Synopsis
1994. Big Buildings are rising in the Docklands. But marooned miles to the east, half-in and half-out of London, Romford has not been invited to the party. Confused about its identity and threatened with the gradual demise of its blue-collar industry, the inhabitants of the ‘only town in London with its own ring road’ are trying to cope. In a family that doesn’t understand him, Leon is having trouble working out who he’s meant to be, while Danny arrives from India to claim the glorious inheritance his father promised him, to be sorely disappointed. The friendship they forge has painful implications for all around them, in a play that explores growing up, identity, and loss.
Interview
How has winning the first Bruntwood affected your career as a writer?
A week before the prize announcement, I had given up my job to concentrate on writing full-time. Winning the prize felt like a miraculous validation of this decision. It launched my career as a writer: all of a sudden I had representation, interest, a publication deal, the time to write, and, most importantly, the opportunity to work with some wonderful practitioners towards the production of my play in the Main House of the Royal Exchange. It was really extraordinary.
What advice would you give to a writer entering the prize this year?
I believe that the real value of a prize like this is that it has the potential to find the best play – on its own terms. Not the most fashionable play, or the play most suitable for a particular theatre, but the best play in its own right. In a sense, set very firmly in Romford, my play Pretend You Have Big Buildings was entirely inappropriate for a theatre in Manchester, and it had been a ‘not one for us’ from a few theatres already. But there was something about it, and I think that came through. So my advice is: write the play you want to write, not the play you think the theatre wants you to write.
What have you done since winning the prize and what are your plans for the future?
It’s been hard to top winning the Bruntwood! It’s also been hard to write the follow-up to Big Buildings, a play that came easily to me easily, and which emerged, very suddenly, with its heart and character almost fully revealed. But the Big Second Play has been slowly emerging – I hope it’ll be ready sometime in 2011. In the meantime, however, I’ve been privileged to write several really interesting plays about science – one about neuroscience, and one about privacy and government databases, and I’m really proud of them both. This year, I’ve also had a play on at the Birmingham REP, performed by their youth theatre.
Gallery
Images from the Exchange’s production of PRETEND YOU HAVE BIG BUILDINGS:
